Warning! This thread contains spoilers!!
Well, I'll start us off. Here's my review:
So, its finally here. The sequel to the 2002 Knight Rider The Game.
As most of you will recall, at the time a number of us were suitably unimpressed with the first game, and decided to lobby together on this very forum for a List Of Suggestions to aid Davilex in making the sequel a better game.
How much did they listen? Well... I'll tell you.
Things don't start off well when you get the disc out the box and notice it is on CD... rather than 95% of the rest of the market - who are on DVD. Just shows you how little code there really is.
What is clearly evident from the outset, is that this game uses the exact same engine as the original. Graphically you'd be hard pressed to tell the difference between the games. Except in one clear example: KITT. His appearance visibly changes throughout the game. Sometimes pure black, others he's grey or dark blue, and all the time he is too shiny - almost to the extent that he looks as if he has a brand new metallic paint job. Proportionally, the car is still wrong too. Awkward angles, the scanner is way too wide, the nose looks wrong etc. You just get the impression that they wanted to save time and use the original model from the first game - however wrong it may be.
KITT is still missing his characteristic turbine whine, and sounds identical to the first game. In fact the audio as a whole is quite disappointing, as some music tracks from the first game are reused here. Some sound effects are either inaudible due to the poor mixing, or are completely wrong in the first place. For example, KITT's micro jam sounds like a printer...
Entering the first mission, we are already presented with two niggling issues. First of all, the camera is placed looking back at KITT while missiles are coming in behind him. I have to say, this is the first driving game that I can recall not having the camera looking in the direction you are actually travelling. As such, being unable to see the turns, you go lumbering into them through no fault of your own. This is further worsened in the boss fights, where the camera rotates around you with a mind of its own. Its very distracting.
The second issue is the handling. (Again, sadly) Whilst KITT is far more responsive than the original, it also comes at a price. Go round a bend at great speed, and KITT will break into a slide which is nigh impossible to counter steer out of. And the issues don't end there. By the second level, its clear that the low speed responsiveness is way too excessive. From standstill, and applying full lock, you can turn KITT 180 degrees with a half second touch on the accelerator. So from standstill, when you put your foot down to drive away, you find yourself fishtailing left and right in order to just navigate in a straight line. Its embarrassing, especially if you are trying to beat a time limit. Then of course, when you finally get up to speed - you make the obligatory spin round the next corner. In fact, its possible to turbo boost and spin 360 in the air before you touch the ground - such is the poorness of the physics.
It takes a while, but you do eventually adjust to the handling. But its more pain than pleasure at all times. And these issues with the handling don't just affect driving. They affect the weapons too.
Yes... KITT has weapons. A contentious issue that has split the KR community on whether Davilex were going the wrong way. When they first stated that KITT would have them, I cautioned them that it would not sit pretty with the hardcore fans. But they assured me that it would improve the gameplay, and move us away from the repetitive and boring 'roof platforming' of the original. So I went into the sequel with an open mind, that it would improve gameplay. After playing with the weapons, I'll gladly trade them back for the roofs.
First things first - they look awful. Especially the guns, that seemingly pop out of the bonnet from just above the wheels. Quite how the footwell has space for the wheel and the gun when it is stored is beyond me.
There are three weapons; laser gun, plasma gun and missiles. The laser is best suited for one on one combat, yet strangely aims above your enemies. However, when it hits something, its miraculously realigned perfectly. Bizarre. The plasma gun is only really useful at close range, and is best used when surrounded by enemies. The missiles are pretty pointless, and are scarcely used since they cannot target your ordinary enemies, and are only really used for fighting a chopper and taking out gun turrets.
And how does the handling tie into this? Well... there is no auto aiming... (except on bosses) so you have to angle the car to hit anything. Now.. if your car can miraculously turn 180 at the tap of the accelerator, how on earth can you line up enemies who are 5 metres to the right of where you are aiming? You see the problem. The sensitivity drives you nuts, to the point that you just end up spinning on the spot and holding down the fire button until everything is dead.
