“Project “Game Archive” No. 52 – August 2004

I wish you good health! The fifty-second issue of the “Game Archive” has rushed to your screens and monitors like a whirlwind; as usual, Viktor Shtarev is responsible for the text. And today we are flying headlong into August 2004. To the news.

Watching the video is highly recommended. Despite the fact that I tried to adjust the text to the appropriate form, knowing myself, I’m sure there will be a lot of mistakes and omissions. In addition, the text was written for a video and it may seem difficult to read it at all.

BEthesda has acquired exclusive rights to develop and publish games based on the Fallout franchise from Interplay. The financial details of the deal were not disclosed, but many analysts assumed then that it would help keep Interplay afloat. But apparently something didn’t work out and the company went straight to visit Hades. It also became known that on the then current generation of PS2, Xbox, Gamecube the third part could not have been expected and thank Todd, because the graphics card would probably have suffered greatly from this. By the way, I thought for some reason that the rights to “folych” were transferred to them much earlier.

ABOUTfive doctors in the USA are haunted by fat kids playing games. Having examined 872 students in the first, second and third grades and used various factors in the analysis: age, gender, presence of bad habits in parents, nationality – oh, but here it would be painful for African-American fans to make a fuss – in general, doctors paid attention to what children do in their free time – walking, watching TV and, of course, video games. And suddenly they came to the conclusion that TV and especially games have a significant effect on excess weight in schoolchildren. Hmm, this is truly a great discovery – I could have told them this then and without him.

Electronic Arts announced the purchase of the British studio Criterion Games, which gave them not only control over the Burnout series and the shooter Black, but made them the owner of the RenderWare engine, which, for example, powered the GTA series from the third to San Andreas. It was a real revelation for me now that it was made by Criterion. Rockstar Games is largely why they had to change the engine in the game Bulli for xbox360. The transaction amount was $48 million. By the way, not so long ago the CFO of EA said that they are supposedly not appreciated enough for the way they treat acquired studios. Well, well, well, let’s see what they’re doing at Criterion now – ooh, they’re providing assistance in development – this is probably what the studio has always strived for.

Well, next up today are reviews from August 2004. We remind you that in this program we talk about games of past years for a certain month. And we rely, precisely, on the reviews of the Russian press of those years – not giving the ratings themselves, but deriving the average value for several publications.

Also, if you didn’t see a particular game you were playing at the time, don’t be upset. In any case, we will definitely talk about it in the next issues – there were a lot of releases, and the broadcast format does not allow us to cover everything. So – be patient, and now – bon appetit and let’s go

Ohhh, how they were waiting for this long-term construction – although it is now difficult to call a game that was in development for only 4 years such, nevertheless, all the journalists then vying with each other with this word. True, if you really wait for something, then time flows slower. The creators, id Software, annually stirred up interest in their brainchild and even released an alpha demo version of the game for the company that was then cooperating with them

ATI in order to show the power of their flagship cards, but someone in the company turned out to be weak at the front and the version very quickly spread across the Internet and on pirated disks of ordinary people. Your humble servant personally remembers how his bakery gave out 5 fps, allowing only a miracle to reach a couple of monsters. By the way, the developers were so angry with ATI that they immediately decided to send them away and make a deal with NVIDIA. One could only dream of Twitter back then, and Activision, which published the game, released scanned leaflets with the words “it’s done” online, so none of the gaming publications could believe that the game would actually be released in August, but it happened. And before us is a first-person shooter, great and terrible, DOOM 3.

Reviewers say that the game’s plot is trying to pretend to be Half-Life. The year is 2145, a certain Marine arrives at a Martian base, reports his arrival, rummages around the base, where scientists are scurrying about, who after 15 minutes, reincarnated with squeals and screams, will begin to participate in an orgy thanks to Dr. Betruger, who did something with teleportation, that the entire composition of the United Russia party was thrown from hell to Mars. In general, the unkind doctor is here, like an awl in one place, who is itching for the minions of hell to fill everything around as much and as quickly as possible. And now we have no choice but to send the monsters to their forefathers using not to say an impressive arsenal, but, damn it, every gun, be it a plasma gun, pistol, machine gun or even a chainsaw – you literally feel it in your gut and it’s very pleasant to shoot. The only new weapon here is the so-called soul cube or soul cube, in general the Soul Cube, which, after you kill five villains, will allow you to deal ultimate damage to the enemy, or to the crowd, if you show a little restraint.

