| Alias review |
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There is something cool about James Bond; the suave sophistication, the cool demeanour and the swanky tuxedos. But there’s something Bond can never have: an hourglass figure and feminine charm, well not personally anyway. So enter Sydney Bristow, every bit as cunning as James and just as deadly and she will be yours, to have, to hold and to kick ass.
Based on the TV series, for which such licenses give trepidation to even the most casual of gamer, you play the part of the SD-6 agent in a world of espionage and double crossing. This is going to be no picnic. In fact, you’re not even going to be taking sandwiches, your pockets will be too full.
It begins with some nice CGI and an intriguing story, all voiced over by the actors, or doing a very good impersonation. After being well briefed to the task in hand, Sydney arrives at the first of four mission locations; a hotel bar. Sydney’s pixel incarnation has all the right movements, right down to her runs, kicks and flips. Wearing a charming silver cocktail waitress dress, and walking with almost hypnotic poise, the first task is to lace a poor chauffeur with a barium tracer agent. It’s not going to be nice hang over. It’s a seemingly simple introduction to the game, but you soon realise that this is only the beginning of the episode.
After the initial good impressions and straying further into the first mission, you start seeing the first flaws of the game. Alias is aiming for the stealth market, something that has some strong contenders with the likes of Metal Gear and Splinter Cell. The first noticeable problem here is the A.I. Both the previously mentioned games have the A.I. reacting to the environment. In Alias this reaction is purely down to where the player is. Guards won’t notice their comrades lying on the floor, and won’t react to noise created or shadows cast by the almost invisible Sydney.
It is quite possible to run through a room, alerting all the guards and exiting through a door; most of the time they simply won’t follow. This is probably a good thing as the combat can be quite frustrating at times. This is partly due to the way the player is put into a combat stance slowing down movement. You will target an enemy when you engage them, but this really doesn’t help when you’re facing down several opponents at once, especially when a few of them have automatic rifles. Automatic rifles that is, with magazines of only fifteen bullets. This auto stance can be switched off in the menus, but the game seems to switch modes even then. You can pick weapons up in the environment, or even knock them out of enemy hands, but how many steel bars have you bent around a skull only to have them disintegrate after so many uses?
There is also an auto stealth stance which you should switch off in the options immediately; it really adversely interferes with movement, slowing Sydney down to a crawl on first sight of any enemy. Further problems exist with the way the game has no restart points. If you die on a level, it's game over; your only option is to restart from a save. You must rigorously use these, particularly in the first mission, simply to make progress in the game. The difficulty level is very erratic, partly down to combat, partly down to control, and partly down to enemy equipment. It’s not all bad though, stick through the first mission and the game seems to take a different tone in the second, less frantic enemy evasion and more exploration.
The game follows the TV counterpart well; it gives you an excellent feeling of being part of the series. Good use is made of picture in picture camera: there are times where you are given an additional viewpoint to aid you in stealthily taking out a guard, and secondary characters provide useful information as you progress, all being part of the team. The levels are well furnished and expansive, if you can excuse the frantic and often lengthy saving, they are well thought out and interesting to look at. The musical score is reactive, more so than your enemy, giving urgency to your actions.
Perhaps the biggest strength in Alias is the use of gadgets. Sydney and SD-6 are, like any decent top secret agency, ahead of the game in terms of technology, and you will be using all of the toys. Some are gimmicky like the change of costume, some are common place such as the lock picks and hacking devices, and some are innovative such as the laser reflectors and enemy camera views. Using them is a matter of selecting them from the gadget menu and pressing the action button. At some points you may need to take further action once you’ve activated them. For example; when hacking a computer terminal, as you will do quite often, you need to enter a code combination made up of (usually) three of four possible characters. These ABCD combinations play out like a game of mastermind, telling you how many of the three characters are correct. It might not be too brain taxing, but it is an attempt at bringing you further into the main game character, and the short CGI after being successful is almost convincing.
Unfortunately the good cannot steer far enough away from the bad. Whilst fans of the series will certainly enjoy being Sydney for a while, most pad jockeys will be put off in the first half hour of playing the game. What we are left with is a title that makes a brave effort of emulating the TV series, but is ultimately let down by the poor A.I., and when stealth is the mainstay of the game, we’re left shaken, not stirred. |
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System: Sony PlayStation 2
Genre: Action
Developer: Acclaim
Publisher: Acclaim
Players: 1
Version: European
Reviewed: Jan 2004
Writer: Marty Greenwell
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Pros:
- Lush expansive enviroments
- Faithful to the TV series
- Lots of nice gadgets
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Cons:
- Poor AI
- Long frequently needed saving
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