29th November 2010 - The Shoot is one of the few titles to come out exclusively for the PS3 utilising the Move. The name is a play on words as you shoot objects on a Hollywood style movie set to shoot the scene. Rail shooters are nothing new and have proved popular in arcades over the years. Time Crisis and Point Blank enjoyed some success on the PS2 in the late 90's with a light gun, and this game has, on the surface at least, a bit of a blend of the two. In my view if a rail shooter is going to be successful it needs to be accurate for one - there are fewer things more frustrating than missing targets you are obviously pointing straight at! It also needs to have some depth so there is reason to play it through again and again, as by nature they are a repetitive game. Finally, it needs to be fun with friends as these types of games thrive with a few mates. So let's see what we have.
GAMEPLAY
This is a rail shooter that's obviously aimed at a large family audience. I found it strange at first shooting wooden cut-outs of enemies and objects, and to be honest, initially I found it a little lame. But when you put it into the context of the Move motion controller and the broader market Sony are trying to capture it makes perfect sense. By not shooting 'real' people and making the player an actor on a movie set they can get that friendly PG rating and have mums and dads happy to let their kids play it while also having a crack themselves. The good news is that underneath this PG exterior is a pretty solid shooter for the Move that even hardcore gamers should enjoy, if only briefly.
Getting set up is a breeze with a simple calibration on start-up and a nice clear tutorial to teach you the moves. The most obvious thing you do is point at the screen and shoot things, and I'm glad to report that the Move controller tracked one-to-one on screen faithfully and with no issue. To spice it up a little you can dodge to the sides and duck by simply moving the Move in a certain direction when prompted. You also have three special moves at your disposal which are awarded for accurate shooting. One (called 'Showtime') makes you feel a bit of a fairy as you spin around on the spot to slow down time. The second, 'Shockwave' involves simply shooting the ground to blow away everything on screen, and finally 'Rampage' turns your gun into a rapid fire machine gun for a short period.
In keeping with PG there are no lives, instead you have a number of movie 'cuts' and there is a director bar in the top corner that fills up as you perform well and empties meaning the director is getting angry as you miss things and get injured. If you flop he kicks you off the set.
There are three categories of action to choose from. The first is the main career mode, where a single player moves through the five different themed sets including western, sci-fi, gangster, underwater and monster themes. There are four sets per theme, and each takes about 4-5min to complete. They all contain enough variety in the enemy cut-outs and the speed and pattern of movement that it doesn't get too repetitive. Just to keep you on your toes there are innocents through each take to save, and they have a habit of popping up right when you're on a shooting streak so you can't go too trigger happy. There are other bonus items to look for and special events to try to trigger within each set too. Although the career is fairly short, there are plenty of reasons to go through again. The sheer number of enemies and bonuses to shoot will mean that achieving the elusive gold trophy on each stage will require many more hours of mastery.
As fun as it is, your arm does get tired after a while and I doubt many people will play for much longer than an hour at a time. The other two modes which become available as you complete career mode are score attack and challenge mode which open up two player options. This is where you will spend most of your time as the game is better shooting side-by-side. It adds in some competition by comparing accuracy, points etc. and definitely adds to the life of the game.
GRAPHICS
The graphics do the job they need to do - nothing more or less. The game has a particular family friendly style to it and the graphics reflect that. Lots of colour and slightly cartoonish enemies/sets don't really set any new PS3 standards but it's clear that's not what the game has set out to do. The sets and character design make it easy to spot targets, keeping with the broad audience base it's aimed at. There were a few instances with the frame rate slowing down with large explosions on screen, but other than that I had no issues.
SOUND
The sound is pretty simple in this game. There is some background music for each theme (that sounds a little corny) and basic gun noises and effects when you hit objects. It doesn't add much to the game, but it doesn't really need to. Your focus will firmly be on shooting. What does distract you is the voice-over guy who rattles out comments like “Nice shot” and “Now you're working it”. He gets fairly annoying after a few scenes, especially as he sounds a little condescending. I couldn't quite work out if his tone was trying to be kid-friendly or if tongue was firmly in cheek.
VALUE
The RRP is $59.95 which makes it about right if you're looking for a game that the whole family can play or something to whip out when your mates are over. If you're looking at it strictly from a hardcore single gamer's perspective it's probably not a great purchase at that price. The campaign is short and you will probably get bored playing all the modes solo after racking up ten hours. As I said earlier it will make a good two player party game which will see its shelf life extended significantly.
CONCLUSION
The Shoot is a family friendly, rail shooter that despite being simple and fairly short, offers enough to keep a wide range of gamers playing. It might not have amazing graphics or sound, and the style is a bit cheesy, but the important things are solid. The Move tracks really accurately on screen and the addition of some special moves add some variety to gameplay. It's simple fun and a great game to play with mates, especially if there is some healthy competition between you.
AAG SCORE: 7/10
Pros:
+ Move tracks well on screen
+ Great fun in two player
+ Wide audience appeal
Cons:
- Short career mode
- Cheesy styling
- Graphics and sound pretty simple
Reviewed and Written By Khye Davey