Let me just start by saying that this is my first review of a game. I was curious to see what others thought of this game then discovered that it hadn't been reviewed yet (for XBox, anyway). So, I may as well let you know what I thought!
This review was edited Oct 13th, 2004.
The game Alias is based off of the ABC hit series Alias. The show is about Sydney Bristow, an agent for the CIA. She gets sent on missions all over the world to collect information and to stop the bad guys. Sydney's main enemies are Sloane, Sark, and Anna. All 3 are gathering pieces of artifacts that are supposed to be put together to form "The Machine." Which is apparently some doomsday weapon. In the game, you're trying to stop them and get the pieces.
The game is essentially the same as the show. You play Sydney. Sydney gets briefed on missions by her father, Jack Bristow. Her coworkers, Dixon and Vaughn sit in as well and offer other information. Marshall, the gadget guy, shows her all the gadgets she will be using. All of the missions in the game are interconnected, meaning, mission 1 in country 1 leads her to mission 2 in country 2, mission 2 leads her to mission 3 in country 3, etc. There are 11 different missions to complete. To complete the missions, Sydney must use a combination of stealth, speed, and martial arts. There is a very limited access to guns in this game as CIA field agents apparently need to carry so much other gadgetry that guns get in the way. Sydney can pick up guns from guards but they are automatically dropped when the ammo is out. There is access to bottles, cans, pans, brooms, and tasers to use in fighting; however, these weapons break down after usage.
I LOVE the TV show Alias. My husband wanted an XBox, so I thought I should try the game.
the gameplay
For those of you interested, this game is rated T for Teen.
This game is a third-person Action.
Action games don't suit me. I hate dying in games... it frustrates me. What's bad about this game is that you can't save anywhere you want. I decided later on that it's not a terrible thing, makes it more exciting. There are save points throughout the missions pretty close to place where you might die, so it's easy to get back up on your feet and start again.
You know what else I don't like about action games? Too many buttons to memorize and action sequences to figure out. This game has those, but you don't have to memorize fancy button sequences to kick some butt! You can do a lot of fancy moves, most of which I didn't have the patience to learn. However, there are 2 main action buttons, so hitting those over and over will get you through all the fights. Most of the action is kicking, but Sydney can throw punches, flip off walls, sneak up behind people and do one of 2 different stealth attacks (so other enemies wont be alerted), and she can do a bunch of other moves that I don't have the names for. There is a 'stealth mode' so Sydney can sneak around without being heard and it is used to do a stealth attack. I find in this mode she walks too slowly and by the time I get to an enemy I'd like to stealth attack, he's already turned around and spotted me.
Gadgets! Just like in the show, you have a bunch of fun gadgets like a lock pick, remote modem, etc. ANNND you get to change disguises! Usually each mission you only get 2 different outfits, an outfit to match your alias and your stealthy black outfit.
There are 3 different vision modes: infrared heat mode (you can see bodies of enemies through objects), night mode (you can see your enemies when you're outside at night), and normal.
The cameras work really well. The right thumbstick controls which direction you're looking in and the left thumbstick moves your character.
The game features quite a few missions that Sydney takes on, pretty much by herself. There are 2 missions where she needs to find her partner (usually you can just follow a compass on the screen to find him) to get gadgets or maps. Usually Sydney already has all the gadgets she needs and will have to search the location she's been put in for maps.
One twist I enjoyed was when I got to play Vaughn (her boyfriend on the show/coworker) for a while, he has all the same moves that Sydney does, but at least it's a change in scenery!
I bought the game about a month ago and just finished it. I took a few breaks from it and cheated a little bit (reading walkthroughs for hints online when I got stuck). I'm sad it's over, it's not one of those games you can play forever (like the games my husband plays on the computer for years).
Graphics
The graphics in this game are decent. The locations are suitably lit for the type of environment. For example, the museum location was bright, but the warehouses are dim. There wasn't anything special about the look of the locations.
What I didn't like about the graphics is that when the characters speak, their mouths don't synchronize to what they're supposed to be saying. It's like watching a puppet talk. I figured video games have at least advanced enough to be able to match mouths with speech.
The characters' faces and bodies in the game are very similar to those of the actors on the show (Marshall, Dixon, Sloane, Sark, Sydney, Vaughn, and Jack). The only ones that don't look like their characters from the show are Anna (Gina Torres) and Caplan (Christian Slater).
sound
The voices of Christian Slater and Gina Torres weren't used in the game, which is probably why the game character didn't look like them. All of the characters' speech was acted very well, as well as they do on the show. Most of the actors are American, except two of the main enemies are British and Russian. All the other enemies (guards, etc) have accents that match the location (Russia, China, America, etc).
All in all, I enjoyed the game, but maybe wouldn't have spent so much money on it. At least I can try and resell it on amazon!
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