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14-04-2006, 04:38 PM
Developed by: RockStar Games (http://www.rockstargames.com/)
Reference Site: Nintendo Games Page (http://www.nintendo.com/gamemini?gameid=m-Game-0000-1172&)
Genre: Action Car Battles
Memory Blocks: 3
Players: 1 to 4
Release Date: Aug 12, 2002
Smugglers Run: Warzones was one of the first titles to be released for the GameCube. It was made by RockStar Games (http://www.rockstargames.com/), the same people who brought you the Grand Theft Auto series.
When playing this game, you will find that the movement is very smooth. That is the one thing that stands out in Smugglers Run. Four players can play this game simultaneously, and the gameplay will remain baby bum crack smooth throughout the game.
The basic premise of the game is that you are a smuggler, shockingly enough. And, as expected, you must smuggle items into and out of secured areas. There are 30 single player missions to complete, and once you have completed them, you unlock more units. However, I still haven't managed to unlock the final unit (the hoverbike). It's just too hard to get a perfect rating on all the missions and cheats do not help at all. So consequently, a unit of this game is unlockable.
GRAPHICS Score:76%
They graphics are okay in this game. The one thing that ruins it is the constant motion blur you have to put up with. They have offered no option to turn it off, and considering that most of the game is spent at high speeds, you can well imagine that most of this game is a blur.
The wide-open environments are pretty cool though. There are massive levels that take five or so minutes to cross at high speeds. Massive mountain ranges and crumbling ruins. This game has quite a bit to explore. However, when everything is blurred, it all tends to look the same.
Unit details are pretty good. There are plenty of skins to choose from when playing multiplayer and most of the time, you can tell the units you're fighting against apart easily. This game has a very smooth feel to it, despite the constant motion blur. At no point will you notice the Cube lagging behind.
SOUND/MUSIC Score:14%
The sound in this game is just awful. I have no idea how they decided to create the effects for this game, but all the sound effects are muted. You can hardly hear your engine sounds and when you crash, the sound effects wouldn't even wake a light sleeper. Forget weapon sounds, or any of the cool things you would expect. For instance, hitting a cow and sending it flying doesn't even register. The cows don't even notice, as their legs and bodies don't even move, so why WOULD they make a sound when you hit them. What a waste!
The music also is hardly audible. And, from what I could hear, this isn't a bad thing. Forget the awesome music from the GTA series, RockStar haven't put any effort in here whatsoever. Don't get me wrong, I understand that due to the context of the game, most music genres are inappropriate. But, still, having said that, they could have done a much better job here then the bland effort that has been provided.
MULTIPLAYER Score:89%
There is surprisingly, a few multiplayer modes in this game. Despite the usually waypoints races, you have another three different multiplayer game mode. And, co-op is available in this game, which is rare.
You can play in teams in games such as bomb tag, and deliver the package. But, you can also play this multiplayer games by yourself against bots, another surprising addition.
However, some of the games can get very stupid and annoying very quickly. For instance, playing deliver the package mode. All you have to do is touch another unit to steal the package, and most of these games are decided by speed rather then any other attribute.
(RE)PLAYABILITY Score:42%
I don't play this game much as it hurts my eyes (from the constant motion blur) and I feel that I have wax build up in my ears (from the constant muting effect). There have been a few times when I have pulled the game out when friends are around and we have had a cracking good time, but it hasn't been often.
In single player mode, forget it. You will play through this game once, and once alone. You may try to unlock that last unit, but, you will give up after a while. There are so many other great titles out there to waste your time on than this one.
I dusted this title off, to brush up on my review for it, after playing it for twenty minutes, I had no desire to keep playing. This was after 3 years of not playing this game, so I think that's a pretty good indication that you won't be playing this game much.
CONTROLS Score:88%
Controlling your car is easy. No hassles here, and you will have a ball hitting all the jumps in the road and launching your car into the air. On a side note, big air is to be found in this game. If you use the ATV trike up a hill, boost, and then boost again in the air, you will be flying upwards for 10-15 seconds before starting your descent. I've even managed to blow up a unit with the force of hitting the ground at one point.
