NEITHER FINAL FIGHT NOR TOMB RAIDER, THIS SAGGING SEQUEL DOESN'T DO ANYTHING RIGHT
by Doug Perry - December 22, 1999
Eidos is an interesting company. Along with star-studded designer Core, it created one of the most popular game characters of all time in less than three years. Lara Croft is one of the icons of PlayStation lore, along with Sonic, Mario, and Crash. But, despite its great marketing efforts, Eidos has this one big hang up that won't go away. With the exception of Tomb Raider, Eidos likes to dumb things down to sub-dumb levels.
Let's take Fighting Force 2. The first Fighting Force was a simple beat-em-up, with a tad of hackneyed charm. It was action-packed, one to two player, and it sort of brought back the good 'ol days of Final Fight and Strider to the console. I know, I'm being way too nice, but you get the point.
So here comes Fighting Force 2, which Eidos and Core told us has drastically changed. FF2 was supposed to be a single-player game packed with stealthy objectives and spy-like qualities, using a new engine with gorgeous new graphics and technical effects. The emphasis wasn't supposed to be on simple action, it was on the same hard-core qualities that gamers liked in Tenchu, Metal Gear Solid, and Syphon Filter. Well, guess what? Core must not have had the development time it needed, or something, because despite what Eidos said, Fighting Force 2 is so tired and repetitive, so mind numbing and simplistic that it's a sham. FF2 is basically a better looking Fighting Force, except with one player.
GAMEPLAY
I don't like slamming games for the fun of it, and I have a lot of respect for developers who spend a good portion of two-plus years creating a single game. That takes dedication, focus, and a lot of hard work. But when the game is so different than what you've been told it was going to be, you feel cheated. And, you will feel cheated if you pick this up.
In FF2, you are Hawk Mason, back from the first game, far slimmer and more brutal than ever. You're a bad-@ss mercenary. How can I tell? It's easy. Hawk holds his gun sideways. (Tip o' the hat, John Woo.) In each level, Hawk reads through his directives, and then must walk, climb, blast and bash his way through large, interior levels to meet the objectives. Oftentimes the objectives change mid-mission. But it doesn't matter, because no matter what you throw at Hawk, the real mission is to smash the buttons as often and as hard as possible. He likes action. You like action! He likes guns. You like guns! He's dumb. So are you if you buy this game.
What is cool, however, is how much stuff can blow up. Ninety-nine percent of the objects are totally destructible. Big objects usually require a grenade or missile launcher, but most everything is ready to burst into flames with a few punches. That's right, kids! Stuff that doesn't normally blow up now does! Desks burst into flames! Woo-hoo! File cabinets churn out a dozen of so files after a few kicks, and then they burst into flames! Boxes! Boom! Crates! Boom! Computers! Boom! Desks! Boom! Door switches! Burst into flames! Oh, and watch out for those flammable barrels! They go boom too, and they hurt! Ow! Oh yeah, karate kick a chair, and BOOM! Then kick it again and watch it spin around!
Beneath the flimsy sheath of stealthy descriptions and spy-like veneer is a lame-brain, button-mashing game -- just like the first one. It's Eidos' old trick. Add more enemies, more fighting, more action. Then dumb it down and blow it up. Remember Ninja? This is kind of like a good-looking Ninja, except you're bad-boy Hawk Mason, loaded up like the A-Team with weapons and destructive goods. You can even punch giant pipes and computers with your bare hands! And Boom! Everything goes up in flames! Boom! Boom! Boom!
Everything about this gameplay is silly. From the game design to the hilariously dumb enemies, who, regardless of their size, are easy to cream, to the objectives, which are simply more reasons to beat up on bad guys who hide out in dark corners, waiting for you clobber them with a few punches. Boom! Hey! Why don't they explode?
