Army Men games for PS2 REVIEW

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Army Men: Sarge's Heroes 2 Review

Those who've found previous versions of the series to be underwhelming won't have their opinions changed by this latest installment.


Past installments of Sarge's Heroes have weathered pessimistic reviews to enjoy adequate sales. Perhaps it's something to do with the series' motif, which takes players back to younger years, where dropping the plastic playthings into the blender or microwave provided nearly unrivaled excitement. Whatever the case may be, 3DO has been more than happy to bring each installment in its Army Men series to multiple consoles, and this time around, it's the PlayStation 2's turn. Army Men Sarge's Heroes 2 is by far the best-looking Army Men game, but annoying gameplay quirks ruin what could otherwise be an enjoyable experience.

As Sarge's Heroes 2 begins, Brigitte Bleu--an undercover vixen with an ulterior motive--reanimates General Plastro of the tan army. In addition to protecting the portals that let the army men teleport to the real world, Sarge wants to find out the details behind Bleu's reanimation scheme before the tan can use it to their advantage. The same third-person shooting gameplay from the last Sarge's Heroes has returned with few changes. There are plenty of traditional weapons to use such as sniper rifles, grenade launchers, bazookas, mortars, and the like. Sarge and pals traverse locations like a refrigerator or kitchen table while destroying small squads of tan army men and accomplishing objectives that range from protecting a teammate to search-and-destroy affairs. As each small squad of tan army men is destroyed, you're rewarded with full health before heading off to encounter the next group of enemies. The system works fairly well until you die and realize you have to start the entire level from the beginning. Some of the levels can take almost a half hour to complete, and the lack of midlevel save points can become frustrating to say the least. There are also several cooperative levels where a comrade comes along for the mission. Oftentimes your own teammate will repeatedly shoot you, making the level far more difficult than it should be.

While the structure of the game can be frustrating, it's made worse by poor gameplay execution. You play as several different characters throughout the game, but they all control basically the same. Sarge can kneel or lie on his stomach while firing, jump and climb, or strafe using the shoulder buttons. As in survival-horror titles, holding left or right on the analog stick makes Sarge spin on an axis. The only way to make him run forward is by holding up on the analog stick. This clunky interface is incredibly annoying when attempting to flee from gunfire. It's common to lose a second or two waiting for Sarge to get turned in the right direction, resulting in many unwarranted deaths.

Making matters worse, the game uses an auto-aim feature that hits its mark less than half the time. Just when you feel as if you can rely on it, it lets you down in a crucial situation. Even if you attempt to avoid the auto-aim by going into first-person view, the sluggish aiming reticle makes it almost impossible to pick off enemies with any sort of efficiency. This is somewhat remedied by the horrible hit detection, which occasionally lets you drop tan enemies without lining the reticle up properly. Making the gameplay all the more infuriating, there is an invisible bullet-blocking force field that surrounds each object--many times your shots will be blocked while the enemies' shots somehow find their mark.

Sarge's Heroes 2 for the PlayStation 2 is by far the best-looking Army Men game yet. Unfortunately, this isn't saying much. The texture resolution has been improved so that the textures are no longer stretched-out, blurry messes. But other problems from past installments of Sarge's Heroes on other consoles have returned. The same low-poly object models are included, and the usual suspects like pop-up, clipping, and erratic frame rates have returned. On the positive side, the army men have a nice shiny look, and there are a few noteworthy effects like reflections and particles that are used quite generously. The explosions also look particularly good. Even so, the repetitive enemies grow old quickly, and the ho-hum bosses fail to spice things up. Overall, Sarge's Heroes 2's graphics are the result of an old game engine running on a new console.

If the 17 levels of single-player action aren't enough, 3DO has also included a multiplayer mode for two players. There are just two variations available--deathmatch and family. Both modes are basically the same, with the only difference being that you spawn with several weapons in the family mode and no weapons in the deathmatch mode. You may set the kill limit to three, five, seven, or unlimited, and there are five maps to gun it out in initially. The multiplayer modes run with a nice fluidity the majority of the time, and the maps are huge. But since there are just two people playing at once and no radar, deathmatches often turn into lengthy bouts of hide and seek.