The graphics are simply mind-blowing. There was probably no more beautiful game. Monsters, surroundings, weapons, and everything else made reviewers applaud the local beauties in nirvana. Only “Gaming Mania” tried to present that they didn’t fall into amazement, but in the end they gave a ten for the graphics. The price to pay for all this splendor is fabulous system requirements, and if your unit successfully ran Far Cry a few months ago, then you would have to smoke a cigarette and only comfortably allow it to run in a resolution of 640×480.

The level design is in perfect order – despite the fact that it seems like you can’t really go wild with the surroundings of the rooms of a colony on Mars – local artists managed to give virtually unique features to every corner. If you believe the journalists, the base is so well developed that you literally believe that there was a colony here exploited by people and who subsequently tried to resist the monsters – charred overturned furniture, collapsing wall cladding, and even disheveled soda machines play great into the hands of the thick, frightening atmosphere of the game. The game itself takes place mainly in the dark, which only plays into its hands, given that a flashlight here cannot be used at the same time as a weapon – you lit it up, got horrified, fired the horn out of fear into the void or at the vile shadows, heard some grumbling and fired it again for good measure. Yes, and the blood was pleasing, it was later – in 2012 – for the generation of consoles XBOX360 and PS3 they will release the BFG Edition, which will completely kill that very atmosphere of horror by screwing the flashlight to the shotgun and more, and everyone will remain very saddened by this action. By the way, initially, everyone was sad that the Marine was not trained to hold a weapon and a flashlight at the same time; in general, you won’t please gamers.

In any case, basically the gameplay is still the same DOOM, and the old formula does not fail here, especially in combination with SUCH graphics, a normal plot, an ominous atmosphere and cool sound. However, for the same “Gaming Mania”, the main dissatisfaction is caused by the gameplay – they say, here we are again, walking, wandering, jumping, crouching, and shooting accurately – that’s all. And no progress towards changing the series – although it would seem why the hell and the main thing is why? And we again find the map key to advance through the plot and meet new not-so-smart opponents. However, this did not stop them from giving a high rating in the end.

There is also multiplayer, id was reluctant to include it in the game, and in principle it is visible. Several classic modes supporting up to 4 players and only 5 multiplayer, albeit beautifully executed, maps. However, then it was praised, predicting a whole heap of cards from amateurs, but I didn’t really hear that anyone spent a lot of time there.

And as a result, this 9 points out of 10.

The father of all shooters then returned again to show himself in all his glory. No matter how you feel about shooters and DOOM itself, it’s pointless to deny that this is a milestone in the genre. Excellent graphics, for once a plot, wonderful sound, a delightful atmosphere that sometimes gives you goosebumps. This game really scares the player in a good way.

By the way, six months later, an average lousy addition from other developers came out, nerve software, which essentially, apart from the fact that you need to connect batteries to the doors to open them, a little slow-mo, a certain gravitational gun that allows you to send fireballs fired at you and all sorts of rubbish back to the sender – did not bring anything new, although in my opinion the list is quite good, especially by the standards of 2021, where they sell you improvements for the PS5 for 2k. And the local levels began to look, although very so-so, but they could not spoil the overall graphics.

Well, for dessert, a film was released that you probably heard about, with a star cast. Unfortunately, The Rock, Karl Urban, Rosamund Pike were unable to pull off and somehow recoup the film. It’s a pity, I liked it at the time.

Silent Hill 4: The Room

Silent Hill is perhaps the most famous horror game in the world. The atmosphere of irresistible horror colliding with an interesting, intricate plot and unexpected moves probably left an imprint in the heart of every player who dared to play it and more than once gave me goosebumps not only from fear, but also from everything else. The second part, as for me, is generally a masterpiece for all times, which everyone should complete to the end. Well, Konami decided to powerfully promote this game, which was not originally a numbered game at all, declaring that they are encroaching on the everyday feeling of comfort and that this is a completely new level of horror. And then the advertising machine could not be stopped and they finally added a number to it, which did not add whist to it and the reviewers in unison said that this was the most controversial part of the series. And before us is survival horror – Silent Hill 4: The Room.

