Time Crisis: Razing Storm E3 2010 Preview

Quick Take: This Time Crisis game eschews precision shooting for the joy of blowing stuff up. Using PlayStation Move, this game is all about gunning down enemies and destroying as much of the environment as possible.

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Quick Take: This Time Crisis game eschews precision shooting for the joy of blowing stuff up. Using PlayStation Move, this game is all about gunning down enemies and destroying as much of the environment as possible.

The Time Crisis series is known for its precision lightgun gameplay. Aside from using a gun, Razing Storm is nothing like a traditional Time Crisis game. It's all about unloading as much ordnance as fast and as effectively as you can. I played 15 minutes of the game using PlayStation Move and found it to be a refreshingly mindless stress reliever.

The portion of the game I played took place in a museum-like area. In addition to shooting enemies and taking cover, I destroyed a lot of antiques and precious artifacts. While you earn points for shooting enemies and not shooting civilians, you also get bonuses for destroying the environment. In fact, there are certain trophies that can be won for causing enough collateral damage. While I enjoyed mowing down enemies with unlimited ammunition, I also enjoyed destroying dozens of expensive vases (I hate vases!).

The controls felt pretty tight with PlayStation Move, though it took a few minutes to mentally adjust from the familiarity of the Guncon controller (also supported) and essentially using a laser pointer of doom. Once I adjusted, it was a snap shooting the crap out of villains, overhead constructs that crushed my enemies, and walls (I hate walls!). Move allows you to shoot with precision, but it's just more fun letting an unlimited amount of bullets fly.

In addition to arcade mode, the game has a story mode and two multiplayer modes. Story mode takes you off the rails and allows you to explore levels as if you were playing a first-person shooter. Battle mode supports up to eight players online for deathmatch-style gameplay. Sentry mode is for four players offline and lets gamers take turns gunning down escaped prisoners. Rounding out the Razing Storm package are the arcade versions of Deadstorm Pirates and Time Crisis 4.

I'm interested in playing more of Time Crisis: Razing Storm. The portion I played of arcade mode was a lot of fun. On paper, with its other modes and two older games, this should be a nice value. For now I can definitely say that it's great as a quick pick-me-up. Unleashing hundreds of bullets is good like that.

Developed and published by Namco Bandai, Time Crisis: Razing Storm is due out exclusively on Playstation 3 this fall.

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