As you might expect from a sports/FPS hybrid, the multiplayer component is fairly central to the basic premise, but it's also where we found the main source of ho-hum-ness. The Live multiplayer games work OK, and system linking multiples Boxes is all good [if you so happen to have lots of tellies and consoles and cable]: but when you take away the AI element, there's just much less to be impressed about. It then becomes more akin to other FPS team battle modes, and Halo 2 onliners, enjoying superior arena competition, will be left cold. It's a difficult point to put across, but we feel that Tournament Paintball works best as a way for a single, offline player to emulate the same sort of Live multiplayer experience of other, better games. Its own Live mode is entertaining enough, but if you've got Live, then you'll surely prefer the more obvious choices, and this will be left rotting on the shelf like that Satsuma from Xmas 1998.
On balance, GHTP does what it's attempted very well, the graphics are nice, if occasionally a little too functional, and everything runs smoothly; but there’s that nagging doubt that it just hasn't attempted enough. The most notable, glaringly obvious omission is the lack of a split-screen multiplayer mode. Although this would have made obsolete the hide'n'seek nature of the competitive matches, a split-screen co-op option could have worked nicely. And when you do make those sports games comparisons, the fact you can’t actually have more than one player in a standard offline setup seems almost absurd. It also means that the longevity of the single player game is severely hampered. Unless you’re taking it online there’s not that incessant incentive to practise that other multiplayer sports games like, say, Pro Evo or Virtua Tennis proffer so generously.
There's a plethora of international playing fields, indoor and outdoor, and apparently brand-name paintball equipment upgrades available, and you can customise your players to a certain degree, but ultimately that is just the prerequisite icing on a rather shallow cake. And that sums up the whole game nicely. A pancake with icing on might be a bit of a stupid idea, but it is an original one. And although it might not catch on, it’s pretty sweet while it lasts.