The sound in Sarge's Heroes 2 is nothing special. The FMV cutscenes feature adequate voice acting, but the remainder of the game's audio consists of the stereotypical gunshots and explosions. Surround sound support is nonexistent, and the music is made up of makeshift techno with military drum programming. Characters will occasionally converse with one another midlevel to clarify objectives, but otherwise, the sound in Sarge's Heroes 2 is par for the PlayStation 2 course.

Army Men: Sarge's Heroes 2 is the best the series has to offer, but that's not saying much. The gameplay is frustrating, the graphics are average, and there are plenty of bugs that have not been addressed. If you've enjoyed Army Men games in the past, Sarge's Heroes 2 is more of the same. But those who've found previous versions of the series to be underwhelming won't have their opinions changed by this latest installment.


Army Men: Air Attack 2 Feature Preview

Taking the formula established by EA's Strike series and making it its own, the Air Attack series puts you in the cockpit of a Green Army chopper and turns you loose on a number of real-world environments with real-world hazards.


3DO's Air Attack series - the most popular offshoot of its Army Men series - is coming to the PS2 in top form. The Air Attack games are easily the best in the Army Men line, and all of its installments have proven immensely playable. Taking the formula established by EA's Strike series and making it its own, the Air Attack series puts you in the cockpit of a Green Army chopper and turns you loose on a number of real-world environments with real-world hazards. Not to mention, of course, brigade upon brigade of vile Tan troops. In Army Men: Air Attack 2, you and your copilot will scour 22 levels of fast-paced shooter action, blasting, strafing, and winching your way through tons of interesting obstacles, both earthly and Tan.

As we reported earlier this month, Army Men: Air Attack 2's PS2 upgrade is coming along quite nicely. The Army Men franchise has never looked so good, and the PS2 version retains the addictive playability of its predecessors. The PS2 version of Air Attack 2 is much more than a simple port, though - 3DO has extensively retooled the game to take full advantage of the PS2's hardware set, and the difference really shows.

"No matter what game you are working on, no matter what platform, it is always a challenge trying to make everything you want to put in the game fit into whatever platform you are developing for," said Kudo Tsunoda, the game's producer. "The great thing about working on the PS2 is that we're suddenly able to get a lot more of what we actually want to put in the game, in the game. It is a great piece of hardware. Having a lot less restrictions makes development easier in many ways."

"But there are definitely things that make developing for the PS2 more challenging," Tsunoda continued. "First off, it is a new piece of hardware. We had to spend extensive R&D time figuring out the best way to develop the AM: AA2 engine for this new version. Fortunately, 3DO gave us enough development time to make sure we are creating a technology base that can really push the PS2 to its limits, even for a first-generation product."

"Since we are able to get more data into the game on the PS2, the amount of people needed to create and integrate the content has also increased," Tsunoda said. "This obviously means that there is a lot more work to do on these games. Organizing and developing these projects has become an enormous logistical effort."

"Overall, I am really happy to be working on the PS2," Tsunoda remarked. "We can make games that are a lot more impressive from both a graphical and gameplay perspective. But there is also a lot more work to do to make those games happen. I feel like we have done an excellent job on all fronts for Army Men: Air Attack 2."

The PS2's healthy hardware set will allow for a much smoother looking and quicker playing Air Attack 2. The game will run at a brisk 60fps in both the single-player and two-player modes, allowing for a sharp, swift game pace. When asked about the game's technical prowess, Tsunoda was quick to boast: "The game will feature full-scene antialiasing - this eliminates all the jagged edges you see on a lot of PS2 models. We're also rendering 80,000 polys a frame at 60fps, which equates to 5 million polys a second. Air Attack 2 will also feature real-time shadows - all objects have unique shadows that are dynamically cast on other objects in the game. So when the helicopter flies under a giant plant, you can see the shadows passing over the helicopter."

Regarding the quality of the textures that color the environments, Tsunoda had this to say: "The game will enjoy 128MB of texture data compressed down to 1MB at real-time. This means we will be able to create completely unique environments. No two parts of any level will look alike."