One morning, Henry Townshed, barely opening his eyes, discovers that the door of his apartment, or rather the hotel room where he lived for two years, is tightly hung with chains, and the inscription “don’t go out” hints that it is better not to go beyond its boundaries. Ha! I have a problem too! Our hero did not live in isolation in 2020, where if you went out into the street, and even without a mask, they could twist you in such a way that no Silent Hill is needed. Cries for help and soft tapping of everything and everyone with a first-person view did not produce results. However, after a few days, a technical hole of such a large size appeared in the bathroom. And it led straight… to the polling station on September 19. Well, okay, it’s a little worse – into parallel worlds created by the imagination of the main villain. In them, the camera already takes on the look that was then familiar to the series. Well, we have to figure out what X actually is. is happening here.

The plot here, except for “Land of Games”, which stated that it knew everything – is very praised – yes, until the middle it hardly develops and you will most likely not understand it, but then it takes shape and the denouement will certainly not leave you indifferent. It is worth noting that even the main action of the game takes place here not in the “Silent Hills” themselves, but in the sister city of South Ashfield.

The combat has not undergone any changes – there are two types of weapons – melee weapons, and according to tradition, our ward must deliver the final blow, because if this is not done, you risk again wasting time, energy and life on the same monster. Oh, and also a little nerve-wracking – not only because of the increased number of enemies and the strange camera, but also due to the clumsy controls. When dodging monsters, the player runs the risk of spraining the right little finger of his middle hand.

The Park of Enemies, by the way, has been updated here in comparison with the previous parts and long-tongued dogs, and hand-wielding garbage bags with a pair of children’s heads, and hospital patients who belch take your blow, and my favorite immortal flying ghosts are waiting for us. I can just see how at the planning meeting a guy happily reports – oh, let’s create such bastard undead that it won’t even be possible to kill and they will also suck your life energy remotely. By the way, in the first half of the games, returning to the home of your apartment, your health will be restored and, in fact, this is the only place where you can exhale with peace of mind and save. But the guy at the planning meeting didn’t let up and suggested, let’s start with the second half of the game, we’ll add a fucking ghost there so that life doesn’t seem like honey. Some reviewers, by the way, complain that the monsters have ceased to particularly frighten the player (the one with the burp was generally so amusing), and in general they are boring and uninventive, but in my opinion they are also quite disgusting.

The local riddles are all right, they are logical by the standards of the local world and do not require the player to have an Einsteinian IQ. True, when solving them, you will have to run back and forth across the area a lot, which journalists don’t particularly like. In addition, closer to the middle of the game they give us a partner who can’t really run and can’t walk up fire escapes either because she has a broken arm and we have to look for workarounds for her, and she almost starts limping after receiving a couple of breams from the local zoo. Thank you that it doesn’t get stuck in corners and in battle somewhat distracts attention to itself – often the truth gets into trouble when you didn’t ask for it, and you can’t patch it up with all these things, in general, it causes more problems.

In general, in terms of gameplay, everything has not changed here since the first part, and the reviewers are very sad about this.

The main disadvantage of the game is that from now on the player is not afraid of every sound of a sob, and the game is a little lost in the atmosphere of fear and horror. I myself personally remember in the second part that you even feel uncomfortable and uncomfortable on the street if there were no enemies nearby, not to mention this damn radio and moments that give you goosebumps, but here. Well, nevertheless, she is able to give out moments of suspense, for example, in the same apartment that will no longer be a refuge there, and children’s sobs and knocking of windows scare the gray hairs and so on, but still. By the way, for one of the good endings, it wouldn’t hurt to clear the apartment of ghosts with the help of amulets and especially candles, placing them next to manifestations of otherworldly power. There are quite a few of these manifestations themselves, and it’s unlikely that you’ll even notice them all during a single playthrough.

Reviewers also complain about the excessive length of the passage – it’s clear that we could have done away with walking back and forth, especially since between the room and the parallel world there is a cutscene waiting for you, and more than one, and they really start to irritate you – in the end they force us to go through all the levels again.

