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Techtite's PC Game Reviews! |
"To say that Contract J.A.C.K. is riding on the coattails of Cate Archer would be flattering; this game is more like dog droppings stuck on the heel of her shoe." ---from the review
----------------- Sidebar : -----------------
Hey, look at that small batch of pixels! Isn't that Cate Archer...? Yeah, we can presume it is...possibly. Maybe. Kinda. Still, game designers promised us a major cameo by Cate in this game, if just to better link this game to the No One Lives Forever series. This possibility is further teased at, when a voice for case is accredited in the game manual. Instead, we get a voiceless, blink- and- you- missed- it shot of Cate as we drive by in the back of a truck. How small is this "cameo"...? Well, let's put it this way: this is a real-size photo of Cate's "appearance" in the game, taken from a 1024x768 screen shot. Given the resolution and screen shot quality, this is the best you'll see of Cate in this game. So much for prequels; the belle of the ball isn't even on board! ----------------- Feel free to contribute. As always, review submissions are accepted! ------------------
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Contract J.A.C.K.
Click picture to order this game (PC/windows version) A Techtite ReviewWhat the heck is this? I'll tell you one thing: this ain't "No One Lives Forever," friend. Even if sold as a bargain-priced mission pack to No One Lives Forever 2, this would be a very poor man's add-on disc. No real story, no real puzzles, no secret documents to search for and the suckiest ending of any game I've seen in years...? What...is...this? Such is the feeling when playing Contract J.A.C.K.; "The Official Prequel To No One Lives Forever 2." First problems, first: if this is supposed to be the "official" prequel to a spy game, why isn't Jack a spy...? Furthermore: heroine Cate Archer is not in this game at all, or at least not in a legitimate cameo (see sidebar). I can see why they'd tinker with a new character, but couldn't the belle of the ball be given a more suitable cameo than "Oh that girl on the side of the road as we quickly drove past looked just like Cate"...?
As stated earlier, Jack is no spy. He is a simple assassin, making this a boring "bug-hunt" shoot-'em-up. Yes, the game designers told us this game would be less of an adventure story and more of a first person shooter, and yet when someone says "shooter" these days, certain ideals are anticipated. There have been many superior shooter games in recent years (Thief, Deus Ex, Splinter Cel, GTA Vice City, and yes, No One Lives Forever, to name just five), so a salute to the "shoot everything moving" games back in the days of Doom...? That just doesn't cut it anymore. Simply put, this game is grossly lacking: no puzzles, no alternate solutions to a mission, and no sense of adventure in this over-glorified shooting arcade. Bang...bang...bang...game over.
This all culminates in an ending that is not only abrupt, and not only sucks; it is the singular worst ending I've ever seen in a game since the adventure games of the early 1990's; i.e., the games that almost single-handedly destroyed the entire adventure game genre. Anyone remember Man Enough...? Quest for Glory 3...? The 11th Hour...? So bad is this ending, I initially thought (and hoped) that the credits that begin to roll were some sort of joke. They aren't. Even a tacked on clip after the credits does not save the suckiness of this crapfest of a finale. It's as if the game designers don't want you to think you wasted your time; they want you to know you've wasted your time. Point taken. Am I being too harsh here? No. If this game was sold under any different label, without "No One Lives Forever" on its box cover, it would be put on a bargain bin shelf overnight, right next to Die Hard Nakatomi Plaza and CIA the Operative. Instead, someone wants gamers to think this farce is anything like No One Lives Forever. Wrong. That was a game with an evolving storyline, cinematic cutscenes, ingenious AI, fair difficulty arcs (i.e.; when you shoot a whole round of bullets into an enemy, they die), and a lead character with an actual background story, not a bland cipher. The bottom line is, this is a cheap sales stunt to attempt to sell a mission pack to fanboys of No One Lives Forever, with no real reason to believe this is even slightly close to that series. To say that Contract J.A.C.K. is riding on the coattails of Cate Archer would be flattering; this game is more like dog droppings stuck on the heel of her shoe. My advice to the game designers: Wipe your feet before entering your offices, please, and give gamers the prequel --or sequel-- we all deserve.
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Burnout
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Miss
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Impact
The
story: Jack is hired by Volkov; who sad to say, it my least favorite of
Cate's long list of nemesis. This is a guy who'd have to get up
pretty early in the morning to fool anyone with
half a brain. So, yada yada yada, Jack meets Volkov at 5:00 PM and agrees to
be his new patsy.
It
would help if the gunfights weren't so unintentionally humorous.
Remember that B-grade action movie, Commando,
when Arnold Schwarzenegger pushes his arch-rival into an electric fence...?
The
enemy wiggles from electric shocks for several seconds, yet quickly jumps
back into the fight as if nothing happened(!). These gunfights are a lot like that.
I'd shoot what seemed like a whole round of bullets at an enemy, only to
find him still shooting at me as I ran past seconds later. There are times when even a sniper rifle to the head didn't slow them
down. I'm a big fan of the Black Knight in Monty Python and the
Holy Grail --"Ha! Simply a flesh wound! Have at you!"-- but
this is pushing it.
As for levels, there isn't much
here, and what's here isn't even what the game box promises. "10 single
player levels"...? Try seven. Yes, two levels are on the moon, though
these two cool levels are far from worth the price of the entire game. As for
mission difficulty; at one point you need to pour water on a fire, if that
counts. Oh, and in case you're interested; clipping problems abound. I would
never blame the Jupiter game engine on this --the same engine that helped
make 