Unfortunately, once you jump out on foot the game is not nearly as fun.
The primary reason for this is the awkward control scheme and sluggish controls.
You feel in complete control when behind the wheel of a car, but once you go out
on foot you'll be frustrated by poor camera angles and by how difficult it can
be to maneuver around. The game also uses an clumsy method for firing a
weapon that requires you to hold down a trigger to switch to an aim and shoot
mode, wait while you slowly rotate towards your target, and then fire in the
general direction of your target hoping to hit it.
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| Things just are not as much fun on foot. |
The on-foot sequences also suffer from the fact that they don't feel as
"real" as the driving sequences. An endless stream of goons and cops come
at you until you rack up enough kills to rank right up there with the worst
butchers of all time. The game only saves at predefined points that are
spread too far apart, so you're in an endurance match with your poor controls
and every thug with a gun in London. It's not that the game's action
sequences are terrible, it's just that they aren't nearly as good as the game's
driving sequences and cinematics. So much effort has gone into this game
to make it an immersive experience that it's too bad to see this part of the
game detract from that experience.
The team does deserve some credit for carrying the lack of onscreen
indicators to the on-foot sequences. You don't have a health meter and
must instead judge your relative damage level by observing the blood stains on
your body and watching how badly you are limping. There are no medical
kits to restore your health, so you'll need to lean against a wall and wait for
your health to recover. This might be just as unrealistic as medical kits
for bullet wounds, but it is an innovative way to keep you in the game.
The game's story unfolds over 24 missions, halfway through which you take on
the role of a cop not adverse to taking on some of the gangsters' tactics in
order to bring them to justice. The two storylines are not disjoint, but
instead show the story from two different perspectives. The technique is
used effectively in the game and further enhances the engrossing story. If
you're a fan of Guy Ritchie's work in films such as
Snatch, then you'll probably eat the story up. Once you complete
the missions, you'll unlock a free roam mode that will let you roam the streets
of London at your leisure, exploring the city and trying out all of the vehicles
in the game.
In The End, This Game Hath Been Rated:
74%. This game is worth checking out
just for the driving sequences through an ultra-realistic London alone.
However, the gun fighting action just does not deliver the same level of
gameplay.
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