I started out with the Story mode to test out the “off-rails” version of Time Crisis: Razing Storm. It’s more of a first person shooter in this mode. You aim with the PlayStation Move and maneuver using the Navigation Controller or DualShock 3/Sixaxis controller. I ended up using the later because I don’t have Navigation controller.

There are green icons scattered all over the stage and they are called “G Action” points, which is a cover system. You activate it by going up to it and pointing straight up in the air quickly. When you do this you take cover behind the object for safety and you can reload if you wish. To exit cover you point the controller back at the screen.

I found this annoying honestly. Because sometimes I didn’t do the motion quick enough or did it when I saw “G Action” on the screen but still didn’t work because I wasn’t standing right on the green icon. If I failed to do it correctly I found my character looking into the sky. Sometimes when I desperately needed cover I couldn’t get it to work fast enough and this lead to my tragic death quite a few times. This would have been better suited to a button press. But at least you can adjust the sensitivity for this motion in the settings. You can press L1 to lock onto enemies, which is very helpful. It centers the screen onto the enemy and highlights them.

All my teammates in the story mode acted like they where in junior high, cracking lame jokes. I think they where Tron fans due to their glowing blue uniforms. They aren’t much help either, you might as well be playing it solo.

There was this enemy in the story mode called a raptor, which reminded me of the gekko in Metal Gear Solid 4. It even had a roar that was similar. The last boss even reminded me of a “metal gear” lol. It was a fun last battle.

There are 4 stages total, but it’s a lot longer than the arcade mode by far. It does offer some variety weapon wise. You have a assault rifle, machine gun, sniper rifle, spear gun, balero cannon, grenade launcher, vigum, mounted machine guns. My favorite was the spear gun, it was very satisfying to pin an enemy to a wall.

There is also online multiplayer, which uses the same control scheme as the story mode I mentioned above. It seemed like everyone else loved the spear gun as well. But I would recommend you not play this until you have gotten really used to the controls and the cover system. Game types include: deathmatch, team deathmatch, capture the flag, king of the hill. Pretty much all the weapons from the story mode you can use or unlock in multiplayer.

The online community for this is rather small sometimes I couldn’t even find anyone to play with! Which is not good for a game this new. But the times I did play online it was ok. No lag that I noticed really. There are “kill cams” so you can see how you meet your doom.

The arcade is what you have come to except from time crisis over the years. It’s a on rails shooter. You can play with a friend and even have online ranking enabled. The environments are fully destructible and you get to use some pretty powerful weapons from time to time as well. It did have a unique part where you have to snipe enemies from the roof tops. There is infinite continues so you will get threw it eventually. If your a fan of Time Crisis you’ll like it. But overall it was shockingly short. I was surprised when it was over. I thought to myself .. that was it?

Another mode to try out is Sentry. Where you play as a sniper in a fixed position and you have to take down escaping prisoners, rebels and shoot bonus items. You press the move button to zoom in. It’s a challenge, it will take some time to master this.

The real hidden jem is actually Deadstorm Pirates another on rails shooter. Which actually requires you to install 3500 MB in order to play it. But it’s worth every MB! I had more fun playing this over all the modes in Time Crisis: Razing Storm honestly.

You take the role of a pirate with a golden gun, which has the power for unlimited ammo and never having to reload apparently. But don’t think because you can just hold the trigger and spray bullets all over that it’s easy. It still takes skill to get threw this. There are power ups and treasures you can shoot. At certain points you have to pick out of 2 or 3 treasure boxes and if you guess right you get some health back.

At certain points you get to shoot cannons to take down other ships and enemies. There are also segments called “Wheel Action” where you have to rotate your controller in a circle to either steer pirate ships or dodge enemy attack. It’s very fun. Took me several times to beat the whole thing. Might have been easier with a friend though. There are 5 stages in all and of course you can play with 2 players.

There is also the arcade version of Time Crisis 4 if you have never played that before. So in closing you get 3 games for the price of one. If you have a Guncon 3 you can use that in all the games which is a nice plus for those that have it. Story mode is worth trying, but takes some getting used to so be patient. Is this worth buying? Sure if you enjoy this genre but I wouldn’t pay full price for it.

[review pros=”3 games for the price of one
Support for Guncon 3

Deadstorm Pirates!” cons=”Story Mode Controls are bad
Razing Storm Arcade too short” score=70]

*All game modes played for review purposes

This review is based on a retail copy of the PS3 version of Time Crisis: Razing Storm provided by NAMCO Bandai Games.