Alias PS2 Review Columbus OH

provided by: 

In Alias you take the persona of agent Sydney Bristow from the CIA. She is a crack spy and is always sent in for tough missions requiring a high degree of skill. The storyline behind the game revolves around a device which can be used to brainwash people and the parts required to build it. While the game itself does have an ongoing storyline, it is possible to view each individual mission within itself, much like a TV series. One bonus for the storyline is the writers of the television show were consulted so for fans of the series, they may notice the game not straying to far away from what they would typically see in a TV episode.

Alias is a third person stealth game, and while there are a number of them already on the market has a few things which make it stand out, in both good and bad ways. Basically the game revolves around kicking the daylights out of enemies between mission goals such as hacking a computer, destroying a security system or rescuing a friendly agent. It can become repetitive especially when you clear one area of enemies, only to be forced through that area again later in the mission and come across a fresh set of foes.

To aid her in her tasks Sydney has a variety of gadgets to use. These gadgets can only be used for certain tasks and this is where one problem with the game creeps in. Not the fact that they can only be used for some tasks, but more the interface. You can only use the gadgets when a certain graphic appears on the screen. The problem is that the area Sydney is required to stand in, is very small. So you can be standing right next to a computer which requires a hack and not able to do so because you're standing in the incorrect area. This also happens when trying to open doors.

When the gadgets do work they offer a great deal of variety and are quite interesting to use. Taking a leaf out of Splinter Cell's book, the game contains a mini game for lock picking and also a mini game for hacking. Rather then slapping a modem in and going for it, you have to guess a three letter combination. Thankfully this is restricted to A,B,C and D so it doesn't take too long to guess the combination. Other gadgets include a fingerprint replicator and the ability for Sydney to change clothes from casual to stealth. It is possible to get around in Sydney's non-stealth clothing for a whole mission but sometimes after cut scenes the game will impose the change. Sometimes the scenarios for gadgets are used ad nauseam and they stop becoming enjoyable and interesting to use.