Time Crisis: Project Titan

After a long hiatus from PlayStation, Namco skipped Time Crisis 2, the polygon-heavy sequel to Time Crisis, and developed Time Crisis Project Titan, a PlayStation exclusive game. There’s too much crisis to summarise in a single sentence, sorry, but it had to be. Actually, we haven’t seen a light gun game here in a while, but Namco has the drive to deliver not only this great game, but also the always entertaining Point Blank 3. And while this game looks pretty awful and outdated, I’ll admit that I have a certain sentimental preference for simple, pure arcade games. And this game definitely tugs at my gamer heartstrings.

Both games use the very popular GunCon, a light gun that is used in place of a controller and serves as a great tool to play the game. In short, Time Crisis Project Titan is a good game, not graphically up to date, but convincing in all other respects, especially the gameplay. This game is a lot of fun! The classic reload/duck feature introduced in the series around 1995 is back and works perfectly.

A Little History

Namco’s Time Crisis, which hit arcades in 1995, took light-gun arcade shooters to a new level of interactivity and sophistication. The first game came to the PlayStation in 1997, bringing GunCon and a relatively solid port straight from the arcades. We rated it an 8.0 and were blown away by how straight-up arcade-y it was. The second Time Crisis was an even heavier proposition in the arcades, as it linked to a second machine that players could play together on in co-op, and was built on the polygon-hungry System 22 board.

The only unfortunate aspect of this setup is that the specs of the arcade machine and the PlayStation were so different that, while a port was possible, the difficulty of such a task was probably greater than the Japanese team had anticipated. And Time Crisis 2 never came to the PlayStation. But Namco knew that fans wanted more Time Crisis, and that if Namco made a new one, players would buy the new game. There’s probably more to the story that I don’t know, but for the sake of brevity, Namco made a PlayStation exclusive game that never came to arcades: Time Crisis Project Titan.

Gameplay

Time Crisis Project Titan’s gameplay is very simple: it’s a shooter. You pick up a lightweight gun controller, aim it at the TV and shoot the bad guys. Boom. Simply. What makes this game special is that, despite being developed not in-house but by Flying Tiger Development, it feels and plays exactly like any other Crisis game. The action is fast and widespread; enemy patterns are varied and get more difficult as the game progresses; and the GunCon, combined with Namco’s duck-and-load technology, still works like a dream. The game is designed to resemble a coin-operated game, but it’s clearly designed specifically for the PlayStation. It’s strange because it feels like a perfect port of a game that wasn’t in the arcade.

Time Crisis Project Titan allows players to choose whether or not to play Story Mode, and completing this mode unlocks different levels of the game that can be played in Time Attack mode. If players play Easy Mode first, they will have a better idea of ​​how to beat the game in Normal Mode. Normal Mode allows you to earn fewer credits to progress and has a slightly smaller variety of enemies. The game counts the number of shots taken, hits and misses, and records the time it takes to complete a level. There are essentially two ways to approach this game. One is to shoot like a sniper by aiming accurately and saving bullets. Another option is to shoot like crazy and hit the enemy with two or three shots, just like in the movie. At least you’ll know that you hit him with a double shot.

Project Titan is a well-balanced game with a good set of AI patterns that change throughout the game. At first enemies appear close to you and wander around a bit slowly. As the game progresses, more enemies will appear on the screen at once, carry heavier weapons, and appear farther away from the screen. Locals bring a nice change of pace. Players find themselves inside a ship, on top of a military base, in a courtyard, convincing the eye that in each location there are obstacles and barriers and different terrains. Enemy movements, their speed and different placements on the screen create a wide range of movement paths for the player, increasing the fun factor. Some enemies will somersault across the screen to get into position, while others will come directly towards your position and fire at close range. Additionally, shooting brown-clad AI characters will earn you extra timing (up to 5 points) for attacking early.

In fact, the shooting isn’t all that different from other light gun games, but the overall plot and the obvious cast of less than believable characters make it feel especially close to the Time Crisis series. But what makes the whole thing so entertaining are the bosses and the multi-hide feature. The boss I liked the most, not because of its difficulty but because of the boldness of its caricature, is the French chef. He says stupid things with a terrible French accent and throws meat cleavers at you, and if you hit the incoming knife accurately, you get an extra +1 timing. Classic arcade stuff. Another great thing about

444 games is the multi-hide feature. On certain bosses, players will see yellow triangles on both sides of the screen. Shooting towards one side will make your character run from one hiding spot to another. The enemy will eventually notice your position, but not immediately enough that you can’t blast a few holes in their side first. This is a great feature of the game, and the only thing that could have been improved on this point was to have more betting options.

Two more things before I wrap up the gameplay: The level of interactivity is much better than the first Time Crisis. It’s common to put stuff like this on nowadays, but the constant sounds of metal clanging, glass breaking, and objects shattering are great here. Finally, I played about 2-3 hours, repeatedly playing the two modes, easy and normal, and this is a very short game. That said, the replayability of this game has always been about getting a high score, but once you beat it in both modes, you’re pretty much done. It’s very short (4-5 hours max) and I was expecting a bit more after waiting so long to be able to play this PlayStation game.

Graphics

Unfortunately the graphics are nothing to write home about. This is not at all like a 5th year PlayStation game and compared to top games like PlayStation’s Final Fantasy VIII, Soul Reaver, Spyro the Dragon and even Medal of Honor, this game just looks old, outdated and bad. In fact, it is old and outdated but it should look better than a 2nd year game.

The degree of perspective shifting and polygon clipping is by no means a clean and precise achievement. It’s even sloppy. I wouldn’t buy it to show my work to friends as it would be embarrassing. Almost everything, from the character models to the movements, has a stiff, sharp polygonal design that is totally outdated, even for a PlayStation game. In short, it probably isn’t as good as the first Time Crisis.

Sound

One of the best things about Project Titan is the sound. The loud shots from the various weapons are incredibly satisfying and bring the overall performance of the game to a new level. The sounds of bullets bouncing off pipes and shields, bullets popping out of guns, and guys running around screaming to reveal your location is just amazing. The sound effects are more immersive than I expected, and the music fits perfectly with the various scenes full of chaos and gunfire.

Verdict

Time Crisis Project Titan is a great arcade shooter, especially with GunCon. It’s a lot of fun. I’ve been coming back to it for the first time in a while and persevering to get through the levels. Project Titan isn’t great at all in terms of graphics, it’s ugly as warts, but the gameplay is solid as a rock and always fun to play.

My other big complaint, besides the graphics, is that it’s too short. I wish there were at least two or three additional levels. I mean, I always make the opposite argument on this one because I don’t really believe a game needs to last 40 hours. But here, 3 hours to complete the game is pretty short. I know that’s the nature of light gun games, but this game goes by so quickly that Namco could have added branching paths, extra levels, etc. I mean, at the end of the day, this isn’t an arcade convert. Well, I think you’ll play it over and over and have fun. It is I who am miserable.