Time Crisis: Razing Storm is a shooter that comes with two other games: Time Crisis 4 and Deadstorm Pirates. All three games are shooters, but theoretically Razing Storm allows for more environmental exploration, only not really.
It’s not actually a rail game like the others, but the environment you can explore is fairly narrow. Instead of a rail shooter, it’s more like a hallway shooter.
And there is a plot to Razing Storm. A crazed dictator escapes from prison and then he does bad things. At first it seems like it’s going to be a straightforward, commandos go after the bad guy game. After the prison, you’re on a HMMWV driving through what looks like the streets of Kabul or some equally war torn place. It’s all shoot, shoot, shoot with your military buddies and it makes sense until the alien looking steam punk monster appears in the distance and suddenly you’re in an episode of Wild Wild West.
I understand that game logic is not the same as real world logic, but come on. Sadly, Razing Storm is the best of the three games.
In Time Crisis 4, you play what can only be described as a club kid with a gun that is supposed to be a detective. You and your club kid/detective buddy are out to stop terrorists from using weapons of mass destruction that look like bugs from destroying the world. Or something. Who cares? You’re stuck on rails. As far as I can tell, the primary purpose of this game is to give the player tendonitis.
Deadstorm Pirates actually looks fun when you first see it. Unfortunately once you start playing it and realize that you’re shooting the pirates with laser sights, it loses some of its charm. Once again you’re stuck on rails shooting, shooting, shooting. Periodically someone yells for you to help, but you can’t actually move. You just get transported to the new place to shoot. As with Time Crisis 4 the only real control you have is over which weapon you’re using. To make it more realistic you have to reload, which in a game like this is just a laughable nuisance.
The saving grace of this game is the multiplayer feature because it’s always more fun to play mindless games with a friend than it is to do it alone.
The other thing about online play is that because you’re chasing other characters the game ends up with better pacing. You don’t have to constantly shoot as you search for other players or try to take cover from their fire.
Time Crisis: Razing Storm is compatible with PlayStation Move, but it doesn’t really take full advantage of the Moves capabilities, you’re just using it to point at the screen and shoot.
It’s also compatible with PlayStation Eye AV chat, which always makes Network play more fun. Offline play is available for up to two players. Network play allows for up to eight players. Even though multiplayer mode is better than single player mode, it hardly saves this title. It’s not worth its sticker price.
Games like this are best left to the coin operated arcade machines, where you can happily play for ten minutes while you’re waiting for your party to be called or for a lane to be available.
Editor’s Note: Game reviewed on a PS3.