Minority Report: Everybody Runs
Score: 50% ESRB: Teen Publisher: Activision Developer: Treyarch Media: GCD/1 Players: 1 Genre: Action
Graphics & Sound: Things have been looking pretty good in the world of movie licensed games. Starting with last year's great Harry Potter game, and continuing with both Spider-man and LotR: The Two Towers, its beginning to look like developers are seeing movie licenses as more than a quick cash-in. However, for every great stride someone makes, there is always going to be that one guy who lags behind. Unfortunately Minority Report is one such straggler. Running at a blistering 10 frames per second at times (or so it seems), Minority Report's graphics are about average for a GC title. Some of the environments, such as the Precrime Headquarters, and special effects look fantastic, as do the game's special effects. I was also impressed by how interactive the environments are. Enemies can be thrown through windows, tables break, chairs fall - it's all really cool. However, all the frills in the world won't cover up a poorly tailored dress. The texture quality is subpar, as are the player animations. Seeing how far things have progressed in terms of player animation, it's sad to see that companies are still using rag doll physics that allow bodies to fall in all sorts of odd positions and then get up and continue fighting. What's worse, you can throw guys across the screen. It's just silly. Minority Report sounds about average. The voice work is generally good, with only a few annoying aspects popping up from time to time. The music does a good job of fitting the mood of the game, but there is a noticeable lack of variation, as most tracks seem like the same few notes on one long loop.
Gameplay: Minority Report follows the same plotline as the recent Tom Cruise movie, minus Tom. You play as John Anderton, a Precrime Officer who believes that the system is flawless. When the FBI comes to verify the system, Anderton is fingered for a murder and runs - dead set on proving the system wrong. While there are a few deviations from the plot, these are mostly done to add a little more meat to the game. For the most part, Minority Report is your standard beat-em-up game. A few mission goals are thrown in to try and make the game look like something it's not, but to be perfectly honest you're spending about 95 percent of your time beating up people. As you go through each of the game's levels, you'll earn money that can be used to buy new weapons, armor, health, and combos on the Black Market. These help to give you an advantage in combat, but the advantage isn't much. Each level also contains multiple secrets and you can unlock different characters as you replay levels. These are meant to keep players coming back for more, but in all honesty, the rewards aren't worth the effort.
Difficulty: The AI in Minority Report is rather dumb, making for enemies who are just as dumb as the next one. Of course, when you have groups of five or more mindless dummies, you've got problems. These dummy support groups aren't the only things you have to deal with, since some of them know how to shoot a gun. While adding a considerable challenge to the game, they also come off as extremely cheap since they never miss. Boss battles are incredibly uneven. As expected, their health meters go down very, very slowly and once they get to a certain level, they always call for backup. This is manageable the first time it happens in a fight, but when it happens for a third of fourth time in the same battle, then my friend, we have problems.
Game Mechanics: When it all comes down to it, it's the control that ends up killing Minority Report. The game runs on a standard three-button attack engine. One button is your quick attack, another is your strong attack, and the final one is a throw. This is a good set up that would work, if only it weren't so limiting. Throws can only be used as the third hit in the combo, limiting the number of combos considerably. There are also times when pushing the buttons just doesn't work. There were times when I would go for a hard punch or throw and Anderton would hold his hands up and allow himself to get pummeled by an enemy. Pressing the R button brings up a Lock that allows Anderton to use weapons, and the C-stick switches between enemies. In theory this setup works, but reality is a harsh mistress indeed. The shoulder button must be depressed the entire time in order for the lock to remain and that still doesn't promise that you won't have your ass handed to you while you're trying to shoot. On a personal note, I was disappointed that 'puke sticks' weren't useable weapons. Enemies can use them, but not Anderton. Overall, Minority Report is just a ho-hum game that continues the trend of poorly done movie licenses. The production values that have been made some movie games so good just aren't here. Throw in the poor controls and bland everything else, and there's really nothing here other than a name. This might make a fun weekend rental for when you just want to beat up someone, but other than that, don't bother.
-Starscream, GameVortex Communications AKA Ricky Tucker
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