After seeing this one at E3, we were pretty curious to play through the entire game, and nobody who loves light-gun games would be disappointed by some growth in the available list of PS2 titles. Endgame is definitely a worthy addition to the library, and it has some very nice things going for it. If you already have a light-gun, you could do a lot worse than buying this game. Graphics' quality isn't really any higher than the Sega ports we saw last year, but the main difference would be in the fact that the environments are all highly destructible. This makes for a much better overall presentation, even if nobody could argue that these are truly 'next-gen' visuals. The amount of special effects present show a good solid engine, since there is little to no perceptible slowdown at any point during the game. Now, this is a static shooter, so when we gauge slowdown, we can't really compare Endgame to titles like 007 even though the perspective might be similar. The game takes you through 4-5 distinct stages, each with a group of levels to be completed. The look of each stage differs quite a bit, so even without the ability to explore or move around, the quick pacing helps to create nice visual continuity and the feeling that you're moving through an area toward a destination. As each level is completed, a movie will play out to transition you to the next shooting area; the quality of FMV actually feels low compared to the rest of the game.

My speaker set-up may not be quite up to the task of full-surround, theatrical sound reproduction, but the claim to 'positional sound' that Empire makes for this game might be a bit overstated. I mean, how positional can you get when everything is happening on-screen in front of you? Surround sound would have to mean you could BE surrounded... :) But, the actual sound effects and music add plenty to the experience, so I'll let that 'positional' bit ride.

Obviously, we know what a light-gun game is supposed to do. This one happens to do most everything well, with a few exceptions. The story is that Jade Cornell, the hottie who appears as the Endgame cover girl, is mixed up in some high drama through a friend of hers who has ties in high (and bad) places. So, Jade ends up on a hit list and has to shoot her way to the source of the problem to help her friend escape his captors. The action starts in her apartment, where she receives a communication from her friend with instructions on where to find a gun; it's taped to the wall behind her fridge. Turns out she's a crack shot. Well, that mostly depends on you. But, much like the justification that Jamie Lee Curtis was able to instantly turn into a bad-ass in True Lies because of all that home exercise equipment, Jade is supposed to have trained for her moment behind the trigger by playing...wait for it - a video game! Ugh. Now, is it just me, or might it be a poor choice to develop the story this way in our current climate of hysteria where most people seem quite willing to link videogame violence to real world violence? Duh!

But, the cool thing about Jade's video game addiction is that along with the fun of taking Jade through her paces, you can actually play her favorite light-gun game, Mighty Joe Jupiter. The action and controls are identical to Endgame itself, but MJJ is straight out of a Saturday morning cartoon in its presentation. You may not go for the bright, simple graphics, but there's even more light-gun goodness here to give additional hours of play value to the game. Just playing with a different style of gun is enjoyable if nothing else.

Endgame makes things overly difficult by not including any kind of power-up that you can earn or shoot/find during play. The life and health system works in such a way that you refresh health after a completed level, but you can't earn additional lives or have them refreshed at any time. You're basically screwed after you've lost enough ground. Coupled with a constantly ticking timer, you can rarely afford to hang back and be cautious. So, it's a nice experience for the Army of One types out there who eat up light-gun games for breakfast, but for most mortals there will be plenty of challenge and more than a little frustration. The greatest obstacle to appealing to less seasoned shooters is the lack of a waypoint system or save feature that would allow us to come back and play from a challenging stage without having to start the game from the beginning, which is the only thing to do when Jade kicks the bucket. Tedious? You bet.

I think the manual pretty much sums it up with this line:
'As you fire your weapon, you will use up bullets.'
And I couldn't get a job as a Technical Writer? What gives? But seriously, there isn't much rocket science to getting this one going. Calibration was simple enough, and since this supports both the original Guncon and the Guncon 2, gamers who bought a gun game in the past will be able to partake without purchasing additional hardware. And for those of you who need a Guncon now, good luck. Apparently, they're harder to find than an honest man in Washington. Once your gun is calibrated, not many options are available, especially for on-screen display. You can select a Controller option that will allow folks who can't get their hands on a Guncon to use the controller and the main difference is a looser control that always centers your 'sight' after you let go of the analog stick. Even with a gun, it would have been nice to have the option to display a guide or sight mark, but nothing like this exists. The main option available for your gun is the button to map to a duck-and-load function, and choosing how the reload should happen. Once you've completed these things, you're ready to jump in and play. The screen shows you the timer counting down, and also displays the best score you've clocked for that area. Every once in a while, an enemy who has you lined up in his sights will flash a red target, and you'll have the briefest period of time to duck out of the way before being shot. Other pieces of the HUD that you'll watch are your health meter, the number of bullets you have remaining, and the number of seconds on the clock. Not dawdling is always a good idea.

With decent graphics and a substantial amount of gameplay, Endgame is a good partner to other games of its type, with Time Crisis being the obvious comparison. Fun things like the destructible environments and deep mini-game (Mighty Joe Jupiter) offer plenty of arguments to pick this one up. The downside comes from the fact that Endgame is pretty bare bones in its presentation and may not have much to offer less seasoned gamers because of its demanding timer and absent power-up system. Overall, it's worth a look for those with a Guncon already, and if you really think this is your cup of tea, there are other third-party guns you might be able to track down. The main thing is that Endgame delivers some solid shooting action.