The graphics are perhaps the weakest point of the game – on the one hand, everything seems to look more or less normal, on the other hand, you come across very stretched and overstretched textures and it becomes scary not at all for the reasons that Silent Hill should be scary.

There are no complaints about the sounds – they are excellent and have a way of scaring the player even without visuals, and great music, although it rarely sounds here, is so timely and you want to listen to it again and again.

And as a result, this 7 points https://vindercasinocasino.co.uk/games/ out of 10

Despite the fact that the game has somewhat lost its atmosphere, it is still a sane horror game with a good plot, good graphics and traditional great sound and music.

Richard Burns Rally

And now it’s not to say that there are many games about rallying, but at that time Colin McRae Rally sat in splendid isolation on the throne in this field. No, and then there were a lot of smaller titles, but they all lagged behind the leader. Suddenly, the English developers of Warthog announced a game that was supposedly supposed to be the most realistic race in the industry – then these conversations were not given much importance. A lot of people here, you know, like to promise something, shouldn’t we gamers know about it?. But the developers kept their word and imagine – after 17 years it remains one of the best rally games and this is by no means nostalgia. Before us is the proudly titled simulator game Richard Burns Rally.

It is an unfortunate fact that the racer himself, after whom the game is named, died back in 2005, a year after the release of the project.

Right off the bat, the game warns us that it would be a good idea to go through a local driving school, at least a basic one, without it they won’t be allowed into the local championship. At the school itself they will force you to go through simple snakes and so on, and all this makes you angry because you can’t always pass them the first time. The power under the hood of a conventional Subaru will not allow you to do this just like that, the car seems uncontrollable at first, but after a while you get the hang of it and rejoice like a child at the first turn. Finally, you are happy and think that now everything will begin, when you are sent to a higher driving school. You can really do without it, but it certainly won’t hurt.

There are only 36 tracks to choose from in 6 countries. But, damn it, every track here is like going through an entire championship with arcade physics in other games. By the way, there is also an arcade mode, but the game warns that nothing good awaits you with it. The tracks themselves are rather narrow tracks, slightly wider than the car itself, and each of them has, in addition to very rare smooth asphalt, various kinds of potholes, pits, and sometimes all sorts of potholes, each of which the suspension really feels. In a deep hole, the car literally starts to be pulled into it. And each of the tracks has its own unique geometry. It doesn’t matter whether you play on the keyboard or on the steering wheel – the tension here is such that after ten minutes you literally start to sweat. The roads themselves can be crossed by particularly inquisitive spectators, who, by the way, are ready to come to the aid of the racers if the car is thrown into a ditch or, worse, overturned. No buttons for instant return to the track – everything is like an adult.

Each area here has a fairly high level of interactivity, for example, birds flying past can hit the windshield and break it, although I’ve never seen something like this. All fences or bundles consist of individual logs. There is also a dynamic change in the weather on the track, therefore it is impossible to predict what will happen in the race and it is quite difficult to set the ideal car settings yourself. As you understand, you will have to tinker with your iron friend a lot. There are a wide range of options from locking differentials to setting the desired tire pressure. And no arcade rulers for you – all millimeters, degrees and percentages. And by the way, there are only 8 cars, which cannot be compared with the closest analogue of the Colin McRae series. There are also levels of difficulty – from the simplest, where nothing will happen to your car when you encounter a tree, to expert, where even driving into a ditch can sometimes become a problem.

There wasn’t much going on with the visual damage to the car – windows crack, doors open, dents remain on the sides, but nothing more, although that’s not what the game is actually about.

With graphics, everything is also ambiguous, for example, “PC Games” and “Land of Games” sing its praises, the rest are not particularly happy. Although maybe they played on medium settings, because to truly experience the local beauty you need a truly powerful PC. The sound is also highly praised – the rustling of the suspension, the squeal of the brakes, the sound of gravel hitting the car – just a fairy tale

And finally, I should note that it is still popular among auto racing fans. There are a bunch of mods for it, a lot of superbly executed custom tracks and cars. Also thanks to them there is multiplayer.

And as a result 8.5 points out of 10.

