Contract J.A.C.K. 
I just finished the game and thought that my brief impressions might help others deciding whether Contract JACK is worth a look. Another interesting thing to mention is that I bought the game despite rather poor reviews it has received. I guess I just trust Monolith too much after not being disappointed in one single title of theirs. Also, if I was to skip this game in favour of next instalment of NOLF series, the result might have turned out to be quite a wait. On top of that, I am a big fan of so much hated mindless corridor shooters, where thinking isn't a requirement to successfully complete an objective.
I fired Contract JACK up ready to "taste" the ~60% average in scores it got across the web, but I got hooked immediately. Usually there is always a level or two in this genre that serve as a "warm up", familiarizing you with controls and getting you ready for some serious shooting. Luckily this wasn't the case with JACK, action kicked in right away making me forget about my toast burning in the kitchen. This is a huge plus for me, someone who is soon to phase out of the world of gaming sadly. I'm seeking fast and total immersion in games I play and if such does not happen - the game could never hold my attention afterwards. So much for all the gems we've had in last months, and JACK shines over all of them in my eyes. It is the first game I found interesting enough to beat in past five-six months and that says a lot.
Contract JACK is rather short of an experience. It took me three days to blast my way through seven chapters this game offers. If I had to calculate hours spent with it, I would probably come up with something close to 10-12 hours of game play. That is not necessarily a negative thing to say about JACK. I find that this time period is more than enough to appreciate a game, but if someone is looking to get his money worth by diving amount paid by total hours played then by all means steer away from JACK, as you will get a very unpleasant figure.
Everything in Contract JACK screams NOLF2. Same Jupiter engine without much(if any) tweaking at first sight. It is a definitely great to witness similar to NOLF2 physics, colors and level design, but I have to admit that the engine while good for a 2002 game does not quite cut it for a similar product released nearly two years later. None less, I had absolutely no problems with somewhat dated visuals, which did not look all that bad at 1600x1200 with 4xAA applied. Especially if performance is excellent, which is a big plus for a fast-paced action FPS game.
What to do in JACK..? Kill, kill and kill again with help of every single weapon you could get your hands on. I do not think I've ever seen enemies to be so aggressive in a game before. Here your are swarmed by tons of opponents at every single moment, to the point where you absolutely need some sort of strategy to stay alive. It is not a question of perfect stealthy manoeuvres...not. Your character could sustain lots of damage(unless it is a direct hit from a shotgun from two meters of course) before going down. You just need to have some common sense when it comes to regrouping. Oh believe me, you will need to flee! It is otherwise impossible to take 6-7 enemies down without losing much of health. While running away do not forget to jump around as you will be a perfect target for many thugs. Unreal Tournament at it's finest so to say. Very good and very refreshing I would say.
The game does not come without its cons unfortunately. From what I've noticed enemies "eat" a LOT of bullets before going down, which leads to a well known problem of being short of ammo on later levels. Here comes the challenge of having to fight your way through with a help of lonely pistol surrounded by opponents with grenade launchers. I'm not certain however, it might be the hard difficulty level I chose, but having to deliver two-three perfect head shots to take an enemy out does sound like an overkill to me. This is no NOLF ladies and gentlemen, get ready to utilize that left mouse button to its fullest.
Another minor grip is vehicle controls. These got to be by far one of the worst I've experienced in an FPS game. During your venture you will drive snowmobile and a motorcycle and let me tell you it isn't very good having to fight with your keyboard in order to place an accurate shot while moving. A few things are to be said to be fair though. Auto-aim is featured while driving and NOLF series is known for very floaty vehicle controls, so JACK wasn't that much of a surprise in this department.
No storyline of any sort is seen in JACK. Do'h, that's not a con in my eyes. I knew what I was getting myself into. Hey, we're not sneaking - we got a big gun! You will see a few cut scenes about... well, I won't even go into spoiling that tiny bit of content they will present to you.
All in all, solid shooter with some great fun packed into it. If you are bored with yet another ultra-mega-super realistic stealth cucumber-tomato clone on the market, absolutely give it a try. Odds are you will not regret it.
Posted by P1x44r on 27/07/2005 14:05 
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