Lupin the 3rd: Treasure Of The Sorceror King – PS2 – Review

But in all honesty, who
needs reality when you could be living the virtual reality.  In Lupin
the 3rd: Treasure of the Sorcerer King, anime fans get to go on the same kind
of kooky mission that they’d expect to see on the show.  You’ll sneak around
corridors, hide behind boxes, pickpocket police officers, and avoid getting
caught by the evil Interpol Inspector.  Yes gamers, this is Lupin in all its
glory (for the graphics, sound, and setting).  The gameplay is…well, let’s
just say that it’s even zanier than the anime it was based on.

To intrigue, excite and
encourage us to play deep into the game, Lupin begins with an awesome
compilation of CG movie sequences.  They fit the mood of the show perfectly. 
Lupin’s expressions are dead-on, and the over-the-top animations look great. 
It’s very fluid and cartoony – exactly how you’d expect the show to look if it
were computer-generated.

The actual game intro is
comprised of real-time footage only, and while it isn’t the best PlayStation 2
has to offer, it is fairly decent.  Not all of the characters have smooth
mouth movements, but then again neither does the majority of the anime that’s
out there, including Lupin.  So you can’t complain too much about that.

Lupin, being the sneaky
guy that he is, encases his body with a mold compound to make himself look
like a statue.  Why in the world would he want to do this?  To break into a
train car and steal a pricey item, no doubt.  Inspector Zenigata is on to you
though, so he doesn’t allow anything suspicious (including statues) on any of
the train cars.  Instead, Lupin is sent to the cargo compartment.  That wasn’t
how he hoped to get on the train, but he’s on and that’s really all that
matters.  Breaking through his statue suit, Lupin decides to infiltrate.  Now
the game begins…

…And annoys you to
death with several pop-up windows.  The windows are intended to provide
helpful in-game information, including "Hold R1 to aim" and "Press R2 to
crouch; release R2 to stop crouching."  Yawn.  Could someone please wake me
when it’s over?  Why is the game telling me things I already know or could
figure out on my own?  In the event that I couldn’t figure out what to do
next, couldn’t I just read the manual?  If the developers didn’t think that
was enough, why didn’t they include a separate tutorial mode?  I know this
info might be helpful to someone who has never played a game in his or her
life.  But if you have, these windows will drive you nuts.

Read, click.  Read,
click.  I think the tutorial has finally ended.  At last I can play the game! 
I explore, search for clues, and run into some conflict when a guard
"suspects" that I am nearby.  This causes a question mark to appear over his
head (sound familiar?), triggering another pop-up window.  Oh joy!  The fun of
reading.  This time the pop-up window tells me that the question mark means
that the cop is suspicious of something.  You know, if I hadn’t played Metal
Gear Solid a million times that information might have come in handy.  But I –
along with six million others – have MGS2 in my collection.

You’ll encounter a lot of
this in the first 20-30 minutes of the game, which is bad because that’s the
most crucial time for a game.  The rest is important, but if a game can’t hook
a player in the first half hour, it’s doomed.

Nonetheless, this is
Lupin.  I liked the CG movie and was intrigued by the intro (that statue
costume was pretty amusing – you’ll have to see it for yourself to get the
full effect), so I pushed forward to see what else this game had to offer.

As it turns out, question
marks aren’t the only thing that Lupin has in common with Metal Gear Solid. 
While Solid Snake is a spy who is trying to save the world and Lupin is merely
a comical thief, the two professions have some similarities.  The main one
being, of course, the element of stealth.  Lupin’s controls aren’t nearly as
intuitive as MGS or Splinter Cell, but the basics are the same.

Lupin has a lot less
violence though.  For example, your first weapon is a tranquilizer gun.  As
mentioned before you can hold R1 to aim, and switch to a first-person view by
pressing the L1 button.  Aiming in the first-person is fairly decent, though
the tranquilizer has such a short range that it doesn’t have much of a point
for that particular weapon.

The levels are a bit
straightforward and are very repetitive.  Train cars are never a good place
for a level because you can’t make too many drastic changes to each
compartment.  You can’t make them very wide, either.  What you end up doing
during this level in the game is a series of police encounters and a couple of
obvious puzzles (press a button here, enter a password there, etc.).  If you
think you have enough ammo, you can just rush through, tranquilize the cops
and go about your day.  This is true of most of the levels in the game.  But
you don’t have an unlimited amount of ammo, so this isn’t always the wisest
choice.

Musically the game is
good, graphically the game is decent, and the voice-overs are faithful to the
quality of the show.  But the gameplay really leaves a lot to be desired. 
It’s not much more than a dummied-down Metal Gear Solid clone.  It can be
really cumbersome at times, and doesn’t pack enough excitement to make the
stress worth enduring.

Gameplay: 6.5
Where the game
falls short.  Everyone knows it’s the most important part of a game, but it’s
also the hardest thing to perfect.  I suppose if you’ve never played Metal
Gear Solid before you’ll think Lupin is kind of cool.  And no matter what I
say I know that the most loyal Lupin fans will buy it.

However, most gamers, hardcore or casual, are going to play this game once or
twice and never feel the urge to return.  It’s not always boring, sometimes
it’s just content.  For some things in life that’s okay.  But is that what
you’re really looking for in a game – contentment?

Graphics: 7.9
Poor mouth
animations and purposely-clunky movements aside, Lupin the 3rd is a pretty
decent-looking game.

Sound: 8
Good music,
decent voice acting.  Some of the voices are better than others, but all of
them match the quality of the show.  So if you like the show you’ll be glad to
know that all of the actors reprised their roles for this game.

Difficulty: Easy
Uhh, what was
that I had to do again?  Oh, right – enter the password the game just gave
me.  And press the switch to open that door over there.

Concept: 4
Metal Gear Solid
without the solid gameplay.

Overall: 6.5
More fun to watch
than it is to play.  If you love Lupin, rent it for the story sequences. 
You’ll be amused by those.  But the gameplay is a lot less amusing, so don’t
expect the world from this title.  Don’t expect much at all.