Fox Hunt

When full-motion video CD-ROM games first came to video gaming, they were crude at best. Press a few buttons, watch some grainy video and go on to the next stage. The FMV fad stagnated, and companies ditched their FMV projects as if they were month-old severed heads.

Of all the companies that have produced FMV games, Capcom is probably the last name you could possibly think of, but Capcom is responsible for Fox Hunt. The company that made Street Fighter famous has turned out this full-screen, full-motion video adventure. Even more surprising is that Fox Hunt isn't as bad as some of the FMV games of the past. It won't replace Mega Man or Street Fighter II on the Capcom lineup, but one Fox Hunt beats 10 Supreme Warriors any day.

The plot is very, very shameful. If you've seen the movie If Looks Could Kill, then you should be familiar with it.

You play as Jack Fremont, an unemployed TV aficionado who runs into the strangest high jinks known to film. It plays out like a B-movie, but it's well-written and funny in all the right places. If Fox Hunt was a movie, I'd be sitting in the theater giving it the Mystery Science Theater 3000 treatment. The acting is decent, but in some scenes it's just plain cheesy or sickening.

Since the game is fullscreen, the video quality is really grainy. This is probably due to the compression factor-the game has a huge amount of video that fills three CDs.

During gameplay you'll find it's difficult to tell when exactly you can interact with the video. A red box appears in the upper right-hand corner of the screen when you're required to press a button or move with the control pad. Choose the wrong direction, and you'll be sent plummeting into a wall, or meeting Frank, a guy who just so happens to want you dead.

Control is pinpoint; you can hold the direction that you want to go, and don't have to press it at the exact time it's needed like in Dragon's Lair or Space Ace. The video is sometimes choppy, and sometimes poorly placed together, but it adds to the cheese factor of the game.

You can't choose weapons, or drop items that you picked up, which is a minor concern. While fighting, you can't brandish a knife that you had picked up earlier. Probably this would have increased the number of CDs that the game would have taken up, and three is enough. It wouldn't have been bad to have seen a smaller video window to allow more interactivity during play.

While the world doesn't need more FMV games, it's good to see Capcom make one that isn't as bad as Corpse Killer or Double Switch. Fox Flunt has a lot of humor and the game laughs at itself, which is something other FMV games haven't done yet but probably should.

Gamer's EDGE

In the hospital, you'll find Jack strapping on a pair of jet-powered skis to a wheelchair cruising around the halls. Maneuver your way through, looking for the elevator door that is about to close. Run into it and ride the elevator down a floor. Once you've escaped from two levels of the hospital, you're home free!

Frank is a hired gun who makes no secret about wanting to kill you. Make a wrong move or slip up, and you'll run into Frank who will take you out. The first time you meet Frank, be sure to turn to your left and jump out the window. Once out the window, you don't need to jump, so sit back and watch the action unfold.

Fox Hunt is an action/ad venture-based spy thriller in which you are thrown into the world of Jack Fremont, a normal guy who finds himself in unbelievable circumstances. Your many missions will have you searching for missing launch codes, snatching a briefcase full of money and diamonds, avoiding being killed and if you feel like it, getting the girl. Oh, and you only have 24 hours to save Los Angeles from the missile pointed at it.

Players who are already preparing themselves for a "follow the guided-line adventure" where you need only to sit back and watch the story reveal itself as you hit a few buttons, should get ready to inspect Fox Hunt more closely. There are multiple paths allowing players to gather information, make real-time decisions and battle the bad guys. There are more than 20 different action sequences that will have you fighting hand to hand, skiing, snowboarding, racing and shooting while careening at high speeds through a maze of tunnels among many other actions. The game also features 10 different outcomes based entirely on the player's actions and chosen sequence of events during the riddle-solving process.

Control revolves around the use of the number pad for directions and the enter key to select the object in front of your face that you want to use. The loading sequence between frames is quick and will keep your attention tuned to the screen while the new info is accessed off the disc. All of the movements and actions are cinema-based.

Accessing different items in your environment will require a player to click on an object multiple times to get all the information out of it (such as the answering machine). Most of the actions are designed to make the game feel non-linear and above all to entertain the player with humor and sarcasm. While some of the events are actually useful in your mission, these occurrences are few and far between.

For players just skimming over this article because they are not interested in PC games, be forewarned: Fox Hunt is soon going to be available for the Mac, PlayStation and the Saturn. Fox Hunt is Capcom's chance to prove themselves as a leader in full-motion video games. If FMV is your style, you can't afford to pass on this one. With this much effort put into the title, players are just waiting to be impressed. Let's see what the game delivers.

Fox Hunt represents a major change of pace for Capcom. This interactive game's story line spoofs the spy-thriller genre. Timothy Bottoms and George Lazenby star.

As the game's hero, you must make real-time decisions, choosing between multiple gameplay paths as you gather information and clues to further the plot. Revving the action are more than 20 fighting or action sequences where you battle villains. The gameplay includes chase scenes and skydiving, shooting, and skiing scenarios. And, yes, the screens you see here are from the game: Fox Hunt incorporates more than three hours of movie footage shot with 16-mm film.

Fox Hunt, a major change of pace for Capcom, is a humorous interactive-movie game that spoofs James Bond spy thrillers. The story line revolves around a spy-thriller adventure starring Timothy Bottoms and George Lazenby.

As the game's hero, you must make real-time decisions and choose between multiple gameplay paths as you gather clues to solve the plot. To rev the action, Fox Hunt adds more than 20 fight and action sequences where you battle the villains. The gameplay includes skydiving, shooting, chase scenes, and skiing. And yes, these screens are from the game, which incorporates more than three hours of movie footage.

The "interactive movie" isn't the most popular genre in the video-game industry, as no one seems to have been able to reconcile full-motion video and good gameplay.The supposed "marriage between Hollywood and Silicon Valley" seems to have proven both trite and illusory. Those publishers who've used full-motion video to replace computer graphics altogether have managed to breed sorely disappointing product, whose only redeeming quality is its kitsch value. Gamers who are wary of FMV titles are wary for good reasons, namely low resolution and frustrating controls that offer little interaction.

But Capcom claims to have evaded FMV's shoddy reputation by providing a game that actually looks like a feature film and actually plays like a video game. Fox Hunt includes three hours and 20 minutes of full-motion video, transferred from 16 millimeter film and comprising 735 scenes.Thee game was filmed over 33 days in Los Angeles, California and Aspen, Colorado. Rob Lowe, in a special guest appearance, is the most noteworthy of the cast, filling the role of Edison Pettibone, the "King of the Infomercial."

In Fox Hunt, you play as Jack Fremont, a regular-guy type who's been recruited by the CIA to intercept the "Fox," a former KGB Colonel, and his plans to incinerate Los Angeles with missiles from the old Soviet nuclear arsenal.The Fox was sent to the U.S. in the early seventies to infiltrate American media and created nearly all of America's most popular TV shows in an effort to destroy America's morals through bad television. Uh...it didn't work(?).The plot becomes more complicated with double agents, hired killers, the Russian Mafia, and a beautiful CIA agent named Lisa with whom jack would like to make a love connection.

Gameplay involves dodging bullets, skiing, skydiving, and hand-to-hand combat. You have the option of traveling multiple paths, along which you look for information and clues and make real-time decisions.The game boasts 10 different outcomes and more than 20 different action sequences, claiming "the most realistic live-action fight sequences yet created for interactive entertainment." Well, let's all hope so.