Of course, this game is not for everyone; few people will want to spend a few days just learning to drive in the game in order to start winning there. However, for those same car sim fans, it was just a gift that was truly impressive in its elaboration. On the good side, it can’t even be compared with the Colin McRae series of that time, because the games turned out to be different in content – one is for entertainment, the other is about a reliable physical model.

The developers themselves, unfortunately, closed back in 2006; they did not have any high-budget titles in their track record. However, they left it in the genre, and in the industry as a whole, for real – Legacy.

What do we have a lower rank?

Siphon Filter: The Omega Strain — PS2-exclusive action game about operatives from Sony.

Don’t be confused by the majestic first three parts of the PSone, which you played as a child, although it is customary now to decently criticize them, except for the first. Here they decided to distance themselves from the main character of the previous parts because this creation decided to take root online and offers to create a ward yourself. As soon as you have created the perfect crime fighter in a simple editor, we are offered a choice of going straight into online battles, about which a little later, or into the usual single-player campaign.

I’ll say right away that the plot didn’t work out and our hero works for an anti-terrorist organization created by the protagonist of the first parts, which also fights against the distributors of the virus of the same name in the game series. Over the course of 17 dull missions you will have to exchange bullets with brainless enemies. Any halfway decent action game of that time gave the player more than this game. Hell, here even the level of interaction with the environment has become worse than on PS1 – street lamps, soda machines, lamps and other things that should not be destroyed here. Considering that in one of the previous parts even the battle with the boss was based on this, you had to break street lamps and then you could only approach him. But here, for example, an ambulance explodes from one shot from a gun.

Auto-aim turned out to be strange and annoying, often it’s not the one who is closer and more dangerous to you who is in your sights, but that dude in the distance.

The graphics are terrible; they criticize the lighting, the dull textures, and the environment in general. The only good thing is the animation of the agent, he’s amazingly good and moves realistically.

There are just a lot of bugs, the enemies are not only stupid, but also just freeze in place. It happens that you stop hearing the sounds of gunfire and stuff like that.

Multiplayer is not bad at first – you and three like-minded people have to complete missions against the clock, and also shoot with the enemy, but soon you realize that it is also very monotonous and boring.

As a result, you could only play at your own peril and risk, and only if you don’t expect anything particularly interesting from the game. 5.5 points.

Goblin Commander: Unleash the Horde – a rare representative of the real-time strategy genre for the then-current consoles; in addition, there are splashes of action and you are allowed to take control of one of your units and enter the battle yourself. the developers of Jaleco Entertainment were haunted by the laurels of Warcraft III, they decided to stir up their own, greatly simplified with blackjack and goblins.

The plot tells the story of five clans of these very goblins living on the planet Ogris. A human magician builds them a great machine so that they can have enormous power, but one day he accidentally dies when meeting one of the clan leaders. And it was precisely because of this, as well as the accompanying further disagreements, that war was brewing.

The reason for the rarity of the genre, of course, is in the controls, which are not particularly suitable for consoles, and here the developers did not become clever, but simply made it so that the entire clan subordinate to you, consisting of 10 fighters, gathered in a group, is essentially controlled by one button. With the remaining buttons you can give orders to your clan or command attacks. Ideally, you need to capture the area and buildings called here “wells of souls” to create new necessary units, of which there are as many as 25 types. The team must have a titanium for conducting siege operations and battle towers for defensive redoubts.

In total, the game has 17 not very diverse missions, but in general everything here is executed well, therefore the game is praised, and as I already said, a very rare guest for consoles. 7 points.

The appearance of this game sounds like some kind of bearded joke. One day Microsoft representatives came to the British studio developer Climax and said – let’s create a pseudo-Japanese RPG game for the European and American audience of players. They answer them – they say, listen, not only have we never developed RPGs, but we have never done anything in anime style or something similar – Japanese.

And Microsoft to them – yes, yes, we understand this and therefore the game will still be an XBOXoriginal exclusive at release and thus will be used to promote our console, well, and then, in a year we will port it to PC. No sooner said than done and here we have an action RPG – Sudeki.

