For the past few years, the label Interactive Movie has been synonymous with mediocrity: bad acting, minimal interactivity, and very little entertainment value. In one of his many essays on computer game design, Chris Crawford questions the whole idea of the interactive movie, citing software publishers' "Hollywood Envy" as the reason why we're currently being assaulted by so much derivative, non-interactive dreck.
Does Fox Hunt from Capcom represent all that is bad about the interactive movie? Nope. Actually, compared with most interactive movies, it's a high-quality title. It has good production values, good acting, and a plot that - while silly - isn't too much worse than your average slapstick comedy. The problem with Fox Hunt is the same problem that all interactive movies share: its fundamental lack of interactivity.
The plot of the movie-cum-game seems like something concocted by the Naked Gun writing team. You play an average schmuck who gets recruited by the CIA to take down The Fox, a dangerous Russian... oh, you get the idea. If you thought the Naked Gun series was the greatest thing since VGA, you'll enjoy the humor in this game. If you found yourself groaning more often than laughing at those films, then Fox Hunt will make you retch uncontrollably. Don't say you haven't been warned.
The Bond on a Budget theme works pretty well here. An interactive movie which aspires to high drama will more often than not undercut its own aspirations with bad acting and bad graphics, but these problems don't weigh so heavily on a comedy.
The acting in the game is quite good û at least, it's better than the acting you'll see in most computer games. Our hero is played quite competently by Andrew Bowen. The only problem with his performance is a definite tendency to mimic Jim Carey. Every time he does something genuinely funny, he turns right around and treats us to some Carey-esque mugging, or delivers his lines in such a way that he might as well be saying "Alrighty, then."
If you don't mind imitation, this aspect of his performance won't bug you, but it definitely bothered me. I could almost hear the producers talking:
"Ideally we'd get Jim Carey. Of course, we can't have him - far too much money."
"Right. But what about some guy who does a Jim Carey imitation?"
"Won't people see this as a poor substitute for original comedy? A cheap attempt to cash in on Carey's fame without paying him a cent? A shameless rip-off in all respects?"
"Sure. But relax û this isn't a real movie, it's just an interactive movie!"
(Laughter)
The gameplay of Fox Hunt is slightly more interactive than many interactive movies, but that's not saying a lot. For example, you can pick things up, but you can't look at 'em in an inventory screen; they just get used at the appropriate times if you're lucky enough to have the right items.
You have to keep clicking on the same area until you're sure all the useful items are gone from it, because there's no other way to tell. This reduces the parts of gameplay which aren't fight scenes to: click-click-click-click on the couch, then turn around, then click-click-click-click on the table.
Fight scenes consist of aiming with the mouse and shooting, or else using three keys to block, kick and punch your way to victory. This has been tried before in Johnny Mnemonic (not surprising, as this is essentially the JM engine) and it isn't too pretty; fighting in full-motion video has a long way to go. It's a sloppy medium, because it lacks the precisely-defined characters and orderly yet complex combat system which make true fighting games (Mortal Kombat and, most recently, Street Fighter Alpha on Playstation and Saturn) so popular.
Fox Hunt also suffers from the "Hey, what happened?" syndrome, also known as "Where did that bullet come from?" There's so much non-interactive footage you'll occasionally be lulled into complacency, failing to respond when you finally get to do something. Even when you're alert, it can be very hard to figure out what you need to do to avoid certain death (Dragon's Lair, anyone)?
All these flaws I've been harping on are characteristic of the interactive movie, so it may be unfair to heap the whole litany onto poor old Fox Hunt, a game that actually has good production values and some truly funny moments. But this game makes you realize that no matter how good the acting is or how funny the jokes are, a game still needs to provide genuine interactivity. As it currently exists, the interactive movie is a genre that offers little or no play value, and Fox Hunt doesn't do enough to address that fundamental problem.
