Ecks vs. Sever

THE BAD:

SUMMARY:
Ecks Vs Sever is one of the few FPS in the GBA games directory. Released in 2001, the game is based on the film with the same name. You can play as Jonathan Ecks, a depressed FBI agent since his family's death, or as Sever, an orphaned NSA agent, seeking revenge for her husband's death. But they don't know that their paths will cross when their respective chiefs will launch a war between FBI and NSA.

Single player campaign allows you to be Ecks or Sever. Story is basically the same, told from their point of view, four weeks in the future, during a trial which will decide if they can come back to their agencies. Plot is twisted for making each character kill the last boss: either Ecks is wounded and lets Sever do the job in her campaign or it's Sever who is hurt and let Ecks kill the boss. But apart from that, the storyline doesn't change from their perspective (Ecks must pursue Sever in his campaign and Sever must escape Ecks in hers).

Gameplay is easy: you shoot, you duck if necessary, you activate some things, etc.. What is perhaps most difficult to do is to duck and then walk in this position. You also have some interesting items, apart from the classic weapons, ammo, medipack and armor: thermal glasses and keys for progressing or deciphering or encrypted ones (deciphering is for Ecks's campaign and encrypted is for Sever's). I want to add for the thermal glasses that the colors blue and orange are really perfect and I loved it. Weapons are probably the strongest points of the software. You always begin with an unlimited ammo pistol but you can find Pancor Jackhammer as shotgun, Colt M16A2, Ingram Mac 11, HK G11 and Minigun as chainguns, grenades and grenades launcher, Sig SSG 3000 as sniper rifle, Proximity Mines, etc.. They're very useful against enemies. About the latter, they're not really varied but it's enough for making the game a nervous one: SWAT or NSA agents for example are very difficult to kill if you don't have a G11. But for security guards, two shots from the pistol are enough to eliminate them. So, you must know which weapon to use against enemies. Graphics are correct, though I prefer Doom's. Still, weapons are very well designed and the variety of locations show the quality of the engine. Soundtrack is also good.

But Ecks vs Sever is, as I've stated, a nervous game and some levels are very difficult to beat because of the damage inflicted by the enemies. If your armor can protect you, it's running out fast when you're entering the last stages. And NSA buddies for example are taking between 15 and 20 HP, SWAT is taking 10, so you can understand that when you're surrounded by 4 or 5 enemies of these two kinds, you must be very lucky or a good shooter in order to survive. AI isn't great; you can easily kill some enemies because they didn't see you even if you're in their peripheral vision whereas the others will shoot at you. When you kill an enemy, the sound of the weapon should be enough to make his friends come. Here, well, enemies ignore it. So, you can go room to room without having to worry about the noises you're making. Graphics, for some levels, seem void, without life. Yes, it's the GBA. But comparing to Doom, it's very poor. Especially with the white in the NSA bunker or the awful walls of the hotel. Last but not least, I don't like the password system. When you've beaten a level, you're awarded a password you can use to start a specific level later. Well, I prefer the saving system; you don't have to put in your memory the password or write them on a piece of paper you can lose. You even have password for multiplayer, but as I don't play multiplayer with GBA I don't know why this feature exists.

GAMEPLAY: 7/10 - Nervous one but intuitive one. I'm just disappointed by the ducking thing by holding L and R together, when the same buttons are for sliding.
STORY: 9/10 - Tied storylines, with some good lines during the trial.
GRAPHICS: 6/10 - Well, they're correct and the weapon design is good but I was expecting much more, I'm influenced by Doom GBA which was richer, I admit.
SOUNDTRACK: 8/10 - Good one, with good sounds even if you don't have a lot of tracks, it's enough.
LIFETIME: 7/10 - with the multiplayer feature, the game life is longer than the single player campaign. But with two points of view and some hard levels, you can say that the lifetime isn't short.
FINAL: 7,5/10 - Ecks vs Sever is a good game with interesting features like the two campaigns or the weapons but it's too nervous for me at the end: Ecks's story is easiest than Sever (I think about the fight against Mills, FBI chief and the escaping from Ecks for example). Still, you can have some real fun with this game. Definitively a good FPS on GBA.