Why Time Crisis 2?

As mentioned in my Time Crisis (1995) review, I had the chance to play a handful of retro arcade games at an arcade 90 minutes from my house. After having such a fun time with Time Crisis, I had to see what Time Crisis II was all about and how Namco improved it.

How was the story?

The story felt a little harder to follow. The writers definitely tried to make the world are fuller place, but didn't have the amount of time to share it. That doesn't mean the story was bad, it just wasn't as simple as Time Crisis. At the end of the game, it was a generic rail-shooter arcade story, so you aren't missing out on much.

The protaganist is back, along with a friend this time. There's also a woman there who's collaborating with them, but she gets caught. It's up to you to save her and stop some satellite from being launched into space. I didn't quite catch what the satellite was supposed to do, but that was the objective.

Were the graphics and audio any good?

I don't have much to say about the graphics or audio that I didn't already have to share in my previous Time Crisis review. The two games came out within two years of each other. The only improvement you're going to realistically get is in the monitor and speaker you choose to play the game on.

Most importantly, did you enjoy the gameplay?

I had a much better time playing Time Crisis 2. Massive improvements were made to every aspect of the gameplay. The pistol felt more accurate, everything was snappier, the visuals were clearer. Hit detection especially felt perfected, I had no issues pointing and shooting at exactly what I wanted to. You were also given the option to play with two-players, although, I opted for the solo experience for the sake of the review.

Setting

Another upgrade made to the game was the setting you played through. Each stage had a brand-new area you would travel to, rather than a single setting similar to Time Crisis. In addition to being a new setting, each stage also had unique gimmicks and obstacles you needed to deal with as you went through the level. Some of these include: falling barrels, swinging cranes, and even walls of a canyon while you're on a movie train.

Enemies & Bosses

As mentioned before, co-op was added, allowing two people to play linked. Overall, I think this was a good thing; however, there were some flaws that made combat a little too easy. Sometimes, enemies would focus on either playing, allowing the other player to attack them without being harmed. For normal enemies, this was fine, as you both usually had something to shoot at. The boss fights are where this becomes a problem. For all four bosses, they would focus on one player at a time. One person could simply hide while the other attacks without any issues. This made every boss fight easy, with almost no damage being taken. That said, I do think the bosses were much more charming and enjoyable to play against. I would still consider them an upgrade, I can only hope Time Crisis 3 improves this oversight.

Do you think it has any replay value?

I think it definitely has more replay value than the first game. They removed the skill points at the end, focusing more on your score and time. With the addition of co-op, you're able to push solo play and link play scores, although, score seems to be the main metric. Time was only used as a tiebreaker on the leaderboard, which is the only thing you're competing for when replaying the game.

Does the game appeal to completionists at all?

Same story as Time Crisis, the only reason to go back and play it again is to see things you've missed or get a better score. Beating the game once could be considered completion.

Gameplay Stats (WIP Design)

It took me 19 minutes, and 50 seconds to complete the game. I had an accuracy of 62.8%.