The choppers that you'll be piloting throughout the game have also been beefed up, thanks to the PS2 retooling. Their differences will be accentuated, and each will have a unique feel. Tsunoda had the following to say, regarding the choppers: "Yes, each of the helicopters will have a different feel than the others. We are spending a lot of time tuning all the parameters so that the player gets a different gameplay experience in any level just by using a different helicopter." Tangible differences between each vehicle will greatly enhance the game's replay value, not to mention make the strategic aspects of the multiplayer game more robust. What follows is a quick rundown of the choppers you'll see in the game.

King Cobra

The King Cobra is fast and light, and it's one of the game's fastest choppers. Its good turning ability makes it tricky to hit, but its armor is relatively light, making it best suited for hit-and-run tactics. The King Cobra's special weapon is its homing rockets.

Chinook

The heavy-hitting Chinook boasts the game's heaviest armor rating, and its guns definitely do their job, but it's a rather slow chopper. Its special weapon is the deadly roman candle.

Osprey

The Osprey has a decent armor rating, and its winch is one of the game's most efficient. What really separates it from the pack, though, is its special weapon - the fearsome thunder bomb launcher.

Apache

The Apache seems to be the most balanced chopper. It's relatively quick, and it boasts tight controls. Its armor is also fairly hearty, and its winch ability is better than most. Its special weapon, the laser, is no slouch, either.

Air Attack 2 will also feature a host of secret vehicles. About these aircraft, Tsunoda had this to say: "There is also a wide variety of other vehicles you can unlock via secrets in the game. These include a radio-controlled toy helicopter, a UFO, a zeppelin, the Tan Baron's plane, and a bee."

The game's five lively copilots will likewise return for an encore. The copilots compliment your chopper's abilities, and each offers a unique weapon: the quirky Bombshell, with her potent napalm launcher; the ever-loyal Woodstock, with his squad of crazed kamikaze paratroopers; the bloodthirsty Hardcore, with his maniacal swarm rockets; and finally, the wise-cracking Hooligan, armed with his ground-blanketing air strike. You select your copilot and chopper at the beginning of each mission, and much of the art of Air Attack 2 is in selecting a copilot and a chopper that compliment each other.

The PS2 version of Air Attack 2 will feature a fairly large array of play modes. What's more, all of the single-player missions will be playable in a cooperative mode, allowing you and a buddy to get to it via a split screen. The multiplayer game features five different play modes. There is the food fight mode, which lets you and your opponent pelt one another with various foodstuffs by means of your winches; the flag nab mode, which is a standard game of capture the flag; the tug of war mode, which has you and your opponent vying for control of a toy train; the bug hunt mode, which lets you exterminate the insects that run rampant throughout the map; and the aerial assault mode, which is simply a standard deathmatch.

Finally, we asked Tsunoda to spell out all the essential differences between the PS2 version and those that have preceded it. "The game will feature a different single-player campaign structure - while some levels are similar, the overall campaign will be somewhat different, not to mention the new head-to-head multiplayer games," Tsunoda replied. "The game's new animation system will allow for a higher level of detail to the toys in the world, and the bigger differences in helicopter parameters will more noticeably accentuate the differences between each helicopter. Finally, there are the whole new environments."

All in all, it seems as if 3DO is really putting in the extra effort to make this version of Air Attack 2 a definite winner. As was stated earlier, the game is looking simply great, and we sincerely wish it a long and healthy development cycle so the developers can truly realize their visions. The series that is undoubtedly the apple in Sarge's eye deserves no less.


Army Men: Green Rogue Review

Green Rogue's cumbersome gameplay makes it a much more frustrating game than those that inspired it.



Army Men: Green Rogue is the latest addition to 3DO's growing library of Army Men games for the PS2. In many ways, Green Rogue pays tribute to classic arcade shooters of old, like Ikari Warriors or Commando, with a scrolling field of play, droves of hostile enemies, and an amazing amount of gunfire thrown in your direction. However, Green Rogue's cumbersome gameplay makes it a much more frustrating game than those that inspired it.

The game begins with a dark and ominous tone as you're clued in to the origin of the mysterious Omega soldier. During this detailed and lengthy cinema sequence, you learn that your character has been biogenetically engineered in a secret lab and given special powers to help you overcome the evil Tan Army. After this sequence ends, you're thrust headfirst into the action.

