Gun Com 2 PS2 Review

Light gun games have become a lot less popular over the years. Perhaps it's to do with the weakening arcade market due to better games being on offer for the home consoles or whether people are just over having to buy a game then a gun to play a game which lasts about three hours. Time Crisis has managed to keep it up but recently a game was released at budget that may just have you dusting that G-Com 2 off. It's not the best light gun game around but it does give you another reason to use the G-Con.



The storyline of Gun Com 2 is fairly cliche. The main characters mother is kidnapped by a hybrid race of aliens and humans. So you and your sister have to go and try to find your mother and stop this race getting hold of the Crimson, a gun when used in the wrong hands can destroy the world. Extremely cliche but what light gun game doesn't have a cliche storyline?



The gameplay is very much reminiscent of time crisis. Completely on rails and you just shoot things over and over again. The game does allow you to use the G-Con gun but for those who don't want to buy one or don't have two for multiplayer, the dual shock works just fine. This really is a very basic light gun game and all you do is move through rooms shooting things. One thing which is a letdown is that the rooms don't transition very well. When the 'rails' move into a door there is a load screen rather then moving into the new room ala time crisis. This gives the impression that the game was built as a number of scenes and then joined together with load screens.



Another extremely weak aspect of the game is the enemies. Don't expect high detailed characters because you're not going to get them. The enemies are quite repetitive but again thats to be expected they just don't seem to work together. It feels as if they were all just thrown in to be enemies without much consideration put into where and when they appear. The developers also went over the top on reflective surfaces. Looking at the cut scenes it really is a disappointment as the engine and graphics used in the cut scenes are quite impressive while the game itself is closer to a PSX then PS2 game.



As with most home light gun games some additional modes have been thrown in to lengthen the game. You can play in the mission mode where you can start in any of the five missions on offer, even if you haven't reached them in the single player mode. Another mode known as bullet time has the aim of finishing a level using the least bullets possible while Time Mode basically introduces a timer into the game.



As mentioned before the visuals are quite disappointing, looking closer to a PSX then PS2 game. The textures just seem all wrong and some of the enemies are just made up of blobs with mouths and legs. It's hard to go to over the top with criticism for this game because it works and its budget but its not a game that will make you want to play because of the graphics. The gameplay is fairly good though.



Gun Com 2 is a budget game in every aspect. Budget graphics, budget gameplay, budget sound, budget everything. With that said it is a budget title so it should hardly come as a surprise. It's a game that really is only of use to those with a light gun who need another game to dust the old peripheral off.