Developer
Namco

Released: October 28, 2003
Genre: Shooter
Players: 2
ESRB: Teen

9
6
7
7
8.2

Supported Features

Light gun games have the unique ability to drain every last quarter from your pocket with their addictive gameplay that keeps you pumping coins into the slot so you can progress just a bit further into the story. Games like these are extremely popular when they come out for home consoles but with the recent movement towards anti-violence gun games are becoming increasingly hard to find. Plus, with the increasing popularity of LCD and projection TV’s, unless some new gun technology is developed we are likely to see the end of the genre very soon.

Time Crisis 3 blasts its way onto the PS2 gaming scene with little competition other than the recently released Resident Evil: Dead Aim. To sweeten the package Namco has included the Guncon 2, so if you don’t already have a light gun you are ready to play right out of the box.

Without going into a full hardware review for the Guncon2, just allow me to say that I did not like this gun for several reasons. First of all the grip is square and hurts your hand after extended periods of play. Second, the duck button is located on the bottom of the grip rather than the inside, so instead of squeezing the grip to duck you have to use your other hand to push on the bottom of the gun. Now instead of just one arm getting fatigued you have both your arms hurting after about an hour. To its credit, the Guncon2 is by far one of the most accurate light guns you can get for the PS2. It calibrates and performs flawlessly.

With several years of gun gaming behind me I had a few light guns lying around including the Cybergun Desert Eagle .50AE and the Mad Catz Blaster. I tried both and while both guns have the duck button on the inside of the grip where it should be the Cybergun had some calibration problems. Ultimately, I settled on the Mad Catz Blaster, which offered the most comfortable grip and easy duck button. In all fairness, this is more of a personal preference as other GCM reviewers who joined in for multiplayer gaming ended up using the Guncon2 and thought it was great.

While Time Crisis 3 can be played with a gamepad it just loses a lot of its style. It’s like playing a flight simulator without a joystick or a racing game without a wheel. Since the game comes with the gun at least one player will be ready to rumble unless you end up renting this game in which case I doubt you will get the gun.

Time Crisis 3 plays pretty much like the games that have come before it with a few enhancements. When ducked down you can pull the trigger and switch to numerous weapons that you may have picked up along the way. These include machine guns, shotguns and a powerful grenade launcher great for boss battles. Picking the right weapon for the right encounter adds a bit of strategy to the gameplay.

Whether you play with a friend or by yourself, this is a buddy game. You have a partner that appears onscreen and you must try not to shoot him. You can also play as either character giving you two unique paths through the game. As for everyone else, the enemies are cleverly color-coded so you instantly know who is the most dangerous so you can prioritize your targets.

Time Crisis 3 is all about fast reflexes and dead on aiming. When an enemy fires a shot that is going to hit you a red flash will appear on their muzzle. You have about a half a second to duck or take a hit. Take too many hits and you lose a life, lose all your lives and you continue, use all your continues and you start over. Standard arcade style of gameplay.

Two-player gaming is fun but unlike the dual screens of the arcade you are forced into a tiny window 1/4th your total screen size. This makes it very hard to target and hit anything, even on my big screen TV. If you link a pair of PS2’s together you can each have your own screen and recreate the arcade experience perfectly. The buddy mode is a blast and you can coordinate your attacks and tag team the bosses. To make things more challenging, your “continues” are pooled, so if one player is particularly bad and keeps continuing the other player suffers.

Even though the game has a dated look to it the action moves fast enough that you will hardly have time to notice. There are some excellent camera angles and cinematic movements including an exciting jeep chase sequence early in the game. The character animation is flawlessly animated and looks very realistic.

The rest of the sound package includes plenty of loud and realistic gunfire. Shotguns have a resounding blast and the machinegun makes a satisfying report. Grenades rocked my sub-woofer and sent soldiers flying in all directions. It’s loud and fun, just like it should be.

The PS2 features a console exclusive mode called Rescue Mission where you play as Alicia. The Crisis Mission mode is another nifty game mode that puts you in a variety of missions with unique objectives. Both of these are single player games only but offer some additional value over the standard Arcade mode.

This is one of those games that is perfect for a quick distraction or some cooperative fun when friends come over. A great rental if you can get it with the gun otherwise only diehard shooter fans will want to invest in this title.