Jack
The levels are also broken up by some well thought out mini-games, interrogation scenes and the trademark multi-screen split and distinctive digital clock countdown, all mirroring the shows look and feel. Now for the expected bad news, 24:The Game has some god awful driving sections. These sections just don’t seem to have had the time spent on tweaking them that the rest of the game feels it has.
The handling is poor and SPOnG really feels that someone at Sony should have convinced Cambridge Studios to remove these sections before the game's release – it would have taken away the one major gripe about this game and not put a dampener on what is a very well put together game for the loyal 24 fanboys. And there are a lot of 24 fanboys out there. SPOnG cannot quite remember many other TV show that has generated such a large, dedicated fanbase as 24. Well, of course there is Star Trek... but that's a different matter altogether.
Also, 24: The Game does suffer, like most third-person action games, from the occasional bad camera angle, a bit of dodgy collision detection and at times sluggish controls, but none of these points take away from what is, ultimately, a very fun, engrossing experience.
To give too much away in terms of plot and the way the story unfolds would be like someone telling you what happens in next weeks episode of the actual show. To get the best out of the game you really have to play through and enjoy the twists and turns as the story, written by the shows writers incidentally, progresses.
If you have never watched a full series of the TV show 24, you probably won’t get much from 24: The Game as you would from a bunch of other similar titles. But, if you have all four of the DVD box sets, and your week isn’t complete without the next episode of series five just around the corner then this is a highly recommended title where you really can ‘live out’ 24 hours in the life of Jack Bauer.
SPOnG Score C
If you like the TV show, then you'll get a kick out of 24: The Game. If you ain't seen the TV show, then SPOnG would advise you to go buy that instead.
