X-Com Enforcer Review

Imposters will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of GR law.

I think I’m gonna sue! Has the idea of truth in advertising gone the way of

the Daikatana fan? Was I high and passed out from

a Pez

overdose when the geeks rallied together and voted that a game’s title isn’t

required to have anything to do with the game that’s in the box? Probably, but

that’s beside the point.

When you hear the word XCOM, you should

think aliens, depth of gameplay and strategy. Infogrames’ new XCOM: Enforcer

has one of the three: aliens, and they are legion.

Somewhat in the vein of Serious Sam and Duke

Nukem, XCOM Enforcer is a straightforward third-person shooter that

pits players against a horde of unfortunate looking, AI-less extraterrestrials.

After the shock wore off that this game has nothing to do with the XCOM

mythos, I began judging it purely as a product in and of itself…which led

to the inevitable conclusion that throngs of enemies are cool, but lame level

design, an overly powerful main character, lackluster visuals, ear-wrenching

sound and annoying gameplay make for a shooter that is anything but fun. It’s

just downhill from the start.

Don’t expect much of a story. The game opens with a scientist (he wears a

lab coat, so that qualifies him) telling you, the Enforcer robot, that he has

no time to explain anything other than “You were created to save the world from

these invading aliens!” The he dies, and the game starts. End of story. Wow.

Didn’t know they were hiring monkeys to write game plots these days.

While the story is most definitely substandard, the gameplay is just barely

passable. Over Enforcer‘s 30 missions, players will traverse cliché areas

such as a trailer park, shopping malls, industrial science facilities, a metropolis

and more.

During your adventure you will spend all your time blasting through the game’s

20 different enemies with a multitude of armaments, such as flamethowers, shotguns,

bladed projectile guns, cannons, missile launchers and many others. Some of

these weapons are cool and interesting, and you’re sure to find a favorite.

But Enforcer manages to make it irritating by only allowing you to carry

one weapon at a time. I guess pockets weren’t included with this model.

Confined to toting a single firearm in a game that has respawning weapons littered

throughout every map sucks like a Kirby Vacuum on the highest setting. Just

as soon as you snag the heat of your choice, you’ll start fragging and dodging

and inadvertently pick up another weapon. More often than not, it’s something

you really don’t want, like the flamethrower (more like ‘lamethrower’). This

is really annoying. Why can’t I carry more than one weapon? Or how about adopting

the Counter-Strike way of storage?

You can’t pick up another weapon of a certain type (primary or secondary) unless

you drop the current weapon you are carrying. No such luck in XCOM: Enforcer!

Upon their

death, the otherworldly creatures leave behind little doohickeys called data

chips. Yes, you heard me correctly – not blood, not lost limbs nor squishy alien

bits – these aliens leave behind data chips. You use these stupid data

chips to purchase weapon and item upgrades.

This would be a cool feature if it were needed, but you can go through the

entire game with a first level weapon and still kick much ass. The Enforcer

is just to damn powerful. Every weapon kills aliens with incredible ease. And

since there is no AI to worry about, all you need are a few evasive maneuvers

while mashing that left mouse button and it’s victory lane. Way too simple!

Speaking of simple… I don’t mind if developers use another game’s engine. In

fact, I prefer it. Rune, Deus Ex,

Heavy Metal: FAKK 2 and many others have successfully

tweaked established game engines into new forms. But if it’s not done right,

you disgrace the borrowed engine, its designers, yourself, your family and the

Shaolin temple.

Enforcer has got to be the worst use of the Unreal engine that

I have ever seen. The framerates are solid, but textures are not very detailed

or vibrant and everything has this weird green tint to it. I guess it’s an alien

thing. I just wouldn’t understand. This might be a decent console effort, but

we expect more from PC games in the 21 century.

Enforcer‘s one redeeming quality is its multiplayer support. While not

as much fun as playing Unreal Tournament,

XE does offer a decent online experience (Cooperative or Deathmatch).

Also, at the official XCOM website you can download maps and skins to

help up the interest quotient.

Still, XCOM: Enforcer fails in too many ways. It’s not an XCOM

game by any means; at least, not in the way any veteran gamer has come to know

XCOM. But what is worse is that it’s not even an adequate shooter. You’re

much too powerful, rendering the action moot. The basic gameplay is rather annoying,

the game looks shabby and to top it all off; the infernal thing is 30 whole

dollars. Serious Sam, which is a much better game, is only $20. This

might be a good example of what some teenager could do with the Unreal

engine, a Commodore 64

and 2 sticks of chewing gum, but it’s a poor example of a good game.