Crashes are easily managed and the weapon system is very easy to pick up. One quibble I have with the weapons was that they don't recharge, and there were no pickups you could get to re-charge your weapon stores. The only way to re-load on weapons is to die and re-spawn your entire unit. This, to me, is a huge waste in gameplay as it just sucks that there are no pickups, or that you have to die, to maintain your weapons.
ATMOSPHERE Score:48%
Due to the motion blur and the crappiness of the sound the game doesn't maintain an effective atmosphere. I believe that the developers were trying to covey a feeling of urgency and danger in this game, but the smooth gameplay also helped to kill that. This game looks fake, sounds fake and most importantly of all, feels fake.
And the unit that cant be unlocked just serves to annoy me even worse. As a general rule, I have unlocking things in a game because I paid money for that game, I should have everything that the game has to offer me at my disposal. If they want to make things unlockable, then they should charge less for the game at the counter, because you are not receiving a fully functioning game. I understand the concepts as to why game developers use this feature, but it has been abused way too much, and this game is a cracking example of when it can backfire.
ScreenShots
http://forum.zgeek.com/gallery/files/6/1/6/smugglers-sc3_thumb.jpg (http://www.zgeek.com/forum/gallery/showimage.php?i=17528&c=209) http://forum.zgeek.com/gallery/files/6/1/6/smugglers-sc2_thumb.jpg (http://www.zgeek.com/forum/gallery/showimage.php?i=17527&c=209) http://forum.zgeek.com/gallery/files/6/1/6/smugglers-sc1_thumb.jpg (http://www.zgeek.com/forum/gallery/showimage.php?i=17526&c=209)
Welcome to blurville, population....YOU!
OVERALL Score:62%
This game is only really worth getting if it's on special for a really cheap price, and you love multiplayer gaming in any form. Do not get this game if your looking for a great car game like Vigilante 8.
This is a waste of a good games potential due to rushing it through the development process to meet the release dates for the consoles. This game could have been so much better, with so much more to offer. I still laugh when I see this game on eBay advertised as an "Absolute Classic for GameCube!"
Yeah right.
Reference Site: Nintendo Games Page (http://www.nintendo.com/gamemini?gameid=m-Game-0000-1172&)
Genre: Action Car Battles
Memory Blocks: 3
Players: 1 to 4
Release Date: Aug 12, 2002
Smugglers Run: Warzones was one of the first titles to be released for the GameCube. It was made by RockStar Games (http://www.rockstargames.com/), the same people who brought you the Grand Theft Auto series.
When playing this game, you will find that the movement is very smooth. That is the one thing that stands out in Smugglers Run. Four players can play this game simultaneously, and the gameplay will remain baby bum crack smooth throughout the game.
The basic premise of the game is that you are a smuggler, shockingly enough. And, as expected, you must smuggle items into and out of secured areas. There are 30 single player missions to complete, and once you have completed them, you unlock more units. However, I still haven't managed to unlock the final unit (the hoverbike). It's just too hard to get a perfect rating on all the missions and cheats do not help at all. So consequently, a unit of this game is unlockable.
GRAPHICS Score:76%
They graphics are okay in this game. The one thing that ruins it is the constant motion blur you have to put up with. They have offered no option to turn it off, and considering that most of the game is spent at high speeds, you can well imagine that most of this game is a blur.
The wide-open environments are pretty cool though. There are massive levels that take five or so minutes to cross at high speeds. Massive mountain ranges and crumbling ruins. This game has quite a bit to explore. However, when everything is blurred, it all tends to look the same.
Unit details are pretty good. There are plenty of skins to choose from when playing multiplayer and most of the time, you can tell the units you're fighting against apart easily. This game has a very smooth feel to it, despite the constant motion blur. At no point will you notice the Cube lagging behind.
SOUND/MUSIC Score:14%
The sound in this game is just awful. I have no idea how they decided to create the effects for this game, but all the sound effects are muted. You can hardly hear your engine sounds and when you crash, the sound effects wouldn't even wake a light sleeper. Forget weapon sounds, or any of the cool things you would expect. For instance, hitting a cow and sending it flying doesn't even register. The cows don't even notice, as their legs and bodies don't even move, so why WOULD they make a sound when you hit them. What a waste!
