Do you have what it takes to enforce Chicago?
| Platform | OVERALL |
|---|---|
| Xbox | 4.50 |
| Overall | 4.50 |
|
Chicago Enforcer, a first-person shooter from Kemco – the publisher who brought the world Superman 64 – is one of those games that is infamous for being poor, even though no one has ever played it. Well, I have now played it to completion and I can say that Chicago Enforcer is not bad, though at the same time there is nothing good about it either -- other than it's four hour length. Set in 1930's Chicago you have access to some historically correct weapons (and two that are not), and as a low-man in the mob you are tasked to perform “missions” that really don't involve much more than walking through a level shooting enemies. Levels are either interior or exterior, the former are repetitive and bland, while the exterior settings are large and nondescript. The streets seem to be five to eight times wider than they would be in real life which contributes, along with their emptiness and silence, to the feeling of being in a canyon. There are a few (very few) civilians in the streets, along with a high number of police officers. Should you kill a civilian the game ends which, while morally admirable, is historically inconsistent as well as difficult to avoid given that the civilian NPCs animate and resemble the police characters. The police AI is poor, as evidenced by the way they routinely ignore the slaying of their brothers in arms. They will walk right through the fast-fading bodies of their colleagues. Other times they will run toward you in response, only to stop half way before reaching you to turn back and return to their beats. Despite what you may have heard, the game controls well and the weapons are suitable and effective. Given the poor AI there is little reason to use anything but the shotgun in a melee fashion, except for a few times that require use of a hunting rifle. Strangely, the game makes very little use of sound, which creates the affect of being in a library. The “cut scenes” as they were, use the in-game engine, and are notable for the way in which the developers assiduously avoided animating the character faces by having the characters turn away from the camera while talking. If such a device were to be used in a play or movie, it would be curious and thought-provoking, in this game it's just hilarious. As you approach the end of the game you are told that you will finally meet Al Capone and that once you have freed him from his captors you will be “ready for your final mission”. Freeing Al Capone involves walking through floors of a hotel opening doors and shooting the occupants. Once you do get to meet Al Capone you must then escort him back through the re-populated hotel to the ground floor. When you turn around in a corridor to see if he is following he doesn't appear until there is a cloud of smoke for him to appear from, or a corner from which he can run-around. It is puzzling as to why it was so difficult for the developers to have the character follow you, given that from appearances, despite the reality, he seems to be a 2-D sprite with four frames of animation. Once you do get Capone his freedom and are ready for the promised “final mission” the credits roll and the game ends. Perhaps the developers anticipated a sequel. Chicago Enforcer is worth playing as an exercise in critical evaluation or to see what PC games were like 5-6 years before the 2005 release of this game, but other than that this game provides a callow experience in an empty and silent environment. It is not as bad as you have heard, at least not for the reasons given, but it is not an enjoyable experience either. The score given should be interpreted as, “mediocre with points deducted for length”. |
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Posted by aspro Sun, 19 Sep 2010 02:06:53
Recently Spotted:
*crickets*
Then it would have had at least one good point!