Character control is mixed. Hawk spins slowly around, just like our favorite videogame pinup girl, Ms. Croft. He slowly turns around after a few hits and also takes cheap shots from enemies, who bash in his shins, as Hawk climbs down ladders. One of the more idiotic things Hawk is capable of is changing weapons. Switching from one to the other is actually clever and efficient (press down Triangle and scroll through your inventory), but once a weapon is out of ammo, Hawk goes macho. He simply chucks it away, like an old sandwich or a bad piece of fruit. Fling! I'm a little surprised that once it hits the ground it doesn't blow up. BOOM! Oh well, one more lost opportunity.
GRAPHICS
The best thing about the game is its look, with several exceptions. Whether outside of inside, the Fighting Force 2 engine is almost a substantial piece of work. It looks like Core revamped the latest Tomb Raider engine and sped things up a bit. It's not like the game is gorgeous, but two things work well. The lighting is solid. Just like everything that blows up and goes Boom (!), nearly everything sizzles with light and particles. The panels of the doors crackle with light, the grenades, which actually bounce and roll like in real life, explode with a nice dome shaped fireball explosion, and occasionally after blowing out a fuse box, everything crackles with energy. It's cool looking. The game is filled with contrasting light and dark areas, changing the mood of each level with a moderate amount of success. There are lots of blues, reds and black. But unfortunately, just like Tomb Raider III, Fighting Force 2 is way too dark for its own good.
The camera does a few interesting things, too. In the small rooms, it zips around, moving up and down in the third-person perspective as it follows Hawk. It looks like Core needed about three or four more weeks to perfect it, but didn't get the time. Occasionally, you find that you don't know where you are: Small crevices and little inlets are the cause, and I'm not entirely sure why Core built these problems into the game. But, for the most part, the camera still pans around, trying to find the right spot for you to see and fight. It's pretty quick and capable.
One last little chuckle. Hawk can attack enemies from several different floor levels. By aiming up, he can shoot or throw grenades. In one area I encountered a baddie who did something very strange. He had grenades in his hands and he was trying to blow me up (Boom!). Well, he waved at me after he threw one. It almost looked he was saying "Hi Hawk! What's up, bro?" But it also looked like he was shaking his fist at me, as if to say, "Damn you Hawk Mason! I'll get you yet!" Needless to say, the enemy animation and AI are pathetic.
SOUND
Another great part of Fighting Force 2 is its sound effects. Everything that blows up goes Boom! And sounds just like that, too. On the opposite side of things, Hawk and his opponents all sound ludicrously primitive, as their only response to any encounter goes like this, "Arrgh!" "Ohhfff!" and "Uhhnnn!" Sounds like a bunch of Neanderthals. Not that games should be the pinnacle of culture, mind you, but hey, a little variety in sound does make a difference.
The atmospheric and moody music and is nice. Overall, the sense of doom is always around the corner and the eerie collages of sound successfully work that particular advantage. It reminded me of Doom 64, but didn't scare me as much.
THE VERDICT
I take that whole thing back about not liking to slam games. On rare occasions I do. I had fun slamming Ninja back in the day, and Fighting Force 2 provided a good laugh, too.
I admire Core's attempt to change the format to a more intelligent one, or at least a slightly more intelligent one, but this didn't even get that far. It's like they took an old, tired genre and made a bad game even worse. The original Fighting Force wasn't great, but it seemed like a Final Fight type game, which was its attraction. This one seems like a bad mutation that couldn't shake its Final Fight clothes, but wants to be something more, like Metal Gear Solid. It's half way between both, and fails in both categories.
And everything goes Boom a lot.
LATE ARRIVAL MAY DOOM OTHERWISE FUN FIGHTER. THE FULL REVIEW.
by Aaron Boulding - June 2, 1999
Jealous N64 owners have finally caught up with PSXers with the arrival of Fighting Force 64, one of the most popular fighting titles of 1997. The game offers a whole lot of what made the PlayStation version a hit, but the fact that it's 1999 will probably dull a lot of the shine on Crave's 3D fighter. On the bright side, if you absolutely drooled over the finger-blistering fun of the arcade hit Final Fight , FF64 could be just what you need to stop the saliva from slipping.
