Lawrence.com

Good: Decent concept

Bad: Gunplay, control, sound, voice acting, boring objectives

Turn it off and watch: 24

Any fan of the television series 24 knows that it can be extremely intense, entertaining, and suspenseful. Whether he's stopping an assassination attempt, nuclear bomb threat, or virus outbreak, Jack Bauer delivers week after week. A huge part of 24's appeal comes from the great concept: Each season is 24 hours long, and all events occur in real-time. Several subplots intertwine, and you get a sense of where each character is at a given time. Without Warning attempts a similar concept by having you control six different characters in the midst of a terrorist attack. Unfortunately, the concept is the only thing in WW's corner, as the gameplay and story are absolutely awful.

You'll immediately notice that the characters move like they're stuck in mud. Navigating each identical-looking environment is a terrible chore. Other than basic rolling, ducking, and shooting, there's not much to do. Three of the characters are soldiers, and as such, are armed with grenades and automatic weapons. Holding the L trigger locks onto enemies, and R fires. The lock-on function makes everything far too easy, and gunplay becomes an exercise in alternating which trigger you're holding in. There is no precise aiming or real challenge to be found. The three non-military characters are a security guard, a cameraman and a secretary. The only one of these three that can actually exercise decent self-defense is the security guard, thanks to his pistol. The cameraman films events, and the secretary is on a mission to escape the terrorist-ridden chemical plant. Every once in a while, something pops up to break up the monotony of the bland objectives, but these distractions aren't interesting either. You'll perform a few basic Simon-esque button puzzles to fiddle with fuse boxes, but this doesn't even resemble entertainment in any way, shape, or form.

Camera control is awful, and it has a terrible tendency to spaz out when you lock-on to a nearby enemy. In firefights involving enemies surrounding you, the camera doesn't react fast enough to make the gameplay managable. There is little to no collision detection, and countless enemies have identical faces. Explosions and other effects look decent, but the environments are bland and dreary. Gunshot sound effects are terribly generic and muffled, and there isn't much music to speak of. Voice acting is downright embarrassingly bad, and dialogue is about as cheesy as it gets. Get used to hearing a lot of "Die, American!" from the hordes of stereotypical terrorist enemies.

The easiest way to sum up Without Warning is with this sentence: You will not have fun playing it. Conceptually, it has potential, but the execution is atrocious. In the right hands, this type of game could be very interesting. You'd be much better off waiting for the actual 24 game than wasting time and money on this disappointment.

Graphics: C-

Sound: D+

First Play: D

Last Play: D-

Gameplay: D-

Overall: 60% D-