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Sentinel Crisis says one thing to me: low budget

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: February 21, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I really don't know where to start on this game. It's so terrible, so chalked full of faults, I could begin anywhere. Let's go with the story first.
As I popped Crisis into my X-Box, I was pretty optimistic. It was made in 05-06, and was a first person shooter, one of my favorite game catagories. I started the story mode and watched the load screen. Suddenly, I realized that I wasn't being greeted by a beginning cutscene worthy of a 05-06 engine. I wasn't even being greeted by a cutscene. I'm in a helicopter, looking at the HUD, with some guy talking in my ear. The game wasn't at very high volume. I looked for subtitles, but there were none. So, I drop out of the shot down helicopter with no idea what was going on. I played for a while with the volume turned up, then wished I had left it down. There's a 'political war' some-place-or-other, and I'm in a prototype suit called the Sentinel. I must help the 'Rebels' while finding some Dr. Landry. The end. That's the plot. One minor twist and you've got it.
Now for gameplay. It gets only a bit better here. You progress through the game in FP, using one upgradable gun. Sounds pretty basic. Maybe even cool if handled correctly. It wasn't. In the first place, the enemies can take an abnormal amount of punishment, about fifteen shots. That's sad, but what's even worse, is that instead of using the cool machinegun function on your gun, you'll find yourself using the sniper rifle, even at close range. Why? Because the guns are weak, hard to aim, and the sniper is the only thing that can do decent damage, if you can actually hit anything. It don't usually doctor my settings much, but I had to immediately change the aiming speed, but that still didn't help much. Also, though you might not care, the guns give me very little feeling of power. You fire a machine gun, expecting loud chains of fire, smoke, and blood. You'll be greeted by what seems like a suppressed submachine gun, small, small mists of blood, and enemies absorbing your fire and blowing you away instead. Not what I look for in a game. Disturbingly, the silence pistol is the most powerful weapon in the game.
Your given a useless shotgun, but also a grenade and RPG launcher very early, making it to easy to take out supposedly difficult areas. But the developers couldn't even get ammo right. You're given so much, it takes all the survival sense away.
Sounds and voiceovers. Oooooh boy. You'll get sad, sad voice overs, unlikable characters, and there isn't a single girl in the game! That should turn off a bunch of you. Cutscenes are scarce and not properly pulled off. The voices are annoying and the phrases are repeated. As I said earlier, you can hardly hear your guns, and explosions are lameified.
Graphics are the only decent thing about this game, and even they're pretty terrible. The AI waddle around like idiots and mouths hardly move when you can actually see them. Cutscenes involve about four characters, you included, along with an 'army' of Rebels (about five are seen at once).
The AI enemies are stupid and the AI allies are useless. There are four or five 'chapters' that are incredibly short (mercifully, I say).
All in all, if this hasn't turned you away, you will have to endure the tortures of Sentinel yourself. This is one classified occurance that should have remained classified.
Verdict: GOOD GOLLY GOSH! 1/1000 :)

Classified: Generic New FPS Vies for Your Attention at Half Price

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: June 02, 2006
Author: Amazon User

The generically titled "Classified: The Sentinel Crisis" is a first-person shooter on a console where first-person shooters are plentiful. That makes it hard for a game like this to stand out from the pack, which "Classified" most certainly does not. On the other hand, in the realm of budget gaming, one could do much, much, much worse than to give this one a spin.

"Classified" puts you in the boots of Collins, a Black Ops soldier with the conversation skills of Gordon Freeman and the fashion sense of Master Chief. Your mission is to infiltrate a country torn by civil war somewhere in the Balkans and find a missing scientist - the very one responsible for inventing the experimental combat suit that your character is wearing. The plot is predictable and only barely interesting, but that's more than can be said of some similar games, particularly on the bargain shelf. Surprisingly good voice acting helps sell it all (all except for the lead heavy, who is positively laughable).

The rest of the game's production values don't go as far. The visuals are mediocre at best, and behind the times. Sound effects are muted and generic, and the music that accompanies the adventure is amazingly bland. These things initially conspire to make the experience seem like a wash. At first glance, and upon completion of the first mission, there appears to be little incentive to continue.

Persistent gamers will find that the game gets much, much better the further along you go. Although there are only two weapons in the game, one of these is an upgradable gun that can be everything from an assault rifle to a rocket launcher. Some of its modes can be rather satisfying, and at least this is a unique approach to most FPS games where you simply collect or swap guns in and out of the equation. Likewise, the "Halo" inspired combat suit that is the crux of the game levels out the playing field in what would otherwise be a very difficult game and makes it manageable. If you're taking too much fire, pull a Master Chief and take cover until your shields regenerate, and then leap back into the fray. It worked in the aforementioned title, and it works here as well. A good gaming mechanic is a good gaming mechanic, even in its most generic form.

The combat can become intense, which is the game's primary saving grace. Mission objectives are varied after a fashion, even though much of the game consists of running from point A to point B shooting virtually everything that moves. Unfortunately you'll face the same enemy types over and over again with little variation.

The game's art direction is bland at best. The overall feel somehow manages to be World War II with sci-fi elements, which may have been the developers' intention, but the two things don't go together well at all. The experience doesn't last especially long either, but it's debatable whether or not anyone would want it to continue beyond its current conclusion. That said, the finale does have finality, which is more than can be said of many name products.

Recommending "Classified" is difficult unless you absolutely must play every FPS on the market, or unless you're one of those people that enjoys budget gaming on its own merits. It's got a few slight twists on the genre, but nothing all that original, and the execution is bland at best. The word "generic" just can't help but leap into your mind while playing "Classified," but you get what you pay for, and I dare say I don't regret the money I plunked down for this one. It's a good, solid distraction between big budget titles, and there is some fun to be had if you're not too picky.

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