Back To Reviews
By Contributing Writer Jimmy Payne
Rating: Good
The original Point Blank was a decent game that offered a fairly good
time if you were willing to commit the time to it in the first place. The
areas were semi-decent and it was as close as you could get to a light-gun
shooter party game at the time. Now with Point Blank 2, the series has
been totally souped up and it’s ready to ride like a brand new car.
Speaking of cars, there’s plenty to do away with in this sequel. Along
with car shooting, there’s ninja killing, dragon slaying, vulture hunting,
and you can even cap a bunch of whiskey bottles Old West-style. The
variety of things to shoot make Point Blank 2 much more memorable than a
generic light-gun shooter in which you shoot the same few types of enemies
for the entire game.
The single-player game is something that needed a lot of help in the
first Point Blank. It takes a lot of mini-games to keep a player thirsty
for more, and even though the first had around 70 of them, it still didn’t
seem like enough. Now in Point Blank 2 there are so many games it’s hard
to count them all. There are so many mini-games that I actually welcomed
a second playing of many of them because I knew that it might be a while
until I had a chance to play them again.
Another point that needs to be made about Point Blank 2 is the fact that
the mini-games are much more in-depth than the original's mini-games. In
the first game, most of the games required you to do one thing: shoot
everything in sight. The only other kind of objective was to shoot colored
circles. This kind of gameplay leaves you with a major sense of emptiness.
Fear not, playing PB 2 can now fill this hollow pit of emptiness. Every
single game has more to do and see than ever before, and there are also
extras like special bottles that give you massive bonus points. Some of
the original games are even brought back in PB 2, but they are improved
upon greatly. For instance, in the first PB, there were levels in which
you would have to kill criminals running down the street and nothing more.
Now you have to worry about buses traveling by that carry criminals,
hostages being thrown out of windows if not saved in time, and glass that
needs to be shattered before you can take out your next victim.
No light-gun shooter would be complete without multi-player capabilities.
This is where PB 2 really shines. Up to four players can join in on the
fun while playing PB 2. Even though I haven’t had the chance of playing a
four-player game, I have experienced the two-player game, and it is so fun
and addictive that I can only imagine what playing with three other people
would be like. Two or more people can play every single-player mini-game
in PB 2, so hooking up two Gun-Cons doesn’t mean you’ll be missing out on
some of the areas. In fact, you’re gaining a whole new experience by
hooking up two Gun-Cons. Competing for first place, while trying to meet
the objectives at the same time, makes it a lot more challenging (and a lot
more fun) than playing through the game by yourself. Point Blanks 2’s
multi-player capabilities are in a class of their own and are unrivaled by
any other light-gun shooter on the PlayStation (although admittedly, it
doesn’t have much competition).
While PB 2 is a great light-gun shooter, there are a few things that
keep it from being an awesome game. First, you have to like light-gun
shooters and at least have some light-gun shooting skills. If not, then
this game isn’t for you because it will frustrate you more than it will
entertain you. Also, even though it is much better than its original,
that’s not saying a whole lot. It’s much better, yes, but there is still
much that this series needs to improve on. One suggestion is to get some
better visuals. If I see one more pixilated ninja, I’m going to scream.
This is a PlayStation game for crying out loud. The system that can handle
such spectacles as Final Fantasy 8, and all Namco can give us is a bunch of
pixilated sprites to shoot. Point Blank 2 looks a lot better than Point
Blank 1, but it's still far from graphically impressive.
All the other flaws in this game were things that plague every light-gun
shooter. These flaws included minor slowdown, and of course it’s
inevitable that at some point the game will simply get old and boring.
But hey, it was a wild ride while it lasted. Even though it’s no Time
Crisis 2, I recommend Point Blank 2 to light-gun veterans and anyone else
with an itchy trigger finger.
© 2001 ivan@mastergamer.com