| Product: |
BackTrack (GBA) |
| Date: |
15/11/01 (58 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: Floor System replaces traditonal levels, Funky Weapons, Botmatches
Disadvantages: Limited textures, No terrain Elevations, Multiplayer Character system limiting
From the launch of the GameBoy Advance people have been questioning the ability for FPS games on the console. When ID announced DOOM for it and showed it off at game venues, people fell silent. Since then loads of companies are releasing FPS games for the console. Along with DOOM there is one called 'ECKS VS SEVER' which looks cool, and Backtrack. Well, those two are a way off yet, (2 Days to DOOM, I can't wait!!) but here we have Backtrack. Is this game too badly hyped as the first FPS, or is there a actual game here as well?
The story behind the game is this. You play Jim Track, who is called by the government to go to the moon and stop a nefarious alien warlord, who has hijacked the BSBODSOM project (Build Secret Base On Dark Side Of Moon). He is taking humans from earth and assimilating them into cyborgs to use in his assault on earth. Ok, so you have heard better plots, but there are quite a few games with stinky plots that succeeded.
One of the most interesting things about this game is the way it is structured. Instead of Levels in the traditional sense, where you start at the beginning, fight though, kill a boss then go to an exit, the game is split into 12 floors of the space station. Each floor is accessed by different lifts, and the object of the game is to rescue all the hostages, kill all of the cyborg/alien scum and destroy the base. The interesting thing is that where you start the game is also where you finish it. The teleporter behind you as you start the game is also where you need to get back to when you finish the objectives. This is quite interesting and makes the game seem more fluid than having separate levels. Also, the weapons are all pretty jolly. You have got your pistols and you machineguns, but more interestingly a aerosol can, a slingshot and a vacuum cleaner. All work well and are perfect for killing alien hordes. The controls are also well done. Despite being hard to control at first (When were FPS games on console
s easy to control?) you do get used to it. The direction button moves and turns, the shoulder buttons strafe, A fires and B cycles weapons. Select pauses and opens the menu, and Start opens the map. This map is very useful as it is easy to get lost on some of the larger floors.
Also on the up side is the save system. Until now most GBC/GBA games used a save point system or passwords. This game uses a 'save anywhere' system. There are two save slots. One is the permanent Cartridge save, and is kept until replaced. There is also the Temp-save, which is a second slot, which is lost when the power is switched off. Newbies may save to the temp slot by accident and switch off, but this is easy to get used to.
However there is a down side, a big downside. The levels are poorly textured, with just the odd light here and there, and the ceiling is not textured at all. The enemies, although seemingly well animated only have one pain sprite, which is shown each time you hurt them. This is a little lazy, compared to the screen shots of DOOM i have seen and could have been improved. the sounds are mostly good, but the noise of your characters feet on the floor is irritating, and you cannot turn it off. Some of the enemies do not make noise at all so it is hard to know where they are. Also, there are no terrain elevations. All the action on one floor of the station is all on one floor (literally). There are no curved corridors, no stairs or ramps to be traversed, and this is a little limiting.
One of the buzzwords with the GBA is multiplayer. While this game does not have any cooperative modes and only 6 multiplayer maps, it has a weird system of play. In the multiplayer modes there are no weapons to collect. Instead there are 5 different characters to choose from, each with their own weapon. While nice on the surface this system is a pain, as it reduces the amount of weapons to use in the game. The modes available are Deathmatch and Matrix Assault wh
ich are basically identical only in Matrix Assault the idea is to get 4 frags with each character. In the game however there must always be 4 players playing, and the computer will fill the gaps with bots. You can play 1-3 bots, 2-2 bots, 3-1 bots or 4-0 bots. This means that you can play botmatches, which are loved by PC owners who love botmatches on Quake 3. While the character system is limiting, the botmatch play is good as the AI is quite intelligent.
Some people have said this is really a GBA version of Wolfenstein 3D and they would be right. But you could not take Wolfenstein anywhere, and I think the floor system works a little better than in Wolfenstein, and the weapons are a little more interesting. This game is fundamentally a stopgap between the other FPS games. While only a stopgap it is a good one, and if this is a start then the future will be bright with FPS magic.
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