So your Jack, who does a wonderful impersonation of Duke Nukem in my opinion. He's your all-around man's man. Deep voice, no fear, 1000:1 odds I'm going all in guy. You've got your dog by your side and your girl staking out all over town. After a few cut scenes you're in the scene that where the last game ended. Immediately you're in combat with about 15 guys at once, it's just you, your dog and about 20 rounds on a 45mm. Personally, I think the first couple hours of the game were poorly done. I don't like the idea of forcing me to use a game feature. Yet that's exactly how it felt. Basically if you don't use your dog more often than you shoot, you will either die or run out of ammo and once again be forced to use Shadow (the dog). Now I don't know if DTR 1 was similar or not but it's my guess they lowered the ammo drop to force more use of Shadow. Don't get me wrong, Shadow is an awesome feature. I just don't favor how it was implemented.

Ammo, ammo, ammo... the game lacks ammo badly. Once I got the hang of it I could understand that it's just another challenge of the game. Conserve ammo, use Shadow, be stealthy and do super cool Matrix-like moves.

While Shadow is a great resource, he is a little dumb at times. For instance, if there is an enemy that is behind a box, Shadow may or may not be able to get to him. There are also invisible walls that he cannot pass at times. Just a little glitchy but annoying none the less. Speaking of glitches, there are handfuls. Many of the glitches you won't notice because they trigger at random times. Say you get to the end of a level and die, passing back through it again and you might find a constant spawn, basically never ending spawn of enemies.

There are certain levels that utilize hand-to-hand combat. This system is iffy at most. It is very linear, like most of the game. Now there are certain moves that Jack has, such as disarm, human shield and bullet time leap. These maneuvers use adrenaline, so does Shadow but it's a fairly simple setup: health, adrenaline and armor. That's all the stats you have to worry about. Down at the bottom you have your weapon display and your warnings if you run out or are full of ammo. It's a nice setup, not too clunky and takes up just enough space.

The game is played like a comic book, you are the hero and you fight the bad guys. The graphics are nice, I would say they are great but there are too many "cheesy" graphics throughout the game. Now, the cut scenes are excellent. As far as the level design goes they were creative in what they made. The levels are designed skillfully but you end up going backwards through the same grounds for no good reason other than recycling the level. I just wish there was more to this game, it has a lot of potential but it seems like it was thrown together too fast.

Loading times are absolutely terrible. Depending on the level you're loading you could be looking at 30 seconds to 2 minutes. The camera is flexible and it's necessary for all the different vantage points you need. I like how the controls are setup, very fluid. I was comfortable with it in about ten minutes.

The sound for the game works. When you go into battle there is a nice tense sound in the background which fades back into the normal sounds when you destroy your enemies. The game is very easy for the first few hours and frankly if I stopped playing at 5 or so hours I wouldn't like the game one bit. Surprisingly, the game gets better after you get past a certain wall. Your thinking changes. No longer can you crouch behind a box or a wall and have no concern of getting harmed at all. When multiple enemies throw grenades and firebombs at intervals that are very difficult to predict and run around corners at you is when the game truly begins. Most of the A.I in the game is completely predictable. Boss fights on the other hand are sooo fun. Very nicely done. Here it is vital to figure out the spawn patterns and your surroundings. There isn't one certain way to complete it and it cannot be done in seconds. Every boss fight in the game kept me on the edge of my seat.

Aiming is done by auto-target but it's necessary to change targets so it's not completely point and click. The auto-target system angered me quite a few times. It is just irritating when you get killed because your not allowed to aim a certain way or at a certain target because one guy is dancing in front of you and you automatically re-target him every time. I wish a zoom feature was implemented because there are times when a long distance kill is needed. Lets just say Jack is no sniper. In a game where ammo is so crucial it hurts to waste 30 rounds to kill one guy because you had to aim from a distance.

I am one who likes non-linear play. Playing this game is like watching a movie, or reading a book. There is only one way to get through the levels and only one end result. Every move you make has already been predicted and it's the same move as another 1,000 people who are playing it. For me this means no re-playability. Every stage is the same basic concept. Play a few shoot 'em up levels, perhaps an unarmed and then fight a boss, rinse and repeat. This time with a new weapon. Too bad you will only get a taste of the new weapon because only 1/10th of the enemies will carry them so your ammo will be EXTREMELY limited.

It is a fun game to just play mindlessly. Excellent renting material. I just don't believe it has enough excitement, challenge, storyline or draw to it in general to play more than once. I suggest you to rent this game if you want to run around and kill bad guys. It is fun for a third person shooter. Don't go into it expecting a deep story or for revolutionary content. Just expect 10-15 hours of shootin' and dog chasing.