You wake up on a beach with no recollection of how you got there. You're sore and have gunshot wounds. A life guard finds you and patches you up for the time being and tells you she found just one key to a NYC bank on you. Then... you're attacked. You're savior is killed and you quickly realize whoever put you in this position is out to finish the job. In getting away you slowly gather clues as to why you're accused of assassinating the US President (!!), what the mysterious tattoo 'XII' means, and figuring out the web of a sinister conspiracy of global domination.
From the get-go this is one terrific game, no two ways about it. It incorporates the clever comic book look, which is an homage to the source material. Shoot a guy and a trail of 'AAAAAAAAs' will follow him down as he plummets. You also get nice close up of some of your kills. For instance if you get a guy in the head with the crossbow or throwing knives, three sequential windows across the top of the screen will detail your kill. The cinematic scenes are also in comic book style with multiple windows showing many things going on, or even cooler, the same image fragmented, giving you that thriller feel as you piece the clues together to the puzzle of what is going on. The game doesn't just stop with weapons, there are also useful gadgets like a lock pick and grappling hook which you must use for infiltrating bases and general sneaking around. The game doesn't stop there. Since you play an elite soldier/agent, as you uncover your past in the form of documents you will regain your abilities that you had before - more effective use of med-kits, ability to hold two guns at once, being able to dispatch foes from behind with a blow to the neck, and others which make the game ridiculously exciting and allow many approaches to many situations.
Also the settings must be mentioned. Starting in bank vault and going all the way to a secret nuclear launch site with a submarine and a secret desert prison in between along with others this game just refuses to be repetitive. Each level offers new challenges and a new way to use the skills and weapons which you have acquired.
The game's few negative points are David Duchovny's fairly dull voice acting and a difficult save-game system which only allows you to save in certain points. But the latter isn't really all that bad as it keeps you on your toes and other popular games like HALO also have it, so it isn't a factor against the games enjoyability, but rookies of FPS will have that to complain about. Everyone else, this is a great game that comes highly recommended. 9/10
Rated MATURE: violence