Speaking of the dead, the enemies you fight are hopelessly uninspired. They are robots. Robots with tracks. And there are only three types. One looks near exactly like the Hunter Killer robot from the Terminator films, and another looks like Johnny 5 from Short Circuit. Combat with them involves them driving around you in circles, whilst shooting at you. And thats about it. They come in waves of three, and by about the 6th robot, you're already bored.
"Oh no! More robots!" exclaims Michael. Too bloody right.
They appear in the early levels, and then subsequently show up in pretty much every level after that. Every time, combat is the same. Three robots. Destroy. Three more. Destroy. Three more. Destroy. Zzzzzz.... "Oh no! More robots!"
By the time you've heard Michael say that the 500th time, you really do struggle to carry on playing. You can't aim properly. The enemies are hardly challenging. And you're sat in the world's greatest car, and would much rather be zooming down the highways than sitting through this rubbish. Heck, I'd even take back the roof jumping again...
And thats pretty much how you will spend about 80% of this game. Fighting the same bloody robots over and over. Which brings me to another issue. KITT's new energy system.
He has a number of 'power packs' that he uses as his 'health' meter. If you fire a weapon, it drains from his reserves. But here's the daft part... the robots fire ordinary bullets and damage KITT. There is no explanation given as to why this happens. As such, you could fire your laser at a wall until you are on a sliver of energy. Then take one bullet and die.
Even more laughable is the shield. By using it, you protect yourself from enemy fire. But wait... its drains energy! So what is the point? lol
You find the power packs exhaust very quickly, especially during combat. So you drive to these electric stations, and KITT miraculously heals himself by absorbing electricity through his Micro Jam. (No.. I haven't a clue either.)
Whilst the majority of the levels involve you fighting robots, there are a few diversions. Dodging laser beam fields in an underground bunker... avoiding incoming missiles... stopping a rocket from launching...
And therein lies a big issue. This game feels more like you are part of a James Bond movie, than Knight Rider. Its basically a poor version of Spyhunter with KITT in. And that says it all. You could replace KITT with another car quite easily... thats how far removed the story and levels are. They even have the old Bond cliche of Michael being tied to a conveyor belt and heading towards a shredder... oh please... spare me.
In fact I was amazed to actually see a Michael Knight character model in the game. Although you don't get to see his face up real close at any point. Good thing too, as he walks like a constipated doll with sticks for legs and arms.
Speaking of the levels, not even Super Pursuit Mode can save these. Mostly because the level design prevents you from really getting up to any great speed. You need long straights to do so, and there are far too many corners to navigate. Two things you notice whilst playing, is that some levels are in fact reused from the original. For example, when the chopper first attacks you, the road you head down is the exact same road you chased KARR down in the first game.
The other you notice, is that there are no chase missions... at all! One of the great things about the TV series was KITT chasing down the bad guy, yet you don't do this at all in any of the missions. All the levels rely on your weapons, and very rarely do you reach any kind of decent speed. Most of the time is spent unlocking gates, fighting, or recharging.
Another disappointment was that the main villains, Garthe and KARR don't actually make an appearance until the very end of the game. A criminal waste of the quality of the characters. But the bigger crime is the voice acting.
Many people complained that the voice acting in the first game was poor, but the sequel is worse. Far worse. KITT is clearly voiced by a British voice actor, and sounds very little like William Daniels. Heck, even the voice actor from the first game would have been miles better. Bonnie and Michael are the same voice actors as far as I can tell, but Devon, Garthe and KARR are all changed too. Devon is passable, but its clear the same voice actor also did Garthe. I was laughing when I heard Garthe in a really whiney British tone say "I'll get you for that!". The actor makes little effort to get into character, and rarely reaches the aggressiveness we are used to hearing in Garthe's voice. KARR is very poor. He speaks very monotone, and to begin with sounds like a cross between a Borg and a Dalek. He even comes out with "Exterminate!" at one point. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
And finally... there is the dash view. It is in fact worse than the first game. There are no longer meters for SPM and Turbo Boost, and you have no idea whatsoever what your energy level is from that viewpoint. Essentially, you cannot play the game from that viewpoint now - its basically redundant.
