Time Crisis 4

Plot

The game opens in California, where intelligence officials from both the U.S. military and the paramilitary V.S.S.E. organization learn about a top secret weapon targeted for terrorists' smuggling and their plot. William Rush infiltrates a pier to gather more information, and finds that the enemy has already acquired the insect-like weapons (codenamed "Terror Bite"). After being told by Elizabeth Conway about an information leak incident at the airport, Rush then heads to the airport to help VSSE agents Giorgio Bruno and Evan Bernard who had been sent to stop the weapons trade. They escape the airport by helicopter only to find out that one of the terrorists behind the weapons trade, Marcus Black, is escaping by truck. Giorgio and Evan shoot the two rear tires of Marcus' truck with a sniper rifle and secure it from enemy attack before facing Marcus himself. After killing Marcus, they discover U.S. Army dog tags on the enemies' bodies, meaning that they are not terrorists, prompting them to "do some more investigation".

The "terrorists" are revealed to be the Biological Weapons Special Operations Unit (AKA the Hamlin Battalion). After Rush escapes from the collapsing dam, he, Giorgio and Evan fly to Wyoming's secluded bio-weapons research facility, where after defeating Jack Mathers, they soon learn that the Hamlin Battalion is attacking Buckley Air Force Base near Aurora, Colorado, prompting the men to rush to the AFB. As Rush, Giorgio, and Evan invade there from the outside, a couple of Unmanned Combat Air Vehicles or U.C.A.V.s depart the base without warning. Rush decides to lead the Colorado National Guard toward an entrance while Giorgio and Evan try to take care of the UCAVs. They also encounter V.S.S.E.'s old enemy Wild Dog in the base who, in addition to his standard hand gun, gatling gun and RPG, is now armed with a grappling hook and tractor beam device. After a long battle, Giorgio and Evan defeat him, ending with Wild Dog detonating himself once again. Meanwhile, Rush encounters and defeats Wild Fang, Wild Dog's younger partner from the previous game, and throws him into the path of a UCAV as it lifts off.

It is revealed that the Terror Bites' creator, Colonel Gregory Barrows ordered the nuclear-armed UCAVs to destroy the United States in a retaliation scheme for the poor treatment he received from the U.S. military. After Giorgio and Evan kills Barrows after a intense battle at the destroyed stairs and the UCAVs control center, Rush and his unit form a human pyramid to lift Giorgio and Evan into it to stop the missiles, where the agents press a big red button on the control computers to self-destruct all nuclear missiles that the UCAVs have already launched.

Background

The game was first shown at E3 2006 prior to its recent final revision arcade release. One major change is the addition of the multi-screen or multi-hiding system, introduced in Time Crisis: Project Titan. Unlike Project Titan, which players went on the offensive, players are placed on the defensive. In Project Titan, players had to hide and shoot arrows to switch screens. Screen switching has been refined to allow the player to merely point the gun outside the screen to move around. The game also utilizes a new light gun control with infrared emitters. Prior to this, all Namco light gun games used gun controllers that relied on cathode ray timing. Because Namco's light guns with cathode ray timing utilized memory chip-to-lens pointing, the arcade cabinet designers had to ensure that the infrared-emitting light gun controllers would provide the same accuracy as their cathode ray timing-based gun provided in the past. This delayed the game's release given past accuracy issues with IR light guns. The player can choose to customize gun calibration and/or turn the blowback on or off with a pre-game code explained in the cabinet. The game, like its predecessors is available either in a 29" standard twin cabinet or a 52" deluxe twin. It also includes the multiple weapon system introduced in Time Crisis 3, with the pistol, shotgun, machine gun, and grenade launcher, and also features new vehicle sections with similar gameplay mechanics to the Sega Arcade/Nintendo Wii shooters Gunblade NY and LA Machineguns. On several occasions, the player is equipped with a machine gun with infinite ammo or a sniper rifle used to shoot the tires on a marauding truck. Several other functions exclusive to the game includes a scene where the player must pull himself from quicksand, several scenes where a certain position must be defended, with the penalty of one life if the position is lost. On multiple occasions, Rush appears onscreen, whether caught in a trap or attacking an enemy as a diversion and care must be taken to avoid shooting him. It also features a voice navigation system that guides players through different situations. Given the voice navigation system, it can be voiced either in Japanese or English. Prior to the game, it was voiced exclusively in English.

PlayStation 3 release

The game was released for Sony's PlayStation 3 exclusively bundled with the GunCon 3 light gun peripheral, the PlayStation 3 edition features 480p (4:3) and 720p (16:9 widescreen) support and a specially-programmed first-person shooter mode, which players engage combat similar to a typical FPS game, but with manual gun pointing, aiming, and firing, in addition to the arcade mode. Players play as Captain William Rush for 5 levels and as VSSE agents Giorgio Bruno or Evan Bernard for 10 levels through the game's "complete mission", complete with arcade footages when playing as Giorgio or Evan. Much like its predecessors, it featured the Crisis Missions that has some backstories, starring star of Time Crisis characters from previous installments. The game was re-released on the PlayStation 3 as part of Time Crisis: Razing Storm, released in October 2010, with support of the PlayStation Move controllers.

Reception

The game received mixed reviews, with an average GameRankings score of 60.70%, and a Metacritic score of 60 out of 100. GameSpot gave the game a 5.5 out of 10, while Jeff Haynes of IGN gave it an 8 out of 10, concluding that it is "a fun game for any shooting fan looking to blast away with their PS3." Matt Miller of Game Informer, however, was more critical of the game, giving it a score of 4.25 out of 10, criticizing its first-person shooter mode, "ludicrous plot", and shooting mechanic. GamePro rated Time Crisis 4 a positive score of 4 out of 5, saying the games plays just like the arcade, but replayability is an issue. X-Play also gave the game a score of 4 out of 5.

One of the main key areas was the Guncon 3 controller included with the game. Chris Remo of Shacknews stated that it uses "two analog sticks for full movement and camera control, with pointer-based aiming on top" and that once "you get accustomed to it, this control actually works just fine, and feels like it could be the basis for its own game. " According to Miller, however, the controller "feels cheap," with analog sticks that are "chintzy and hard to use"; referring to the left-hand subgrip which forces the main shooting handgrip to be held with the right hand, Miller claims that the Guncon 3 "hardly accommodates left-handed players." Ryan Davis of GameSpot expressed that the complexity of the control scheme seems to contradict the pick-up-and-play mentality of the light gun genre.