Once upon a time there lived God Tetsu and he ruled the world of Sadeki, everything was fine and somehow he got bored, decided to look for adventure in one place and, dividing himself, created himself a brother, Heigu, who after a while wanted to reign and rule everything. Tetsu was unable to defeat his swung brother alone, so he called on four heroes who helped restore balance and defeat Heigu. Tetsu decided to divide the world of Sadeki into two parts – the world of light, Khaskilia, and the world of darkness, Akloria, and gave the second half to his brother. However, many years later, strange creatures began to raid, which they recognized as Heigu’s minions, and the battle began to flare up again.

Actually, we get to play here for the great-great, who knows how many more great, grandchildren of those same heroes. Therefore, it should not be surprising that they surpass ordinary people in strength and dexterity, and also have supernatural magical abilities. So, meet the local team to save the world – Tal, Buki, Eilish and Elko.

The plot, in general, is rather a negative, don’t expect any revelations, and the ending may ultimately disappoint the player. Yes, and the characters’ characters do not shine and it seems that they are not developed enough. The same problem is with local quests, NPCs are reluctant to share them with you – there are few tasks, and there is no question of any variety.

But the heroes here are very different from each other in their fighting style and unique abilities – Tal and Buki use close combat, Eilish and Elko shoot from afar. By the way, the shooting here is in first person, so when playing as them, the gameplay turns from an action game into a full-fledged shooter. Tal can also move objects, Eilish is able to find hidden objects and passages invisible to others, Elko flies short distances, and Buki publishes games on the territory of the Russian Federation… well, okay, she climbs sheer walls. And they each look in their own unique style. You can switch between heroes at any time, as in the well-known game The Lost Vikings for the SEGA console, and this is mainly done to solve local problems. In battle, in addition to the main attacks, each of them has a number of powerful ones – purchased for experience points, and a pair of long-charging, especially destructive attacks, unlocked in the passage. There are kombuchas in which you need to press buttons at a strictly defined moment. It must be admitted that the whole action looks spectacular and the local battles literally delight the reviewers.

True, as some of them say, it is easier to play as shooters scurrying around the map than as warriors, therefore a certain imbalance of personalities is listed as a minus.

The role-playing game here is essentially weak and it’s more of an action game with some inclusions of an on-system. For killed enemies, experience points are given here and when you gain a certain amount, the character’s level increases and the opportunity to upgrade strength, health, as well as the skills of powerful and even destructive attacks.

Defeated adversaries drop money, for which you can upgrade the heroes’ weapons and armor. There is one money and equipment for all characters, so that you don’t accidentally deprive someone of attention, and he doesn’t wear out the clothes of his more fortunately placed brothers as a poor relative. True, there is no mouse in the inventory on a PC and you have to press buttons on everything.

The style of the game is praised – everything here looks so bright and juicy that sometimes you just want to get up and admire the local landscapes. “Land of Games” says that this is generally one of the most beautiful role-playing games on consoles, and for this you can even forgive it for the rather primitive architecture of the levels consisting of corridors and large locations. The animation of the characters is also good, and all these multiple artsy spells and astral partners look invigorating.

Well, the local ambient music creates the right mood here.

As a result this, 7.5 points out of 10.

An excellent and spectacular combat system for its time, excellent stylish graphics with an unimpressive plot, weak characters and other minor flaws. The game was still able to give gamers a lot of great time and captivate them to the end.

What else do we have there that is of a lower rank??

Catwoman – the creation of not just anyone, but the English division of Electronic Arts in collaboration with Warner Bros., actually published by EA too. Game based on the film of the same name. What could go wrong?

They didn’t bother too much with the plot and simply transferred the same story of the film by shooting scary-looking videos on the engine.

The gameplay is trivial – we bludgeon enemies, and try to go further in the level with the help of local acrobatics.

The developers really wanted it to be like in “Prince of Persia”, but either the hands are from the wrong place or the place is from the wrong hands – the cat lady’s attempts look clumsy.

At the same time, the camera received a lot of swear words from reviewers. The virtual operator damnably loves, for example, to show door frames and walls, and during all sorts of finishing off enemies, which seem to be done for a number of spectacular shots, here, on the contrary, the camera moves back somewhere and looks higher. Combined with her, the heroine’s crookedness looks even crooked and the player often cannot jump to the right place.

