Game | | The X Files - Resist or Serve | Format | | PS2 | Publisher: | | Vivendi Universal | Release date: | | Out now |
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Why now? That was the first thing that came into my mind when a copy of this game came my way for review. I thought the X Files were just a distant memory but it seems that somebody thinks there's life in the old dog yet and produced this latest slant on what surely is an exhausted franchise, but maybe I'm about to eat humble pie. Have they got something new and innovative to show us after all these years or is it gonna be more of the same tired old puzzle/adventure format that we've all seen so many times before?
I'm not going to hold out much hope for this one. After what seems like ages of cut scenes and poorly executed FMV you finally get to some action. It's here things sadly appear to get a little familiar.
The first to notice is that's it is going to be hard to review this game fairly and subjectively without giving more than a passing nod to the acclaimed Resident Evil series as this game owes so much in both style of gameplay and feel it's hard not to feel like you're playing nothing more than a updated copy. Levels and missions are based on supposed X Files and playing as either Mulder or Scully, players must investigate the various surroundings in order to solve increasingly devious clues. Apart from some of the cut scenes, graphically this looks really impressive and plays quite nicely. The controls are OK and seem suited to the fairly undemanding gameplay that's required here. There's some good exploratory value to be had with some of the environments being petty detailed making some items and clues a little more tricky to spot. Due to the slow nature of the gamplay, walking around aimlessly searching for clues and popping the odd zombie does become a little tedious.
Where as games such as Resident Evil and more recently Silent Hill and Project Zero have a genuine feel of tenseness and anticipation to them, things here can feel a little too scripted and linear taking away from the experience. What you get is not all that bad, it's not a bad game and more hardened X-Filers will probably get a lot more from it than I did. I thought it was all a bit familiar to really grab my attention. For fans of the programme this is worth a passing glance but for serious fans of this particular genre, there are better games out there.
5/10 Thrice Nightly Whiteley | 
