Minority Report
Posted December 5, 2002
The Plot:
It's remarkable that a thought-provoking, intelligent and beautifully crafted movie can turn into...this. Given that this game is an adaptation of a Steven Spielberg film, I'm also greatly surprised that it's evident that no input from the filmmaker looks to have been offered. For those unfamiliar with the film, it started Tom Cruise as John Anderton, a police officer in the future who is the head of the Precrime unit, a force of officers who go on leads that are given to them by a trio of psychics. In other words, they attempt to stop crimes before they are even committed. When Anderton himself is accused of potential violence, he runs, setting out to prove himself not guilty.
The film was more of a drama than an action movie, but the game is just another brawler where the player must take on wave after wave of characters, which often include other Precrime officers who are trying to do their job. Although action games are fine (and this one does have a fair amount of fight moves and a few inspired weapons similar to the ones found in the film), but there doesn't seem to be anything to this game aside from trying to push buttons fast enough to take on the swarms of officers who are trying - from all sides - to contain your character. Strangely, there are some instances where you must fight the opponents present in a room and stretches where you can simply run past everyone and proceed. It's also annoying when the opponents are firing at you off-screen. The game proceeds in a straight-forward fashion, with Anderton mostly running through halls and around fairly basic rooms.
Tom Cruise reportedly does not license his likeness out, so it's understandable that the character in this game looks nothing like him and, in this case, is much older in appearance. The plot is altered from the film, although this game doesn't really stop to explain the story very much, which adds to the disapointment of the game as a whole being less about thinking and more about fighting (to the point where it seems too far removed from the tone of the film). Given the movie and the story, I really had high hopes that this game would be an intelligent drama with some stretches of intense action, but it's simply a lot of very repetitive, basic fighting.
The game is rated "T" (teen) for constant fighting.
Gameplay:
The controls aren't too bad and are really the best thing about the game. It's easy - maybe a bit too much so - to take on most of the opponents in the game, but the amount of them makes for irritating gameplay that's more about pushing buttons quickly than any sort of strategy. This is especially an issue when you're trying to pick up an opponent to throw them and several others try and attack you while you're trying to pick someone up.
Graphics:
The graphics are as bland as the gameplay, which is truly unfortunate, given how much thought and effort seemed to be put into constructing the look of the film. Anderton runs around in generic settings and the characters have very little detail. Textures are flat and the settings are often sparse, aside from a few minor additions here and there. To make matters worse, there are quite a few areas where the gameplay slowed down and appeared choppy, even when it didn't seem that busy. The most vivid looking thing about the graphics are the neat stun rifles that are often used and the wavy effect that they make, although that wavy effect also makes it difficult to see what's going on on occasion. When there was a bunch of officers standing around firing, I almost wanted to just give up. Last, but not least, the camera occasionally got stuck behind walls and the cutscenes offer graphics that aren't too far away from the disapointing level of the graphics found in the rest of the game. For a game based on such a major, big-budget film, the game looks surprisingly mediocre.
Audio:
The sound is worse than the visuals. Although the actor who voices Anderton doesn't do too bad a job, the goofy line readings that the other actors offer are almost funny at times. Other than that, there's a rather forgettable score and occasional sound effects, but very little in the way of subtle detail or ambience.
Conclusion:
I'd like to think that someone played this before release and went, "Gee...this isn't very good", but I'm guessing that it was thrown together in time to be released near the film's video/DVD release in December. Seek out the film instead; although the DVD is half the price of the game, it provides an experience many times more entertaining. I'd otherwise lightly recommend a rental of the game, but there are plenty of other titles that should instead get attention during the holiday season.
It's remarkable that a thought-provoking, intelligent and beautifully crafted movie can turn into...this. Given that this game is an adaptation of a Steven Spielberg film, I'm also greatly surprised that it's evident that no input from the filmmaker looks to have been offered. For those unfamiliar with the film, it started Tom Cruise as John Anderton, a police officer in the future who is the head of the Precrime unit, a force of officers who go on leads that are given to them by a trio of psychics. In other words, they attempt to stop crimes before they are even committed. When Anderton himself is accused of potential violence, he runs, setting out to prove himself not guilty.
The film was more of a drama than an action movie, but the game is just another brawler where the player must take on wave after wave of characters, which often include other Precrime officers who are trying to do their job. Although action games are fine (and this one does have a fair amount of fight moves and a few inspired weapons similar to the ones found in the film), but there doesn't seem to be anything to this game aside from trying to push buttons fast enough to take on the swarms of officers who are trying - from all sides - to contain your character. Strangely, there are some instances where you must fight the opponents present in a room and stretches where you can simply run past everyone and proceed. It's also annoying when the opponents are firing at you off-screen. The game proceeds in a straight-forward fashion, with Anderton mostly running through halls and around fairly basic rooms.
Tom Cruise reportedly does not license his likeness out, so it's understandable that the character in this game looks nothing like him and, in this case, is much older in appearance. The plot is altered from the film, although this game doesn't really stop to explain the story very much, which adds to the disapointment of the game as a whole being less about thinking and more about fighting (to the point where it seems too far removed from the tone of the film). Given the movie and the story, I really had high hopes that this game would be an intelligent drama with some stretches of intense action, but it's simply a lot of very repetitive, basic fighting.
The game is rated "T" (teen) for constant fighting.
Gameplay:
The controls aren't too bad and are really the best thing about the game. It's easy - maybe a bit too much so - to take on most of the opponents in the game, but the amount of them makes for irritating gameplay that's more about pushing buttons quickly than any sort of strategy. This is especially an issue when you're trying to pick up an opponent to throw them and several others try and attack you while you're trying to pick someone up.
Graphics:
The graphics are as bland as the gameplay, which is truly unfortunate, given how much thought and effort seemed to be put into constructing the look of the film. Anderton runs around in generic settings and the characters have very little detail. Textures are flat and the settings are often sparse, aside from a few minor additions here and there. To make matters worse, there are quite a few areas where the gameplay slowed down and appeared choppy, even when it didn't seem that busy. The most vivid looking thing about the graphics are the neat stun rifles that are often used and the wavy effect that they make, although that wavy effect also makes it difficult to see what's going on on occasion. When there was a bunch of officers standing around firing, I almost wanted to just give up. Last, but not least, the camera occasionally got stuck behind walls and the cutscenes offer graphics that aren't too far away from the disapointing level of the graphics found in the rest of the game. For a game based on such a major, big-budget film, the game looks surprisingly mediocre.
Audio:
The sound is worse than the visuals. Although the actor who voices Anderton doesn't do too bad a job, the goofy line readings that the other actors offer are almost funny at times. Other than that, there's a rather forgettable score and occasional sound effects, but very little in the way of subtle detail or ambience.
Conclusion:
I'd like to think that someone played this before release and went, "Gee...this isn't very good", but I'm guessing that it was thrown together in time to be released near the film's video/DVD release in December. Seek out the film instead; although the DVD is half the price of the game, it provides an experience many times more entertaining. I'd otherwise lightly recommend a rental of the game, but there are plenty of other titles that should instead get attention during the holiday season.