With fights, it should be noted that everything is not so bad, but even worse. Firstly, the enemies here are immortal. And the fallen guard, having fallen from the fifth floor, will sit on the floor holding his head with stars flying around him.

Secondly, we only have a couple of blows that are sent in four directions, and a whip. The animation of strikes suffers and often it turns out that you swung in one direction, but the enemy is writhing in pain in the other. In this case, enemies need to be thrown into various trash cans, boxes, and other places. Probably the developers thought it was funny.

The graphics look pretty decent. Local designers are cleverly trying to brighten up the shortcomings of the engine, here they let out a parka, here they darkened the picture a little, blurred a little, and so on. Well, the sound and music are even the only thing that is praised, and that’s most likely because most of the budget went to the fees of the voice acting stars.

As a result, the game was of interest only to ardent fans of DC and Catwoman in particular, and, perhaps, those who liked the film. And reviewers say that the weakest game EA released that year. 5 points.

Headhunter Redemption – an action game for PS2 and XBOX original consoles from a third person, from the Swedish developers of the now closed studio Amuze, and published by SEGA.

This is a sequel to a good action movie for the Dreamcast, which was released a little later on PS2. There were good shooting ranges, coupled with stealth, and motorcycle chases – the game then received positive reviews from the press and players, but for some reason, more precisely because of the weak hero, and the plot, it did not become a hit and it was decided to try to correct the matter in the second part.

The first thing that catches your eye is the graphics engine. Mamma Mia when I saw the screenshots, I didn’t believe it was 2004 and checked again to see if it was from that year, I opened the magazine. Excellent levels, beautiful lighting, nice textures, hero models and their animation are of very high quality, they run well here and stick to walls in shootouts or during stealth. With all this, it practically does not slow down on consoles, producing stable 30 frames especially on XBOX, on PS2 with graphics it is a little worse, but much.

The local world is divided into two parts – Upper and Lower, and as you might guess, in Upper, a kind of metropolis made of glass and steel, the elite live, in the lower – the rabble and, probably, voting takes place on stumps.

Once upon a time, Jack Wade, the hero of the first part, saved a little girl, then their paths

separated and twenty years later, bounty hunter Jack catches a bank robber. Recognizing that same girl in her, he offers her to either go to vegetate in the slums of the lower world, or go to work for him as a partner as the same bounty hunter.

A tattooed girl with a name like something out of an adult film, Lisa X, has no choice but to agree and our heroes begin to follow in the footsteps of a terrorist organization in the Lower World. And perhaps it would be interesting to follow the local ups and downs, if not for the long, meaningless videos on the engine, where practically nothing happens. Following events is simply tiresome – the heroes find some evidence, overhear something and again begin to chatter from empty to empty. And when the heroine begins to remember her childhood, squeezing out every word, you think it would be better if Jack exiled her to the Lower World.

In terms of gameplay, it’s mostly shootouts. You can use stealth, but why, if it’s easier and faster to shoot everyone?. The controls are strange – when you press the aim button, the camera will be behind you, and the enemy will be marked with a crosshair. The target where you will shoot begins to walk around him, and if you stand still, then after a couple of seconds the targets will converge and the enemy will go to his forefathers. It’s also possible to shoot while they’re coming together, and you might even accidentally hit the head, but mostly you’ll be shooting at the milk. At the same time, if you move the right stick to the bottom, the hero will turn around in preparation for escape – in general, it’s a little difficult to adapt to him. Interestingly, you can move in aiming mode – the Resident Evil series, for example, took a lot of years to realize this.

The shootouts were a success, although their mood changes almost every second from “wow, how cool that was” to “what a horror is going on here”. This is despite the fact that the local AI is not so bad and the enemies throw grenades at you and cleverly wait for the moments when the hero leans out of cover.

The interface here is also decidedly inconvenient, and to understand the map you need to complete three courses at Oxford University, so you have to comb local levels up and down.

As a result, the project turned out to be quite average; if the developers had brought some of their ideas to mind, we could safely recommend it. And it’s not for everyone. 6.5 points.

Well, the time has come to say goodbye to August 2004, but we will return to it in the future, since there is still a lot of interesting things left here. And Viktor Shtarev was with you, bye!