True Lies

Developer: Beam Software    Publisher: Akklaim     Released: 1994     Genre: Action

True Lies was one of the best action flicks of 1994 and continued the summer movie streak Arnie had held down for close to a decade. Like all great action movies a video game tie-in was inevitable. But to the dread of many the LJN name was on the box. However our fears were unnecessary as this is one of the better top down action games of that era and a great title in general. I wish more of the 16-bit movie games were this good but I digress.

The game follows the plot of the movie to the letter with a slight deviation in its ending. Arnold as Harry Tasker is a counter terrorism agent who discovers the existence of the terrorist organization Crimson Jihad, led by Salim Abu Aziz.  This leads to a city wide chase as Aziz remains one step ahead with the game incorporating stills from the movie that drive the plot forward.  The game even expands on it somewhat as it adds a few more locations to further lengthen the experience.  While there are pacing problems it does make the game a complete experience.

The fact that True Lies turned out so well is a surprise considering other movie adaptations, making it an anomaly. A good film does not mean the game will follow suit, as Top Gun and Total Recall can attest. The LJN brand on the box, which was a mark of terror to children everywhere also did not help. However it seems they actually gave a damn making this one of their best efforts for the time.

Harry always has a pistol with unlimited ammo but needs a second or two to reload after 15 shots. This is an important facet of gameplay you need to be aware of at all times. Along the way you’ll pick up an Uzi, a shotgun with an awesome bullet spray, a flamethrower, and grenades. The game is pretty generous with ammo so you’ll rarely need to rely on the default pistol. Possibly the most important move is the dive. Diving allows you to avoid all damage and you can spam it repeatedly. The controls are snappy, with the SNES’ extra buttons giving it an advantage over the standard 3-button Genesis controller.

Since the game follows the film so closely you are taken to a variety of locales around New York with different objectives such as destroying all of the explosives on a ship or rerouting the trains in the subway to clear a path to the exit. My description is more exciting than the reality of the mission design. You will still mostly kill an inhuman number of enemies. The mission objectives do keep this from being a boring and straightforward shooter. While I like the level design it does try to be too clever for its own good to its detriment. Foreground objects obscure Important weapons and items leading to aimlessly wandering around.

For the most part True Lies has good pacing in terms of its action but the mission design is where it stumbles a bit. The majority of the levels are split up into 2-3 segments which creates break points and adds to the variety. However the few that don’t follow this structure run too long and are long mazes with repetitive architecture and enemies. Fighting the same two or three enemies whose tactics never change for close to an hour while wandering through cut and paste corridors too big for their own good gets old fast. If there were greater enemy variety or if the missions were smaller this would truly have been great.

I’m a bit mixed in terms of the difficulty. In the early stages you have to worry about accidentally killing civilians. Random murder means restarting the level although this gradually goes away. Health packs are common but there abundance is because the game can be viciously hard at times. The hit detection isn’t the greatest and so missed shots lead to cheap hits. But probably the biggest culprit is the lack of invulnerability when hit. Like Turrican your life bar can be drained in seconds. If this one flaw were True Lies would be fantastic. But when random bad guys pepper you with shotgun fire while tossing simultaneously grenades and two of his buddies join in the fun it feels like bull shit. I wouldn’t blame anyone for giving up halfway through.

In Conclusion

It has its flaws but overall True Lies is a pretty good game. Pacing issues aside passwords make it tolerable with plenty of great action to go around. Not as good as Mercs or Super Smash T.V. but certainly better than crap like Total Carnage. And dirt cheap to boot.