The Features:
- Fully interactive 3D environments.
- Use objects like trash cans, tires and bottles as weapons.
- Conventional weapons like knives, axes, guns and bazookas.
- 25 explorable levels with 5 boss levels.
- Two player cooperative mode.
- Multiple paths through each level.
- Four characters with unique fighting attributes
GAMEPLAY
The storyline finds our dark champions of justice trying to stop the evil apocalypse plans of Dr. Zeng. It seems the good doctor was a bit miffed that the new millennium didn't bring with it the destruction of the world. So with an evil sneer on his face and a horde of minions at his disposal he decides that destroying the world is a tough job but somebody's got to do it. So with vigilante Hawk Manson, dashing P.I. Mace Daniels, strongman Ben "Smasher" Jackson and Zeng's illegitimate little girl Alana on your team, you set out to punch the mad scientist's ticket.
FF64 moves and operates just like the original, it just takes a little longer than we're used to. It seems chasing down and beating down bad guys just isn't as much a priority anymore because the heroes can take their time reaching their targets, overrun them when they try to get there quickly or sometimes turn their backs on them altogether in the middle of the fight. In all fairness, FF64 requires the player to master movement in a 3D environment so that they may kick butt effectively. We don't have a problem with this necessarily, but the speed of the game can make this very frustrating. When you use one of the slower characters like convict "Smasher" Jackson, you will have to catch yourself from breaking the analog stick because you'll be bending that thing so far in your efforts to get him moving.
The weapons and interactive environments add a lot of fun to the game, since it seems that the only things that can't be whooped on are the buildings. Early in the game you'll get a chance to test your might by knocking the chassis out of a big bad guy van. The weapons also require some 3D fighting proficiency since you will sometimes turn your back on enemies or be just a a little off when you try to line up a bazooka blast or a pistol shot. A Z-button lock-on of sorts would have helped a lot. Picking up tires or trash cans and tossing them at evil henchmen is a video game standard at this point. We were impressed by smacking the soda machine for a few cans of carbonated health and then finishing off the exact change eating monster with a few roundhouse kicks. Then there's the destruction of the ATM so that you can use the freed monitor as a handy projectile to knock the bad guys' blocks off. When you're not using any part of the environment to whoop @ss, you'll have a variety of punches, kicks, combos and a health depleting power move that should be used sparingly.
CONTROL
The control is easy enough to manage and it just takes some practice to coordinate your reaction time with the character reaction time. More than once, we would hit a button to execute a move and the bad guys would beat us to the punch, literally. Special moves can be executed with a combination of A, B and the Z trigger. With Hawk, we sometimes had trouble with the safe flying kick or shoulder rush and the life force draining super spin kick. The button combos for each of those moves are similar but a little to unreliable for our tastes.
The same-screen two player cooperative mode is a welcome sight to have on the N64. However, after a few times of getting pummeled while being hidden behind a wall or truck, you may just opt for a solo adventure. Even though there can be a problem with the camera ending up in a bad place, with plenty of practice, you and a buddy should be serving up justice like some pros.
GRAPHICS
We've already mentioned the sluggish controls but the characters themselves look pretty good. There's a little too much slowdown and PSX-style jagginess going on at times but that could be due to the overall dated look and design of the game. Remember, graphics in nearly all games have gotten better in the last few years. It can be hard to figure out exactly what items you're picking up as you advance through the levels. The pistol looks a little flat while it's on the ground and it can be hard to tell if you're using a 2x4 or a baseball bat on your opponent's noggin. The overall graphic presentation is accurate to the original game but just nothing outstanding.
SOUND
The punches and kicks sound fairly typical with different sounds for misses, hits and direct hits. The screeching tires, gunshots and bazooka blasts all sound pretty good and add to the gritty tough guy feel to the game. There is some weird futuristic midi battle music that keeps you company along the way that will really make you pull your hair out if you're exposed to it for too long. We figured this went with the whole apocalyptic no-hope-in-the-future theme of the game, where you as a hero have to overcome that dark soulless feeling in order to save some hope for the future. Either that or it's just easier to jam into the cart.