All in all, the suffering ended after just two hours. About the same length of the original. Quite disappointing, given that it only had 11 levels whereas the original had 15. I was expecting at least double. And with the likes of GTA: San Andreas coming out this week, with a reputed 200 hours of gameplay... it makes this game look even more poor.
But then, some would argue... what do you expect? It is after all developed by a tiny development studio in Holland, and released on a budget price of £15. The old adage of 'you get what you pay for' comes to mind.
On the plus side, the extras are not a bad idea. There are video clips, which are taken from the original series and craftily edited to cut out all dialogue, and show KITT at his stuntman best. There are numerous photos in the art gallery, and some background info on the show - all of which is unlocked as you play the game. There is a great quiz put together by Joe Huth and myself, that you will find interesting for a few minutes... but ultimately.. this sort of thing is best left to DVDs.
For me though, its a bitter disappointment personally. After all the work a number of fans put into helping Davilex out and researching apsects of the TV series for them, it seems a number of our ideas went straight out the window. Most of the levels look the same as the first. KITT is still wrong. We can't play as Michael. Its too short. There is no two player mode (apart from where the second pad can be used to aim the guns. Poor). No shooting gallery. No dirt track. No free roaming mode. In fact, quite alot of what was promised in their initial press release is missing from the game.
I do not wish to appear ungrateful to them, after all they were kind enough to send me a copy to review. And I'm sure they put a great deal of effort into the game. But I think in this instance they have really shot themselves in the foot by promising features they could not deliver on. One could argue that we ourselves expected too much from them with our List Of Suggestions, but at the end of the day - you have to create a product that a market wants. For Knight Rider fans, I'm afraid to say they have failed to be faithful to the show. I didn't think I'd say it, but I actually vastly prefer the original.
If Davilex want to get this license selling the way it should do, they have to put the effort into it. Issues such as clipping, KITT's shadow disappearing/reappearing, cameras getting stuck in walls.... all points at a game that was rushed and either not finished or very poorly bugtested. The Polish sounding names in the credits in fact suggest that it was developed by some unknown development house in Eastern Europe. Which explains alot actually...
But seriously, if Davilex want to make a Knight Rider 3 for their target audience (i.e. Us), then they really do need to develop what we want to see. Not add things that we don't. The weapons should never have happened, and if anything its quite a step backwards over the first game's playability. Davilex either need to acquire the old GTA III engine from Rockstar games, or co-develop the next sequel with the team who are developing Miami Vice for them. As those who have seen it will attest, it features the characters on foot and investigating buildings. If Davilex were to use that code to let us play as Michael Knight in Knight Rider 3, remove the weapons from KITT and fix his paint/bodywork, use the existing engine from KR1, and re-read the List Of Suggestions... I think we would all be happier. I'm sure their sales would be too.
I've been playing video games for twenty years, and even done beta testing for some of the larger companies such as LucasArts in my past. I can say safely, this is the worse game I have played this year.
If you are looking for KITT in a GTA type game, do yourself a favour and go buy GTA Vice City and mod KITT into it instead. If you are looking for a Knight Rider game, buy the original Knight Rider Davilex game. If you are content to let your imagination cope with the changes to the Knight Rider universe found in Knight Rider 2, then you might find some enjoyment from this game. If you find the weapons not to your tastes, or are expecting a better game than the original, avoid this game at all costs.
2/10
P.s. Whilst messing about, I found two cheats which are entered in the name entry screen:
ROAM1 - Unlocks vid clips
QUIZ1 - Unlocks the hard quiz
There's probably more though.
I was holding out for a US release of KR2. I haven't even unzipped and tried the KR2 demo yet. If I am not happy with that one, I may just drop $10 on the original after all. 