The music also is hardly audible. And, from what I could hear, this isn't a bad thing. Forget the awesome music from the GTA series, RockStar haven't put any effort in here whatsoever. Don't get me wrong, I understand that due to the context of the game, most music genres are inappropriate. But, still, having said that, they could have done a much better job here then the bland effort that has been provided.
MULTIPLAYER Score:89%
There is surprisingly, a few multiplayer modes in this game. Despite the usually waypoints races, you have another three different multiplayer game mode. And, co-op is available in this game, which is rare.
You can play in teams in games such as bomb tag, and deliver the package. But, you can also play this multiplayer games by yourself against bots, another surprising addition.
However, some of the games can get very stupid and annoying very quickly. For instance, playing deliver the package mode. All you have to do is touch another unit to steal the package, and most of these games are decided by speed rather then any other attribute.
(RE)PLAYABILITY Score:42%
I don't play this game much as it hurts my eyes (from the constant motion blur) and I feel that I have wax build up in my ears (from the constant muting effect). There have been a few times when I have pulled the game out when friends are around and we have had a cracking good time, but it hasn't been often.
In single player mode, forget it. You will play through this game once, and once alone. You may try to unlock that last unit, but, you will give up after a while. There are so many other great titles out there to waste your time on than this one.
I dusted this title off, to brush up on my review for it, after playing it for twenty minutes, I had no desire to keep playing. This was after 3 years of not playing this game, so I think that's a pretty good indication that you won't be playing this game much.
CONTROLS Score:88%
Controlling your car is easy. No hassles here, and you will have a ball hitting all the jumps in the road and launching your car into the air. On a side note, big air is to be found in this game. If you use the ATV trike up a hill, boost, and then boost again in the air, you will be flying upwards for 10-15 seconds before starting your descent. I've even managed to blow up a unit with the force of hitting the ground at one point.
Crashes are easily managed and the weapon system is very easy to pick up. One quibble I have with the weapons was that they don't recharge, and there were no pickups you could get to re-charge your weapon stores. The only way to re-load on weapons is to die and re-spawn your entire unit. This, to me, is a huge waste in gameplay as it just sucks that there are no pickups, or that you have to die, to maintain your weapons.
ATMOSPHERE Score:48%
Due to the motion blur and the crappiness of the sound the game doesn't maintain an effective atmosphere. I believe that the developers were trying to covey a feeling of urgency and danger in this game, but the smooth gameplay also helped to kill that. This game looks fake, sounds fake and most importantly of all, feels fake.
And the unit that cant be unlocked just serves to annoy me even worse. As a general rule, I have unlocking things in a game because I paid money for that game, I should have everything that the game has to offer me at my disposal. If they want to make things unlockable, then they should charge less for the game at the counter, because you are not receiving a fully functioning game. I understand the concepts as to why game developers use this feature, but it has been abused way too much, and this game is a cracking example of when it can backfire.
ScreenShots
http://forum.zgeek.com/gallery/files/6/1/6/smugglers-sc3_thumb.jpg (http://www.zgeek.com/forum/gallery/showimage.php?i=17528&c=209) http://forum.zgeek.com/gallery/files/6/1/6/smugglers-sc2_thumb.jpg (http://www.zgeek.com/forum/gallery/showimage.php?i=17527&c=209) http://forum.zgeek.com/gallery/files/6/1/6/smugglers-sc1_thumb.jpg (http://www.zgeek.com/forum/gallery/showimage.php?i=17526&c=209)
Welcome to blurville, population....YOU!
OVERALL Score:62%
This game is only really worth getting if it's on special for a really cheap price, and you love multiplayer gaming in any form. Do not get this game if your looking for a great car game like Vigilante 8.
This is a waste of a good games potential due to rushing it through the development process to meet the release dates for the consoles. This game could have been so much better, with so much more to offer. I still laugh when I see this game on eBay advertised as an "Absolute Classic for GameCube!"
Yeah right.