Publisher: Activision, www.activision.com
Ages: eight and up.
Parental Advisory: Fight game
If you or your kids liked the Minority Report movie, the video game may have caught your eye. However, be warned. Excellent movies rarely translate into great games and
Activision's Minority Report is no exception. Based on Steven Spielberg's futuristic thriller, the game evokes the PG-13 movie and offers its amazing settings, advanced weapons, devices and environments, but only offers adequate gameplay.
In the game, you are precrime officer John Anderton who heads an elite police force in the year 2054. As the team commander, you hunt and stop criminals before they commit crimes. But when the tables turn and Anderton becomes the wanted fugitive, you have to survive and clear his name. The action in this game consists of lots and lots of fighting, and little more.
While the game's settings and premise resemble those of the movie, the characters are different-a limitation on the movie's licensing. The game also takes the plot in a different direction and disregards intriguing aspects from the film that could have translated into compelling game elements.
As a result, Minority Report serves some 40 levels where you battle human and robotic enemies with hand-to-hand combat moves, and various weapons that include riot shotguns, concussion rifles, electro-pulse grenades, and more. The goal is to simply fight and survive to the end.
While the setting is compelling, unfortunately, the action becomes repetitive and even tedious. A negative, the opponents are much alike, and the game doesn't offer many options beyond punching, kicking, using weapons, and applying a few combos. And because you have to start at the beginning of a level each and every time your character dies, you'll find yourself doing the same things over and over. On a long level this is a pain. The graphics are quite good and do an admirable job of recreating the movie. But for great fighting action, you'll probably want to go elsewhere.
1/27/03 www.daytrum.com Editorial Staff
