Xbox Drake: A Review

[goatdan]

I'm going to do a bunch of these a little shortened tonight. I'm getting rid of some games soon so I'm giving a lot of my collection some good play. First up, Drake...

Drake

I'd like to begin by stating that I don't feel this is the worst game of all time. That credit still goes to White Men Can't Jump on the Atari Jaguar, a game that as soon as it gets interesting is over. Drake is much better because it never even comes close to sucking you in.

I bought Drake for a total of $3.88 at Toys R Us because I liked the concept and I generally like games where you run around in a third person view shooting things. Metal Gear Solid, Headhunter, Indiana Jones, etc. Give me third person, some cool gadgets and a good camera and I'll love the game.

Lets go through the good first. The two gun idea works all right. I like using the left trigger for the left gun and the right trigger for the right gun. Sweet.

And the graphics are acceptable.

That's it. Really. Now, for a quick list of bad things...

The game gives you way too much to work with. You have a double jump, the ability to run on walls, two guns, and about a million other abilities that are introduced really quickly. It seems that most of the time you don't need any of them, but the game forces you into it anyways.

The voice acting is horrible. The story makes less than no sense.

And the worst crime of all, the camera doesn't work at all. You might be getting shot, but you can't tell where it is coming from unless the enemy is on screen. This renders the game completely unplayable. If the camera had worked, I would've stuck with it for a while. Without it, this game easily claimed the title of "what the hell were they thinking?"

Overall Ratings:
Graphics - 6
Sound - 2
Control - 0
Gameplay - .5
Overall - .5

Yuck. Even at $3.88, this game is too bad to keep in my collection.

[swlovinist]

I bought Drake for a total of $3.88 at Toys R Us



This is what really makes a big difference between someone who can point out some positives, and a magazine who is evaluating a game coming out at either $19.99 or $29.99 for someone to buy. The game dropped so fast I dont know the original ESRP. I personally think that If you buy a game for less than a meal, it can become alot more forgiving in all categories vs. paying a new price for it. Price does matter. Price determines whether a game is a good value or not.

[klausien]

Drake is definitely worth $5.00. In general, the game is super spastic, but it isn't as bad as the mainstream gaming media would have you think.

[Frankie23]

The description of the camera problems sounds a lot like the issues I had with Dead To Rights. If you've played DtR, what do you think of the comparison?

[josekortez]

The best aspect of Drake is that it trades in at FYE stores for $15.

[goatdan]

The description of the camera problems sounds a lot like the issues I had with Dead To Rights. If you've played DtR, what do you think of the comparison?

I haven't yet played Dead to Rights, but it is in my stack of "cheap games that I might trade in." I really doubt the camera could be as wonky as Drake though...

Price does matter. Price determines whether a game is a good value or not.

I agree completely. Unfortunately for me, while there were some things about Drake that I found nice, even at $3.88 the game wasn't a good value beyond the fact I got an extra $1.25 for trading it in to EB.

Drake is definitely worth $5.00. In general, the game is super spastic, but it isn't as bad as the mainstream gaming media would have you think.

Honestly, I didn't find it worth $5.00. When I can go out and purchase a game like Rallisport Challenge for $6.00 or Headhunter for $8.00 used, Drake new for $5.00 just doesn't cut it for me. I only have a limited amount of time to play, and I'd rather spend $8.00 on one game like Headhunter that I would play and not two games like Drake that are exercises in frustration.

I'm not trying to be overly hard on the game, but dang... It has very little redeeming qualities and even at $3.88 I felt that it wasn't a good value. Except for trading in.