Heavy Fire: Afghanistan
Playstation 3
In March, the Playstation Network was having a sale. There were a number of games that were being sold for one dollar. That's right, just a single buck for a whole game. I perused the titles, made a few purchases, and then went upon my business.
Heavy Fire: Afghanistan was one of the games on sale for a dollar. Did I buy it? Nope. In fact I don't think I even noticed it. I am not a big fan of games of this genre so I likely just skipped right on past it while looking for other, more recognizable titles. If I didn't come across some random post on psnprofiles.com about games with easy platinum trophies, I would likely have never even been aware of this game's existence.
I'm a big time trophy hunter, so when I read about the game, and saw that it was currently on sale for only a dollar, I made up my mind to go back and get it. A game with a 3 to 5 hour platinum that was only a buck? Heck yeah. Nevermind that I am not big into war games or anything having to do with the Middle East. At the time I was in a platinum funk and wanted something easy to complete.
So I got it.
A few months passed before I actually played the game though. I don't know what took me so long. I had other things to do. Plus the game didn't really look all too interesting. But the other day I finally got around to it.
It's really not that bad a game actually. If you have ever played any light gun style games lke Virtua Cop or Time Crisis, you should enjoy this. I have only played Time Crisis once or twice in the arcade (and never on a home console) but from what I gather, this comparison is the most accurate.
This is basically a track based shooter set in Afghanistan. You move the cursor around on the screen, picking off bad guys. There is a reload button for when you run out of ammo (of course). There is also a cover mode, which is where the Time Crisis comparisons come into play. If you notice a number of enemies on the screen and you know you won't be able to take them all out in one swoop, you can take cover. You pop in and out of cover to take shots at your enemies and retreat to avoid return fire.
It is a simple enough concept, and it is definitely one the game needed. I feel without it, this title would have been seriously lacking. There are a few other variables added to the game to make things a little more interesting. There are grenades, you ride in vehicles, and also there is the occasional quick time event where you have to jerk your controller in the direction an arrow on the screen is pointing. I found this to be quite glitchy though. There were many times in the game where I would jerk my controller exactly as I was supposed to but I would fail the event inexplicably. You don't need to pass these QTEs to advance the game, they are only for added bonuses. So I didn't get too pissed.
I guess another minor complaint would be that sometimes enemies can be a little hard to see. You have to clear the screen of enemies before you can move on. And there were times when I was standing there for literally a minute looking for enemies and I could not see them for the life of me. Only to finally find them way in the distance occasionally popping their head up from behind a box. Other times, they will be covered by glare from the sun and get cheap shots in on you when you can't see anything. That is very irritating. But still, this game is so easy I was able to get over it pretty quickly.
There really is not a whole lot to say about the game. Mainly you just blast enemies, duck under cover, and pop up and blast some more. The graphics are decent but nothing to write home about. There is a lot to shoot and blow up, and the environments tend to be pretty interactive. Even when there were no enemies on the screen, I like just blasting away at stuff to see it destroyed. I had fun.
And that is really what games are meant to be is fun, right? And I definitely had a good time. The game is pretty short (12 stages that are about ten to fifteen minutes or so in length) but there is replay value with an additional difficulty level, plus all the unlockables and trophies.
Is it a world beating game? Nah. Is it an instant classic? Heck no. Now that I am done with it I probably will never go back and play it again. But did I have a good time? I did. It was definitely worth the one dollar. I had fun and that is all that matters. And now I have a shiny new platinum to my name. This is actually my 15th plat, so yay me! I'm such a nerd - you don't need to remind me.
This is a fun waste of a few hours. I didn't think I would like this game at all, but I did. If you enjoy light gun shooters and would like an quick, easy, and destuctively fun game to add to your library, you can do much worse than this. It is no longer a dollar, so I can't recommend buying it at full price (whatever that might be). But getting it for just a dollar was a real steal for me, I think. I had fun!
Overall:
B-
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