Time Crisis: Project Titan

It's been a few years since you last saved the world from total destruction, super-secret agent Richard Miller! Everything seems peaceful and dandy, when lo and behold, someone's assassinated the president of Caruba! Ironically, you have been framed for the murder. Oh, the humanity! Graciously, the super-secret agency you work for (N.A.M.C.O.?) has given you 48 hours to clear your name. Not a lot of time, but better than a firing squad, that's for sure. Fortunately, you have some clues, and they lead you to the mastermind behind this insidious plan, a not-so-nice woman named Kantaris, who is bent on destroying the world (naturally). The super-secret plan you systematically uncover is code-named Project Titan. As with the previous Time Crisis episode, your goal is to accurately cap-cap-cap the bad guys, using the duck/reload button on the side of the GunCon to avoid catching a hot one to the cranium. This time around, there is a "multi-angle-attack" you can use to hit the bad boys where it hurts, namely, the knee, head, arms, chest, family jewels or shoulder. As with the previous episode, accuracy is a plus, with headshots making for one-hit kills.

Supplementing the gameplay are cutscenes which slowly unveil the story line, using the in-game engine in lieu of prerendered CG graphics. Besides the story mode, for those of you who have no need for silly little things like narrative and motivation, there's also a time-attack mode where you can test your skills against the clock. This is a time crisis after all. No rest for the wicked.

The only obvious downside to the game at this point is that it's a single player-only experience. This is kind of unfortunate, since they had worked a way around that with the arcade-only Time Crisis 2. However, to emulate that sort of gameplay would require two television sets and two PS ones, and we all know how likely that scenario is. Still, a link-cable option Qust in case!) would have been neat. As it is, the four areas and 15 stages will have to suffice for all the super-secret junior agents out there. Time Crisis: Project Titan is due out this May, so now all we need Namco to do is port Crisis Zone to PS2! Hint, hint!