Earlier this week I was lucky enough to be given a couple of hours sitdown time with
Nintendo Wii's upcoming (unless you live in Japan, where it's already out, or have done
some Del Boy-esque dealings on the black market) third-person action/adventure/shooter
Disaster: Day Of Crisis from developer Monolith Soft.

London's Piccadilly Circus seemed a somewhat fitting venue for my appointment from the
outset: This is a place that, if this game were to be set in London, would have featured
being swept under a tidal wave or shaken to it's core by an gigantic earthquake. This
brings me nicely into the opening sequence of the game, which is graphically pleasing on
the eye and features heavy references to films like The Day After Tomorrow
and...errrrm... Earthquake.

Helicopters exploding, a tsunami sweeping across a huge cityscape, wind, rain, gunfire, a
pretty girl, high-speed car chases, lava, suitable music - this is the over-the-top Hollywood
blockbuster sequel to every film you ever saw that involved Will Smith and Bruce Willis.
This could be the greatest action movie ever made. But what about the greatest action
game ever made?



You play Raymond Bryce, a spiky black-haired and goatee'd former US Marine and
International Rescue Team member, who is now a civil servant of some kind. We learn
early on (through an introductory level on top of an erupting volcano(!) that doubles up as
a tutorial for the control scheme) that he has been enlisted with taking care of his best
friend's "little sister", due to said friend being killed in a lava related accident - lava related
accidents usually end badly it seems.

A year later and a terrorist organisation known as "SURGE" have kidnapped the girl, who
turns out to be in her twenties and (surprise, surprise) quite attractive. Bryce begins a
one-man mission to bring her back. Unfortunately for him, the terrorists aren't the only
thing standing in his way. As the mission begins an earthquake erupts and the city is
thrown into chaos.

Much like the concrete beneath your feet, however, this is where the game begins to show
it's own cracks. For instance, as great as the graphics looked in the opening cinematic,
they soon begin to appear as though they are pulled straight from a low-end Playstation 2
title. The retro look somehow harks back to the Metal Gear Solid 2 and titles of a similar
ilk, while gaining extra health during missions by smashing bins into thin air and eating
(really) giant hamburgers and oversized pork legs makes the whole thing feel intentional -
brought up to date only by the Wii's physical control scheme.

Combat involves the player being automatically moved into position for Time Crisis-style
shootouts, usually with generic balaclava-wearing terrorists, but often tough Rambo
wannabes with purple headbands (in the level I played anyway) will come at you. Hitting
the 'Z' button will pull you into cover for key reloading opportunities, while the 'B' trigger is
shoot. This sounds great and, yes, the mechanics are fair, but it is sorely let down by the
inexcusable fact that your enemies do not react to being shot. Instead they will remain in
the same position until you kill them with your third or fourth shell, unless you aim for the
tried and tested headshot.



One thing I will say is that this game seems very challenging. On a number of occasions I
found myself unable to pass certain points within five or six attempts. Luckily the
checkpoints are fairly well distributed, although you will begin again on the same health as
when you last past the marker, so making sure to pick up all monster burgers along the
way seems essential to progress.

Peppered around the various cracks and ruins of the city are civilians who need your help.
Swinging an arm (via the Wii's control) to a small boy in order to bring him to safety as he
hangs from a ledge or throwing a large rock from an old man's legs is a nice idea, but
through further inspection I found a problem with these mini-games. With one or two
victims (not the small boy!) I found that if I couldn't quite tap the button fast enough to lift
the rock (I just let the power bar run down) the person in need would begin to act as if he
was about to die, but then it would just revert back to the beginning. Basically, you are
trying to save people until you do it, rather than taking a chance and feeling the
sense of guilt or loss if the person in danger dies. It's a shame, a feature that could have
added some more weight to proceedings.

Having only played a small section of the game I can say that while it showed plenty of
variety (I had a car chase too), the presentation and often the mechanics seemed to let it
down. Perhaps there are just so many ideas that Monolith Soft have had a hard time
perfecting any one of them. Playing through the entire thing may show that lots of variety
makes for a more addictive and thrilling gaming experience, but when even the shooting
sequences begin to tire after only two hours play, it doesn't bode well.

[i]Disaster: Day Of Crisis has a European release date of 24th October, while nothing has
been announced yet for the US and it's already out in Japan.[/i]