Green Rogue owes quite a bit to several mid-'80s arcade shoot-'em-up games, though it gives the genre an overall face-lift by featuring a 3D environment with polygonal enemies instead of the 2D bitmapped graphics, which have been a staple of the genre. Another key difference between Green Rogue and other games in the genre is the constant scrolling of the levels, which can be annoying. For example, if you have to maneuver past a power-up to dodge an enemy's attack, the level will have already scrolled past the item you wanted to pick up by the time you've successfully avoided the enemy. You can also expect a similar situation with enemies that scroll offscreen. Unfortunately, there's no way to backtrack to pick up items or destroy missed enemies. Throughout the game, you'll probably miss many items and hostile soldiers because of the constant scrolling.

Green Rogue's controls take some getting used to. The left analog stick guides the Omega soldier, and the right analog stick is used for aiming. Either the face or shoulder buttons can execute functions such as shooting, crouching, or setting off lethal "biostrikes." At first, it may take a little practice to get the hang of the controls, but after about 30 minutes or so, you'll be taking out Tan soldiers by the truckload.

Green Rogue carries some fairly smooth and detailed textures and is a decent game to look at. While the graphics are nothing spectacular, the Army Men games have come a long way since their debut on the PlayStation years ago. Green Rogue's smoke and fire effects are particularly nice and come into play when you wield the flamethrower. Many objects can be set ablaze, such as trees, houses, and, of course, enemy soldiers. While the effects may be pretty, when they are on display, Green Rogue can often slow down to an almost unplayable speed.

The game also lacks reliable collision detection. Many times throughout Green Rogue you'll find yourself shooting an enemy soldier repeatedly because your shots seem to have no effect. To make matters worse, there's no way to switch between weapons during the game. So if you've inadvertently picked up a weapon that is difficult to wield, you're stuck with it until you pick up another. When you add these factors up with the dipping frame rate and the constantly scrolling maps, this game can become quite maddening. Unfortunately, this isn't because the game is difficult--it's simply because the game is flawed in key areas that intersect quite often.

In the end, Army Men: Green Rogue is a decent game at times and should be commended for paying tribute to several old-school arcade shooters. But it's hampered by several flaws, which make it on the whole not such a great game to play.


Army Men: World War Review


What you get with Army Men World War is a decent sequel to the original Army Men 3D, but one that's only barely superior.


As if the plastic-soldier carnage in Army Men 3D weren't enough, 3DO is back in an even more over-the-top sequel in Army Men World War. The plot of the first Army Men is similar to this game's - the Tan army is on the warpath, and it's up to a lone Green-army soldier to defeat it. Unfortunately for you though, you happen to be that soldier. Sure, you're told you're getting backup, but that never really happens in this type of game.

After an initial cinematic, the game quickly launches you into the meat of the conflict. You find yourself on an enemy beach, charged with the task of taking a Tan encampment's radio communications. Succeed in this mission, and you'll progress up the beach, through the jungle, and into the heart of Tan-army territory. Armed with only a rifle, a bayonet, binoculars, and unlimited bullets, you face 16 frenetic battles. Initially, the controls seem simple enough. Use the directional pad to move, press X to shoot, use R1 to zoom in, and use the triangle and square buttons to cycle through weapons. Unfortunately, sluggish response coupled with restrictive environments quickly unravels this simplicity. The time between tapping a direction and moving is too great, and it's far too easy to get stuck behind even the smallest of objects. When the heat's on and you're surrounded by five or six enemy soldiers, the tasks of aiming, switching weapons, and attacking become a frustrating mess of tangled fingers.

Besides control issues, progressing through Army Men World War's levels is akin to playing Tomb Raider, without the requisite cliffs, caves, and crevasses. Each mission's goals are distinctly spelled out, and a comprehensive terrain map ensures you'll never become lost. Within each level, you can also acquire grenades, explosives, mortars, bazookas, and a variety of other war-waging tools. Helping to lift the game out of its cookie-cutter status, some missions also require a bit of strategy to complete - for example, avoiding enemy contact or finding the best route for outrunning a fleeing jeep. While it's no 3D war sim, and the experience is entirely too linear, Army Men World War is at least a bit more diverse in the gameplay department than previous Army Men titles. Furthermore, melting enemy soldiers with the flamethrower can provide countless hours of sadistic enjoyment.

