alcatraz (2010)
Matthew Cash
We've all played a cookie-cutter FPS game at one point. To make this very blunt: This is one of them. Released by our favorite standard FPS publisher City Interactive (Sniper: Ghost Warrior?), here's Alcatraz.
The story is simple. You're this ugly dude (seriously bad character model) with a standard voice for European budget-titles (I've heard this voice somewhere in one of those games) that doesn't fit him and your job is to go into the mercenary-controlled former prison city of Alcatraz and eliminate them. There. Nice story, huh?
But gameplay isn't any more original. With only around 5 or 6 guns through the entire game, you just shoot the enemies in a whole bunch of narrow walkways (kinda like... a corridor? but outside and occasionally inside) and do what your superiors command you to do. All the time. This is where the game resembles Dead Space because you just go from Point A to Point B. It's annoying and unoriginal, showing that the developers gave no thought to the objectives and story. Other than that, it's standard FPS fare.
Oh, and it all lasts for about 4 hours. If you want more details on a cookie-cutter game like this, look at the Terrorist Takedown 3 review.
City Interactive doesn't seem to care that all of the games they publish or develop SUCK. However, they are usually quite fun so I'd recommend this game a go, if only to appreciate better created games that much more.
Score: 4.5