So, feeling that we needed a cover shooter with a twist, Square Enix published a game in which you can control a Cyborg Gorilla.
My original notes before starting the review for this game went as follows:
- Thanks Japan
- Been spending most my life livin’ in a Griefers paradise
- Jim Corbijn – seriously?
Mindjack is a clumsy mess. The narrative makes little to no sense with the voice acting merely bland one moment and downright atrocious the next. The visual style of the game is somewhere between Minority Report (the Xbox game) and Headhunter Redemption (also last generation). It’s all sparkling blues and metal struts with washed-out, overly bright whites, which makes the sets look like the Jean Claude Van Damme film Timecop. Which leads me to the game’s character designs (on which the mullet JCVD sported wouldn’t look out of place), a completely uninspired copy/paste from every bad Resident Evil game. Protagonist Jim Corbijn and his partner Lyle Fernandez look like reality show rejects dressed up in leathers that might only have looked cool in the 80s.
For a cover-based shooter it’s a shame to say that the cover system only works most of the time, with occasional moments when your character will combat roll out into the middle of gun fight instead of sidling up to the protective cover you pointed him at. The shooting is reasonably solid but that is hardly a plus point; really it’s expected behaviour.
The partner and antagonist AI is verging on braindead. Frequently during my playthrough I witnessed enemies walk headlong into walls whilst I ambled up behind them and melee-attacked them to death (that’s when the melee prompt worked, at least).
Flawed doesn’t even come close to most of Mindjack’s execution. And yet I loved every minute of it because under Mindjack’s fumbling, gauche exterior is some kind of savant.
Before you are even allowed into the front end menus the game introduces you to mind hacking: the ability to jump into any friendly or neutral NPC in the level and control them personally. It is presented in such a blunt manner that it isn’t until about two levels in that you start to appreciate the delicious possibilities for play using this function.
After this brief mind hacking experience (which has some narrative connotations later on if you care about story) you are given the option to either Open A Portal, meaning start a campaign, or Hack A Portal, meaning jump into someone else’s campaign.
Playing this game completely offline is missing out on what makes this game a stroke of genius and, simultaneously, utterly frustrating. In the online portion the game is at the height of its idiotic best, as anyone can jump into your game and will appear as either an ominous red hacker or friendly blue.
The game completely changes as soon you get your first red hacker; your priorities will change and your eye is only half on the drone enemies whilst you instead try to keep track of the glowing red orb darting around the level. It can possess any character that isn’t directly affiliated with your side and this provides excellent added spice to the playthrough, especially with the right group. It can be hilarious how rivalries develop as players slip past the campaign player, possess an inconspicuous civilian and then gun down the protagonist from behind.
The cross section of randoms I played with were also interesting given the open invite for griefers. They alternated between tentative new guys to achievement and XP hunters so the game was always different; interesting even, although not always fun.
One guy whose campaign I hacked into was clearly after the ‘Get hacked 100 times‘ achievement and had parked himself, safely inactive, at the end of a level and permanently away from controller. That kind of experience can dampen your enthusiasm somewhat but the behaviour of the players is hardly the fault of the game. Mindjack offers you a playground and sometimes the people who play within it just don’t want to play nice. I respect the developers for not trying to sanitise the experience (even if a bit of balancing could have been done as killing the campaign player nets you way too much XP – giving a little too much incentive toward griefing). The problem is that there are moments where it becomes evident that without everyone cooperating (red hackers included) it is actually impossible to beat the campaign. This imbalance will lead to you having to opt for the offline portion of the game that is nowhere near as interesting.
That said, it is still refreshing that you can’t judge this game by its utterly terrible cover (a generic sci-fi cover with angry shooting mans). There is a heart beating in here somewhere and, if you find it and nurture it, it provides a gratifying multiplayer alternative to the only other griefing based game I know: Left 4 Dead.
I have enjoyed every jerky, broken moment of Mindjack. It is to video games what Death Race 2000 and Evil Dead 2 are to films. An unabashed attempt at something different, no matter how hackneyed it might be it is still a mile better than another safe game with nothing to offer. It’s proudly incompetent and totally deserves whatever random fanbase it might have.
Also it has Cyborg Gorillas and monkeys.
For more information on Mindjack, why not check out the Wiki?
Comments
15 responses to “Mindjack: Review”
I will play this at some point, it sounds up my alley from all the reviews I've read (even the negative ones), but it probably won't be for a while. I don't like cover-based shooters, but I do like both rough diamonds and brave ideas which this seems to be/have.