Although the negative effects of hit-and-miss controls on gameplay is common these days, rarely do a game's graphics have such a detrimental effect on gameplay. However, in Army Men World War's case, that's exactly the problem. Given, the toy soldiers' character models are both amusing and decently detailed. Given, the jungle backdrops and scenery are ample enough to exhibit realism. And yes, the interstitial Plastic Toy News snippets between battles are gleefully amusing. These are all positive aspects, one must concede. However, everything is too freakin' dark! If it were only the realistic shading of the dense-jungle environments, things wouldn't be so bad. However, the entire game's visibility level is one of dark, darker, and darkest. Maybe it's the required use of dark greens, olive drabs, and earthy brown colors, coupled with an overuse of black. Maybe it's the fact that small tan soldiers hiding in brownish areas are near undetectable. Regardless, even if you crank your television's brightness and contrast up about 20 ticks, the game's still too dark. Furthermore, if you do this, then you'll begin to notice the game's texture warping, so either way you lose. What you end up with is an average-looking game brought down by overall light level - ouch.

Although there are problems with the plot, gameplay, and the graphics, Army Men World War does excel in one area - sound. Gunshots are both loud and alarming, tearing through plastic soldiers as if they were Mars bars on the receiving end of a George Foreman binge. The sound of explosives is particularly impressive, giving one the urge to overuse these devices. The utterances the enemy soldiers make when walking, grunting, and leaping are also a delight to the ears. Furthermore, the background music is adequately varied, and it is majestic and awe-inspiring in that way that only war anthems can be. Frankly, not since the Guns of Navarone have the sounds of war been this good.

What you get with Army Men World War is a decent sequel to the original Army Men 3D, but one that's only barely superior. There's decent variety in levels, the two player flag mode is fun, and the reward value for completing the game is high, but the game's overall replay value is simply drawn through the mire by inadequate control, murky graphics, and cookie-cutter plot. Had more time been spent on the game's graphics and gameplay, Army Men World War might have turned out to be more than just a good premise wrapped in an average game.


Army Men World War Land Sea Air Review

Whether you're toting around explosive grenades, pinpoint mortars, or the dangerous bazooka, Army Men World War: Land, Sea, Air is a well-rounded game that's not just for kids anymore.


3DO's Army Men franchise is a successful one, with more than 20 games, related books, and numerous merchandising tie-ins. However, despite this success, the games themselves are never any good. The visuals are usually poor, the gameplay is contrived, and the fun factor tends to peak upon your tearing open the wrapper. Bearing this in mind, 3DO is back with the latest in its Army Men franchise, Army Men World War: Land, Sea, Air for the PlayStation. It's been barely seven months since the last Army Men game, but more surprising than its timeliness, Army Men World War: Land, Sea, Air is actually a good game. You read correctly: 3DO has created an Army Men game that's fun to play.

Army Men World War: Land, Sea, Air begins its assault rather plainly: The Tan army is up to no good and it's up to you to stop it. To achieve this goal, the game offers three modes: single-player, boot camp, and two-player capture the flag. Using a variety of targets and weapon choices, the boot camp mode acclimates you to the game's controls, which haven't changed since the last Army Men game. The two-player mode lets you and a friend go at it on a few of the game's maps, stealing one another's flags while dodging CPU-controlled bots. While the boot camp and two-player modes are nice, they're throwaways compared to the game's single-player experience. Eschewing the usual run-and-shoot tactics of previous Army Men games, Army Men World War: Land, Sea, Air combines third-person fighting, first-person sniping, Metal Gear Solid-style sneaking, and vehicular combat into a vicarious wartime romp.

At it's core, nothing is different about Army Men World War: Land, Sea, Air's gameplay. You still need to run around killing Tan soldiers while adhering to mission objectives. The game's stock weapons, the M16 machine gun, binoculars, and bayonet remain unchanged as well. Though the bug that got your soldier stuck between rocks has been fixed, the game's controls once again emphasize weapon choice and shooting while limiting your movement in a number of bizarre ways. An onscreen cursor lets you toss a grenade anywhere you can see, but you can't strafe or run backward, and turning around takes forever. Admittedly, while the interface could be better, the game still gives you a decent amount of freedom, allowing you to crawl, crouch, and tiptoe your way through enemy lines. You're going to need this freedom too, as whoever designed the levels for Land, Sea, Air knew what he was doing. Some missions call for quick precision attacks on enemy installations, while others require a modicum of stealth. Unlike prior Army Men games, there are times in Land, Sea, Air when calm use of your bayonet will get the job done quicker and more efficiently than any amount of firepower. Enemy AI has also improved, and while you're not exactly fighting Einstein out there, the Tan soldiers will circle behind your location or feign death to draw you closer.

