Here's something strange for you to mull over: a first-person shooter that replicates the dubious thrill of those creaky old steady-hand skill games where you have to guide a loop of metal around a rusty old coat hanger without shaking and touching the metal. The action and story line of The Sum Of All Fears is based loosely around the events of the so-so movie, while taking its gaming inspiration from previous Tom Clancy games, only it's been dumbed-down so much that it even gives you a line on the on-screen map to follow to remove any brain effort.
FEARFUL FIRST-PERSON Compared to many of the recent first-person games on PlayStation 2 like TimeSplitters 2 and Red Faction 2, The Sum Of All Fears really isn't very good. Still, as the first Tom Clancy game on the system you get loads of stuff that you won't find in other console shooters. You work as part of a team for one thing, and can select the type of supplies you enter the mission with (different kits make the missions play out differently), as well as the team-mates you take along with you. Unfortunately, also thrown into the mix are lame visuals, a stuttering frame-rate, shocking enemy AI and the sense that you're being babied through the action rather than ever being fully in control. And if you're expecting any mission planning strategy like in the Rainbow Six games, get ready to be sorely disappointed as there's none on offer here. Boo.
Your squaddie team-mates are so dense, we wonder how on earth they graduated from military training. Fortunately, you're not up against criminal masterminds as the terrorists exhibit even less intelligence than your idiot buddies. Only on the most difficult setting do the enemies buck up their ideas.
As if a trained fanatical terrorist wouldn’t spot you from this close up. Honestly…
Stiff challenges like climbing stairs confuse your buddies, who bump into each other
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