For the record, Left 4 Dead used to have a significant griefing population, ever since the release of L4D2, Left 4 Dead is a mostly wonderful place, but the sequel is a bombsite – 'almost literally' impossible to find a game being played by genuine players. Certainly in my last 50+ games I didn't find an actual game going, but then I realised that people still play the better original and haven't let L4D2 near my 360 since.
Sorry, the review is not a condemnation of griefing, I didn't mean to imply that. Left 4 Dead is only fun for me as a griefing game. Although I agree that L4D is better than L4D2, I'd rather play neither as I genuinely dislike them both.
If you don't like cover shooters then Mindjack will not change your mind, it is probably one of the worst examples, but if you do like them rough diamonds, Mindjack is your man.
I also realise now that after slagging off the garish blue backgrounds, I picked screenshots that only show off the 2 levels where you are in a brown, dank underground portion
I see myself becoming way too frustrated with this game.
I get the feeling that every time I'd get a game going i'd be rolling the dice as to whether i'm going to be griefed or if things are actually going to work out.
Call me boring but I generally like knowing how my gaming experience is going to be.
Best line of the review:
"It’s proudly incompetent and totally deserves whatever random fanbase it might have."
MisterBenoit you are playing it too safe. Embrace the chaos of potential random griefers and delight in it. There shoudl be a place in your heart for this kind of 'make your own adventure' style play, it is okay to fail at the game because replaying it against others will generate a new game and a new outcome. With other people involved no two playthroughs are ever the same and that is what makes Mindjack great.
As for the line, I like that it can be taken as praise or condemnation
This is the kind of game that would benefit from a rudimentary ''sandbox'' editor/mode. The one where you don't really edit the level, just decide who and what to drop in it. Kinda like the Battlemode from Guardian Heroes.
I'd take a level with 6 cyborg gorillas and 12 monkeys any day! O and a couple nausebots. Because EVERYONE loves nausebots.
I just hate switching from Lost Planet 2 to MindJack (I knew I shouldn't have bought those 2 games simultaneously) given I keep screwing up every time I'm picking up the controls again, and I'm really bad at ''switching back'' to a game's control's scheme. I'm sure it's the ''PC FPS player'' in me bitching, since on PC, it doesn't really matter – you can set the controls of EVERY GAME OUT THERE to be the same from one game to another and it's all the saaame (well, aside from the little extra ''Special abilities'' which will just end up likely having their predefined keys waiting to have said abilities assigned to them).
I think I'll just hide one of the two games until I'm done with the other.
Oh man, a level editor of that variety would be absolutely awesome. I am also imaginning it as a live thing, a bit like the forge level editor where people were able to spawn stuff randomly in Halo.
That in Mindjack would be fantastic, or even make it competitive so the guy who is playing 'God' has a point system which means that as the palyer in the campaign scores XP it give s the 'God' character a pool of resources to spend on different types of enemies that they can spawn wherever they want.
This is why this game should have been on PC, imagine the modding opportunities.
As for supporting Feel Plus, they also made an XBLA game called Moon Diver which looks pretty good fun in four player.
I dunno about the necessity of it being on PC. Remember how one of the FarCrys had a level editor on console but none on PC. (I think it was FarCry Instincts). I'm pretty sure a level editor of the calibre mentioned above could be more than manageable on console.
Ok, now we have to harass feelplus to make a sequel. It doesn't matter if the plot doesn't tie in with anything; did the original even do that anyway?
I remember you trying that Moon Diver game. I felt it was almost as taxing for my eyes as a shmup with you alone, how would it be with 3 more players?
You had to bring up Far Cry today, while the wounds are still fresh, didn't you!?
They are fresher here, believe me! I JUST read about ''the shattering story'' 2 hours ago! D:
Think about the silver lining. The sequel might make us stop talking about Far Cry 2, forever.
Man, you guys! Is Fary Cry 2 all I'm going to hear about in Montreal?
Speaking of Far Cry 2! I should probably finish up that map I'm(was) working on so we could give it a shot while you're around! … Just kidding, it won't happen anytime soon; I'm not even half way done with the editing of the terrain.
On the bright side, the next Far Cry might make us – and other gamers – want to look back at the first one and go ''Wow! It's like Far Cry 3, except BETTER!!''.
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