Topping things off in the gameplay department, Army Men World War: Land, Sea, Air mixes its ground combat offerings with six vehicular and special-weapons levels. Although vehicle control remains on rails throughout, you'll get to partake in a number of activities, ranging from gunner on a bomber plane and handler of an antiaircraft battery to machine gunner on an Apache helicopter and rifleman on a raft. It's disappointing that you don't have more control over driving these actual vehicles, but their presence nevertheless provides a fun diversion. In fact, thanks to the mixture of assault, stealth, and vehicle missions, this is the first Army Men game that actually feels like a real war as opposed to a series of boring skirmishes.

Although it is nice to be able to speak highly of Army Men World War: Land, Sea, Air's gameplay, similar kudos cannot be given to its visuals. While 3DO has fixed the darkness problems from the previous Army Men, copious amounts of graininess, texture warping, polygon dropout, and draw-in plague the game at every turn. On a positive note, the majority of Land, Sea, Air's backgrounds are neither tan nor gray, eliminating another of the previous game's major graphical flaws, that of enemy invisibility. Because the game features mostly jungle and beach motifs, the evil Tan Army can't hide in plain sight anymore. Unfortunately, while Army Men World War: Land, Sea, Air boasts a solid frame rate and plenty of amusing character animations, it's still blockier and grainier than most early PlayStation games.

Hands down, Army Men World War: Land, Sea, Air's greatest trait is its sound quality. Gunshots and explosions are loud and alarming, tearing through plastic soldiers with authority. The utterances the enemy soldiers make when walking, grunting, and leaping are also a delight to the ears. Furthermore, the game's background music is overwhelmingly varied and somehow even more majestic and awe-inspiring than the last Army Men game.

There you have it, a situation so surprising it almost hurts: 3DO's first decent Army Men game. Whether you're toting around explosive grenades, pinpoint mortars, or the dangerous bazooka, Army Men World War: Land, Sea, Air is a well-rounded game that's not just for kids anymore. The inclusion of vehicular combat, increased CPU intelligence, and clever level design makes Army Men World War: Land, Sea, Air a game that can satisfy adult gamers as well. It's just too bad the game's abhorrent visuals, combined with a few lingering gameplay quirks, relegate it to the unenviable position of being the best of 1996. Unfortunately, if you've checked the calendar lately, it's the year 2000.


Army Men World War: Final Front Review

Buried under the layers of poor visuals and rough control, there is indeed an engaging, playable game.


The latest entry to the Army Men World War series plays like any sports title given an annual facelift--the players look a little different and there's an extra mode or two, but for the most part, it's the same game. That's not to say that Army Men World War: Final Front isn't without merit. Buried under the layers of poor visuals and rough control, there is indeed an engaging, playable game.

This third chapter in the Army Men World War subseries does not, by any means, attempt to stretch the formula laid down by its lineage. But at this point, you've either come to accept the Green Army vs. Tan Army motif of the franchise or you want nothing to do with it regardless of the scenario. Army Men World War: Land, Sea, Air expanded the series greatly with its inclusion of multiple gameplay modes, including a Solid Snake-style stealth mode and a team of different vehicular combat modes. Final Front refines the ideas set in motion in Land, Sea, Air with different vehicles, such as tanks, motorcycles, and submarines. And unlike the vehicles in Land, Sea, Air, the ones in this game are no longer on rails, so they give you the freedom to roam around the environments while you take down Tan infantry and military hardware. This new freedom comes at a price, as the vehicle control can at times be soft and unresponsive. The solider control still suffers from the same problems as those in previous World War games--namely the inability to strafe and the outrageously slow turning rate. Even with these control problems, the sheer variety of the missions keeps things interesting and keeps you engaged.

