Mindjack suffers from a common gaming disease. It has an interesting, slightly unique premise, yet its gameplay, presentation, and level design keep it from being anything other than ordinary. It’s a third-person shooter that has all the common gameplay elements that its genre would imply. You can duck and cover, you can run and shoot, you can even dive out (or into) oncoming bullets. The game’s unique element rests in the protagonists’ ability to mindjack fallen enemies to fight on their side. You can also hack into other real players’ campaigns (online), either to aid them in battle or raise havoc. Unfortunately, this semi-interesting hacking component is marred by overly repetitive levels, wave after wave of mindless enemies, treacherous AI, and a meaningless story that never truly delivers.
The game is published by Square Enix and developed by feelplus. It looks like it belongs in an arcade — spending a quarter on a level would do the game justice. The levels blur together with a canvas of bland blues and grays. Characters, at least the protagonists, initially appear polished and well-detailed, yet the animations and voice acting left us scratching our heads, thinking "is this really a PlayStation 3 game?" Its soundtrack plays like a cyberpunk, techno-fiend’s dream, yet sound effects are as bland as the expressions on main character’s face.
Perhaps we’re being a bit harsh on Mindjack; there are some shining moments in this game. Our biggest gripe is the simple fact that these shining moments (based on the hacking and mindjacking premise) are perennially shadowed by poor gameplay physics and an unresponsive cover system. X is your go-to button, allowing your character to sprint, dodge, and duck in and out of cover. It’s a simple idea we’ve seen in countless shooters, and when done well — for instance, in a series like Uncharted — it provides the player strategies for each battle. In Mindjack, it’s not always clear what objects, walls, or corners you can cover behind. You’ll run toward a mini barricade, tap X to cover behind it, and then dive to the right of it because you apparently cannot take cover behind it. The next thing you know you have a dozen enemies firing at you, so you quickly tap X to dive out of the way. This time you get stuck covering against the wall and the result is something resembling an execution firing squad.
Set in the year 2031, Mindjack features a rather typical “corporations are evil” plot. The developers created a universe where, twenty years from now, humans have the ability to hack into someone’s mind and control them. In the wrong hands, this ability would be dreadful, but put in the hands of Jim, the game’s main character, and it’s just another trick to stand out in a very, very crowded genre. Jim is a dull lead. He has no emotion and the person controlling him will get so tired of him that they’ll want to permanently mindjack into his partner Rebecca’s mind. Technically, you can do this, but you are always stuck with Jim. After heaps of boring dialogue, get used to asking yourself, “Why am I still playing this game?”
Jim is a special agent, and the intro gives little insight into why he’s trailing Rebecca. Eventually you learn you have to break into the evil NERKAS corporation. The plot is clearly not essential to this game, as it never completely develops. Still, a good game doesn’t necessarily need a compelling plot, so long as it’s fun to play. Sadly, after fighting a few waves of faceless enemies (literally, there’s only a handful of different enemy skins), you’ll want a puzzle, a nice long cut scene explaining what is happening, or even a little hand-to-hand combat to spice things up. Yes, you can fight enemies up close, but it rarely works properly — most of the time you’ll simply get shot, so it’s best to stand behind cover throughout the whole game.
The ability to mindjack someone sounded promising. I imagined building a legion of enemy controlled allies, fighting against big boss mechs. Nope. The actual ability is pretty simple: if you take down an enemy to near death, you have a few seconds to get in close enough to hit Square and turn your former fallen opponent into a would-be comrade. It works well, but you need to be fairly close. You can even mindjack the R2D2-looking mini-mechs. You can also control a hacked enemy, or a helpless civilian, by pressing R3 and L3 simultaneously. This allows you to physically control this person or machine while the AI takes over for Jim (good riddance). A nice perk to this ability is if Jim dies, you can mindjack into a civilian or hacked opponent, so long as either are available. There were a couple gnarly battles that took quite a while to complete, mostly because when we died, we’d transfer to another body, Rebecca would revive Jim (seriously, just let him die), and we’d mindjack back to our snore-fest of a protagonist.
The game’s AI has some serious issues. Your partner will duck behind cover, but then shoot straight into the very barricade she’s hiding behind. Enemies do the same thing. It’s almost like AI doesn’t understand you can’t shoot through a concrete wall (bullets can’t penetrate wired gates, either). The AI is so poor that it almost serves as the game’s comic relief.
Luckily, the multiplayer component allows you to fight opponents with human brains. You can play with up to six real-life players (you are given the option to turn off this feature if you don’t want anyone busting into your campaign). It is fun to run amok in someone’s game — until that someone is you, just hoping to get past the latest annoying wave of enemies. Then again, you could be nice and fight alongside your online counterparts.
There isn’t a great variety in weapons. You have grenades, a small arsenal of guns, and for some reason you start each level with your original pistol. The further you progress through the game, the longer it takes you to find the stage’s first gun to pick up. You can only carry two different guns, and you must constantly be on the lookout for more ammo and better weapons. The levels are fairly short, but checkpoints are sporadic. You get experience points as you progress through the game, allowing you to pick up different boosts to your character’s abilities, like more health or increased running speed.
It is disappointing that Mindjack didn’t offer a more enjoyable experience; hacking opponents to fight for you is an interesting concept, but that ability is hidden behind a very mediocre framework. There are a lot of great games out this time of year, and sadly this is not one of them. If you play it, you’ll probably forget about it. While the multiplayer is a refreshing take on the online deathmatch, the very basics of the game — the cover system, the story, the shoddy controls, and the inept AI — are as exciting as a wet blanket. Mindjack’s unique premise is lost in its flawed execution.