Crisis Zone: New Screens

18 of them to be precise. Looking nice.

Namco has released a bunch of new screens from its new Time Crisis game.

The arcade conversion of Crisis Zone will be compatible with G-Con and G-Con 2 light guns, once again faithfully recreating the arcade experience. The conversion will also expand upon the original, with new features and levels, most notably unique 'double gun-play' allowing players to choose whether to use one or two guns to blast their way to victory (or death).

Crisis Zone takes place in the recently opened Garland Square complex on the outskirts of London, after the heavily-armed terrorist group U.R.D.A has attacked and taken-over the area. Their motives have yet to be discovered but as elite S.T.F (Special Tactics Force) counter-terrorism officer Claude McGarren, the player's mission is to help secure Garland Square and suppress the U.R.D.A terrorists by whatever means necessary.

Armed with a bullet-proof riot shield and a sub-machine gun, McGarren must eliminate any terrorist threats encountered through environments including a shopping mall, park and office building. All the weapons can be put to great effect in the fully-destructible environments; players are able to destroy everything around them from blasting stock from shelves to burning racks of clothing with a flame-thrower, or wreaking havoc with a rocket launcher.

As with previous Time Crisis games, the action in Crisis Zone is fast and furious with enemies popping out from all over the Garland Square complex, ready to put a bullet in your skull if you're not fast enough on the draw. The level of interaction experienced throughout the game was quite high, allowing players to blast books and CDs off of shelves, shatter glass windows, shoot through doors, ceilings, metal bars, racks of clothing, and even blast items off of tables among other things while using a variety of different guns that can be obtained throughout the missions as well as new ones unlocked after completing the Crisis Missions.

In keeping with Namco's tradition of arcade conversions, the developers haven't stopped at just a simple port. While players can select to play through the arcade levels, Crisis Zone is chockfull of extra features that provide it with much greater replay value. The game features a score ranking system along with an original story mode and a new Crisis Mission mode that can lead to many unlockable goodies including extra play modes and even new enemies after completing the game. While the idea of playing with two guns may seem a little more challenging to some players, Crisis Zone provides players with the option of playing with a single gun or wielding two GunCon2s John Woo style in the double-gun mode.

While the coin-op version of Time Crisis: Crisis Zone was never really an impressive game in the graphics department due to inferior technology, Namco has seen fit to change that by enhancing the PS2 version with slightly better lighting effects, sharp looking backgrounds, and solid enemy designs. Of course as with previous versions of Time Crisis - and other gun shooting games for that matter - the sound effects are pretty good but the voice acting remains laughable at best.

Adam Doree & Joseph Jackson
Poppin caps in yo ass.