One of the facets of the game, which may have some players throwing their controllers at the screen, is the level of difficulty. Each level contains some kind of surprise attack that you wouldn't see coming, and unless you're especially on top of your game, you'll likely take several runs through a level before you complete it. The game includes a boot camp to help you sharpen your skills--and most players will need it.

The level of difficulty is compounded by the game's pathetic visuals, as the grainy graphics can make it difficult to see exactly what you're shooting at or what's shooting at you. Bad draw-in, texture warping, polygon dropout--Final Front suffers from virtually every visual flaw that a PlayStation game can suffer from, save for slowdown. The levels alternate from pitch-black to washed-out, and the textures are, more often than not, bland and low in quality.

The game's sound fares better than its graphical presentation, though it doesn't have the same level of grandeur as Land, Sea, Air--the music swells up only from time to time, and randomly at that. Still, the sound effects are top-notch--the crack of the rifle is loud and sharp, the motorcycles engine possesses an appropriately low growl, and the squeaking and crunching of tank treads help to make up for the anti-immersion that the graphics provide.

When held up to the standards of the franchise, Army Men World War: Final Front is definitely in the upper echelons of the group. More amazingly, when judged on the merits of the game on its own, Final Front still proves to be a fun game--if you can get past the steep learning curve and 1996-style graphics.


Army Men: Sarge's Heroes Review

Within minutes of playing Army Men: Sarge's Heroes, you will be surprised at what Sony will approve for final release these days.


The first game in 3DO's Army Men series for the console systems, Army Men 3D for the PlayStation, lacked a great deal of spit and polish but had enough going deep down to make you hope for a sequel, albeit one that was much improved. That sequel, Army Men: Sarge's Heroes, came out for the Nintendo 64 last year and has now arrived for the PlayStation, but not much, if anything, has been improved upon, and it contains even more problems.

You once again take the role of Sarge, a soldier on the Green side of a world full of plastic army men. The Green are in a war against the Tan forces, who have recently begun importing terrible weapons from our own world, such as magnifying glasses, which they use to melt your men down to plastic puddles. Your mission is to gather your troops, a la John Belushi in The Blues Brothers, to create a unit capable of stopping them. Your arsenal is made up of weapons from Army Men 3D, such as a machine gun, a flamethrower, and grenades, with new additions like a sniper rifle and mines.

The game camera in Army Men 3D's single-player mode was near perfect because it stuck right behind your back, but in Sarge's Heroes for the N64, it floated behind you, and when your character turned, it took a few seconds to catch up. You'd sneak around the corner of a barracks and confront an enemy, who would then fire on you immediately, only he wouldn't come into view for a few seconds. Luckily, the camera in the PlayStation version of AM:SA stays put right behind you, although it also zooms into the sky for dramatic effect at times. Another fix is that it's now very easy to strafe in the game - not having this option was one of the main complaints about the original Army Men 3D. Also, expected differences between the PlayStation and N64 versions, such as improved sound and CG movies between levels, are of course present.

You probably won't need to get close to too many troops though, since the autotargeting is set so you can pick off enemies situated in towers simply by firing in their general direction. That was in place in Army Men 3D, but you weren't really able to get away with just running around blasting opposing forces because you'd get eaten up by machine-gun fire. Now, while enemies still fall with one or two shots, your character is a lot tougher, and health-restoring power-ups can be found all over the place. One pitfall that you'll have to worry about though is that you'll stumble upon an odd patch of land where the collision detection has decided to go wonky, and while you are trying to unstick yourself, you might get mowed down by a machine gunner. This is a strange but real concern.

Somehow the graphics in Army Men: Sarge's Heroes for the PlayStation have turned out worse than in the original game. Pop-up and fog are plentiful, the textures are repeated often, and the world generally looks very sparse and bland. Instances where you'll end up floating in midair or observe enemies walking through buildings are frequent. The sound effects are also similarly bad. Explosions, weapon fire, and your character's Duke Nukem-esque chatter all sound muffled, and the military-themed music is tinny. The multiplayer mode has been trimmed back to two players from the N64's four, taking any fun out of it. .

Those hoping for a more polished sequel to Army Men 3D will be disappointed to hear that this title is even more shoddily produced than the original and that it retains little of its embarrassing charm. Within minutes of playing Army Men: Sarge's Heroes, you will be surprised at what Sony will approve for final release these days.

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