Alias review (PS2)

The popular TV show Alias has gathered a rather impressive cult following. With a mix of James Bond and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, it casts Jennifer Garner in the lead role, putting her through all manner of spy-based peril to achieve whatever mission she has been given at the time. The game takes on a rather standard third person action stealth style that feels like a very natural way of portraying the show in a video game format.

As Sydney Bristow, an undercover CIA agent, you have to make your way through nine interconnected missions spanning the globe and providing a great variety of locations. The story itself is quite deep, tapping into the mythos of the show almost constantly, which means that you will certainly get the most out of it if you’ve been following the series from the start, but it’s not the end of the world if you’ve missed out before.

Stealth for dummies

Gameplay follows the same general route throughout the game. After entering a new location and switching to Sydney’s enhanced viewing mode to check out the area for enemies, finding a place to hide to observe the patrol routes safely becomes the next course of action. Once you’re confident that one of the enemies is far enough away from the rest of the pack to get away with it, a silent takedown by sneaking behind them is the order of the day. Unfortunately, this is something I’ve personally had more trouble with than I feel I should.

Ensuring that you’re not seen does involve quite a bit of luck, since moving in stealth mode is incredibly slow and when enemies are wandering around the area, it becomes a case of running normally until you feel you’re about to be heard, at which point switching to stealth mode is essential. Even if you’re spotted by the guards, it’s not the end of the world, as they’ll merely call over all the other guards in the area and you’ll have to defeat them all using a nice combination of martial arts and weaponry (from huge scimitars to the more conventional pistols and machine guns) that you may have picked up along the way.

Who wants to pick a fight?

When you’re confronted with an all out fight, the game shows another weakness; the unreliability of your fighting skills. Obviously if you try to go up against three enemies wielding sub machine guns, you may have less luck than two armed with knives, but the game doesn’t seem to care. With the rather random style of attacking that doesn’t feel like you have much control over exactly what is being done, I’ve unleashed combination attacks that would be at home in a Jet Li movie and done less damage than a simple throw followed up by attacking the fallen foe on the floor. Equally, I’ve been defeated by enemies throwing me to the floor, waiting until I get up and repeating the same action.

While the random fighting aspect makes stealth more important (although by no means necessary), there is more to the game than dispatching whoever comes your way. Op-Tech, a swanky term for spy equipment is the name of your gadgets that you will use to pick locks, download information, hack combinations and all manner of other cleverly designed features. While these keep the game more interesting and make it more than a simple stealth fest, they add to the atmosphere, along with the graphical style that often shows a split screen view to heighten tension, showing an incoming guard, or just an item of interest.

A good likeness

The detailing on the levels is often quite good, easily distinguishing between the various locations and while they rarely have an overly large amount of detail, I have no real complaints. The character models themselves (especially Sydney) are excellent, portraying the original cast very well in a recognisable manner. Of course being able to change costume automatically to better fit your surroundings is a nice feature, especially when options such as a cocktail waitress are available.

Further enhancements such as more subtle effects like dusty areas in the desert and an effective thermal goggles view are nothing to scoff at, creating the world of Alias in a video game effectively. Cinematics between levels too are well made to replicate the show itself and are rarely boring, especially due to the rather intensive storyline that you’ll be trying to catch up with.

An (almost) full cast list

All of the major character voices are played by their respective TV actors, bringing out a lot of the vocal mannerisms that made the show’s dynamic work. Musically the shows style is replicated well and while you’ll never get an epic full orchestral score, it all fits very well without complaints. The sound effects however, while being perfectly adequate, never seem to stand up above the bare minimum required to create the game world. Sneaking around really requires the sound to be a major part of play, but when you can barely hear the guards blundering around, it gives you less incentive to minimise your own movement.

While the game itself isn’t too short, the lather rinse repeat style gameplay is only rarely challenged and you’ll never get stuck wondering what special gadget to use next. If you come out of a fight alive, then while investigating your way to the next group of enemies your health bar will probably have recharged, making it very staggered and encouraging pausing to regain health. This certainly doesn’t make it a bad game, but with so many aspects that could have been improved, it’s difficult to come out of the game without feeling that the reasonably recent Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Chaos Bleeds did a TV to game transfer better. (And no, that’s not because I think Sarah Michelle Gellar is more attractive than Jennifer Garner.) While fans of the show will certainly be in their element here, if only for the expansion of the Alias universe, the gameplay itself doesn’t warrant a full recommendation to an Alias newcomer.