GameOver Game Reviews

Game & Publisher Crime Killer (c) Interplay
Overall Rating 17%
Date Published , , ,


Divider Left By: cyrus Divider Right

There is something about porting a game over from the Playstation to PC that guarantees the game will fail. The game, if in 3D, is assured to have muddy textures, marginal sound and control that just doesn't translate well to the computer. There are exceptions of course such as Final Fantasy VII. Crime Killer, on the other hand is just an enforcement of the above stated rule.

Crime Killer is set in the far future where society has digressed to the point where martial law is the only way to rule the streets. Sounds somewhat familiar? Yes, it's the plot that has been used in over thirty games this year alone. You play the role of policeman 88 and it is your duty to keep the streets clean. I probably should have been warned by the highly stale plot that this game would be terrible. Despite the fact, I decided to play on and give it a chance. Bad move on my part...

Graphics: The graphics are supported through Direct3D only. Unfortunately, the only aspect of the game that shows what a 3d card is capable of doing, are the weapons. The weapons you fire are the standard 3d hardware globes. You know, the balls of colored light that are fuzzy on the outside and really bright in the inside. It was a cool effect, up until every game decided to use it. The game takes place at night so your car has it's headlights on. The headlights are merely pointy sprites that poke out from the front of the car. The lighting is absolutely terrible and it is very possible to see tears in the sky texture. The car models are so blocky that it appears as if your car is driving on square wheels. As far as explosions go, they are somewhat nice, but really nothing special as the car you just blew up disintegrates into a million pieces which disappear as they hit the ground.

Sound: There are three or four sound effects in this game. All of them are bad and very poorly recorded. The sound effects are not only poor but they also sound bland. There is very little bass or treble and I got the impression that the money I paid for my high priced sound system was being wasted. Much to my surprise, 3d sound is not supported.

Multiplayer: Multiplayer is not supported but should be. This game could have been somewhat fun in multiplayer mode against a couple of friends.

Gameplay: The gameplay in Crime Killer suffers from several inconsistencies. First off, the control is very poor. The car has a strong tendency to understeer greatly even on mild turns at low speeds. In spite of this understeer, your car is somehow able to pull off a 180 degree spin on command with no skidding. Amazing isn't it? As you can tell, this game is also not very heavy on the options. Besides an inability to change any of the graphics settings, it is also impossible to change the difficulty of the game. This really isn't that big of a deal because the game is amazingly easy, but it would have been nice to have. All of the enemy cars follow a preset path around the city and even attempt to pull off the same evasion maneuvers time and time again. In order to avoid being killed, all you must do is not follow directly behind the enemy car. Besides the poor AI and easy difficulty, the physics in this game are also extremely corrupt. Overall, Crime Killer contains some of the worst gameplay I have ever seen in a computer game.

Fun Factor & Overall Impression: This game is not fun. I highly recommend not picking this game up and deleting it off of your friends computer is probably also a good move. This game might have been fun with multiplayer but since it doesn't exist, I wouldn't know. Crime Killer is simply terrible. It obviously did not survive the port from Playstation very well and I recommend staying away from this title like the plague.

Graphics: 5 / 20
Sound: 3 / 15
Gameplay: 4 / 30
Fun Factor: 2 / 20
Multiplayer Play: 0 / 5
Overall Impression: 3 / 10



Rating
17%
 
  

  
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