PS3 Review: Time Crisis: Razing Storm

Can Time Crisis make the most of Move?

Time Crisis: Razing Storm is your typical game in the series, but with added Move support. It has 3 games and online multiplayer added, so what can go wrong?

Absolutely everything, unfortunately. The classic arcade style mode can be breezed through in no time thanks to being able to continue by pressing a button, it also offers little challenge due to brain dead AI. There is a story mode which oddly turns Time Crisis into a FPS that uses the Move controller to work like FPS’ on Wii like Metroid Prime Trilogy or Red Steel, but with very little polish. This too can be completed in just a few hours and is very poor with its clichéd plot, forgettable characters and yet again, dumb AI.

You do get Time Crisis 4 and Deadstorm Pirates to play with too, which makes it look like a good deal, but these games are also weak. The online multiplayer only has a handle of maps and suffers the same problems such as terrible controls and forgettable gameplay. It’s also painfully bad to move the camera round, no matter how much you adjust the sensitivity of the controls.

You would think that Move would improve something like Time Crisis, since TC4 was such a disappointment…especially with that ridiculous gun and sensors you had to place on the TV to make it work. It seems that Namco haven’t learned anything, but tried to mimic western FPS like COD with very poor impact.

I don’t know why they chose to take this path when just an extended, smarter arcade mode would have been a million times better than this. Improve the AI reaction speed, make them use their weapons more and tighten the controls = a much better game. As it stands, this is the poorest Time Crisis game I’ve come across. It’s also weak visually and makes very little use of the PS3 hardware. Voice-acting is terrible and the script is incredibly cheesy.

The Verdict

Time Crisis: Razing Storm is the weakest title in the series to date. It makes little use of the Move hardware and takes the game into areas where it just doesn’t work. It doesn’t need to play like an FPS with weak controls and dumb AI. It needs to be your typical arcade game, but with a challenge and AI that is smarter than the British public for keeping Wagner in X Factor. Avoid this and wait for the next arcade shooter that will make better use of the system.