Developer: Cavia Inc
Publisher: Koei
Genre: Shooter
Region: NTSC
Format:
Release Date: 25 Apr 06

Score 10 (Best) 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 (Worst)

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Overview

Well today we are checking out a game from Koei Games that I have to be honest with you all I was shocked to hear there was going to be a sequel. Most of the time if the first game isn't successful, the chance of a second is pretty slim, and thus I thought we would never hear from the likes of the Winback series ever again. The original Winback was initially released on the N64 and later onto the PS2, with both having minimal impact. So could there be light at the end of the tunnel for the series? Read our full review of Winback 2: Project Poseidon for the Playstation 2 to find out.

Gameplay

One of the things that sounded intriguing about Winback 2 was that in the years since the original, there have been huge strides made to better the action/strategy market. Especially games like Winback in which you control a three man squad made up of Craig Contrell, Mia Cabrera, and Nick Bruno. The game never tries all that hard to throw a story at you, and in fact seems to opt against the notion of doing so. So to write it down would probably be just a waste of time, because I doubt anyone who plays this game will see any reason to care.

Each mission is broken up into stages, and this is where you get to use the "team" work portion of the game. Now this may sound interesting, but in all actuality it is not as well thought out as you would hope. The game does not manage to use this "team" idea to its advantage. This is mainly due to the poor level design, but we will get to that later in the review. Going on with the theme of "team" work, the team elements of this game works with using one member of the team to go complete a task in order to help another character get through that portion of the level.

The action is what I would consider standard third person action, with nothing really thrown to add any extra incentive to the game. Winback 2 uses very easy mechanics that keep things a bit too far on the simplistic side. But then again the mechanics have no need to be complex, because the AI is just so dumb founded in all situations that at times you just will take out enemies without any problems whatsoever.

The biggest problem I had with Winback 2 was not so much that it was a bad game, but more so that it never decided to go after anything new or original. Not only that, but everything that this game does do, has been done much better in countless other games. Everything in this game loses flavor as fast as bubble gum.

Graphics

Visually the game struggles less than in the gameplay department, but at the same time that doesn't necessarily say a whole lot. Visually however it does suffer from being too much like every other game we have seen before, and this is shown with a lot of the environments found in the game. I would have loved to see more detail and more depth to this game. We are so late in the PS2's lifecycle that it is disappointing to see a game that looks like it was developed at the beginning.

Fun Factor

Winback 2: Project Poseidon is one of those games that could have been a lot more, but it never managed to get to that point. What instead you are left with in Winback 2 is just a standard and unfortunately dull game that just quite plainly lacks all ingredients to a fun game right out of the gate. You can just see when playing this game that it is missing key elements to bring players into the game, like a story and new gameplay innovations. Instead we are left with an unexciting dull gaming experience.

Overall

It is unfortunate to see a game with the potential like a Winback 2 to do as poorly as it did on this outing. What is even more surprising is that even after the pretty average original Winback, the developers couldn't put it together and make a great sequel. Instead we are left with an extremely bland and uninspired third person shooter.

Gameplay
5.0

Graphics
6.0

Fun Factor
4.0

Overall
5.0

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