THE VERDICT
Core and Crave managed to put together a fine version of a game that was a lot of fun a few years ago. While this is an accomplishment, it just seems like it comes too late to really get excited. It's not the game's fault that it was dropped from its original publisher, Eidos, when it was so close to completion last summer. But, with FF64 finally here, the buzz has been completely wasted and a dated, predictable fighting game just has too much working against it to really fly like it could have just a year ago.
TRULY A RARE MOMENT IN GAMING, AS AN ALREADY BAD GAME GETS WORSE!
by Jeremy Dunham - January 11, 2000
You'd think that in a day and age where production values in digital entertainment have reached such terribly high levels, that genuinely bad games wouldn't be made anymore. Below average, sub-par, sure, we can accept that -- nobody's perfect. But when you take the developer responsible for Tomb Raider, one the biggest phenoms in videogame history, and pair it with the most powerful console currently available and still can't produce a redeemable product, you have yourself some problems. Fighting Force 2 is that problem.
Granted, the first game for Nintendo 64 and PlayStation wasn't that good either. A mindless, button-mashing rental at best, the original Fighting Force left me thoroughly unimpressed. What's worse is that I secretly wished it to be one the better games of 1997. A longtime fan of legendary beat 'em ups like Final Fight, Double Dragon, and Streets of Rage, I was looking forward to Fighting Force. After all, with a distinct lack of games in the genre, I had hoped it could recapture my imagination. Unfortunately, my wish didn't come true.
So here it is just over two years later, and Core and Eidos once again take their stab at the "lone bad-ass with fists" genus. On the plus side, there have been some big improvements in console titles over the last two years, which left me to hope that this sequel would easily overshadow the original -- besides, how could it not? Sadly, I was wrong.
There are so many uninspiring aspects of Fighting Force 2 that I don't know where to start. I suppose it should be with the main character, Hawk Manson. Apparently borrowing his look from Duke Nukem, Hawk fits the part of vigilante pretty well. Unfortunately, his ability set consists of only a handful of moves. Yes, martial arts fans, you can jump, punch, and kick with little variation and that's about it. Of course you can pick up various weapons throughout the game (axes, guns, and the like), but for the most part they aren't any more effective you're your fists. Talk about disappointing.
Also disappointing are the enemies. Pretty much the same couple of guys in different colored clothes, you run into the same idiotic bastards throughout the "adventure." What's worse is that they all have the constitution of a Bad Dudes crony. Nail a guy two or three times with your mighty foot 'o destruction and he's a pretty much goner. It doesn't matter what level you're on or how many enemies there are, If it moves, you can abolish it in seconds. Not really fun.
The only time I had actually difficulty pummeling a foe, was when I was trying to put him in my line of sight. Using a modification of the popular Tomb Raider engine and its overhead view, the game's camera is an exercise in frustration. No matter which pad you use (analog or digital) turning around to look at something behind you without your point of view drifting off in one direction or another is almost guaranteed.
Speaking of the camera, it clips like a hairdresser. Constantly trying to adjust itself so that you can see the onscreen action, it commonly creeps into a nearby wall to produce that all too familiar "through the dirty looking glass" view we grew accustomed to in the early PlayStation days. At least what you can see is fairly attractive. The graphics are by far the only saving grace I found here (and even those are occasionally marred by shadows so dark, finding your way through a stage can be trying).
Also to the game's credit, most of the surrounding objects are interactive, and can be examined or destroyed. Strangely though, whenever you hit something it blows up Die Hard style. Huh? I don't know about you, but I haven't run into too many exploding air vents in my time... but that's just me.
THE VERDICT
I walk away from Fighting Force 2 thinking about what it could have been, instead of what it is. Flawed, unentertaining, and a step backward for fans looking to recapture Final Fight's magical gameplay -- you can definitely find much better than this.