I first rented this, and then eventually bought it later because as hard as it was, it was so cool. In all honesty, I'm not a HUGE fan of 3^rd-player perspective games (3pp's) and so, I had to get this title…too bad it was so goddamn rare, took me 5 months to find it used…not that that's actually an issue. As long as it works, who cares, right?

Graphically, the game looks decent, although it could look better, if it was Expansion Pak compatible. But it isn't. However, that's okay, graphics aren't everything. Gameplay is, however, a bit…strange. It's kind of a combination of Time Crisis and…well, something with a military theme. For the mostpart, you'll do a lot of duck-shoot-duck, and patterns similar to that.

Storywise, its not bad, although a little hokey in some instances. But that is how dialogue in games tends to be, no matter how good they are (Final Fantasy freaks, hold your tongues, you know I'm speakin' the truth!). At least the story evolves, and does have some pretty nifty twists and turns.

The enemy AI is, to say the least, butt-stupid, but the enemies are positioned so well that it doesn't matter. Kinda like Doom…anyway, the bosses are different story…kind of. They actually mostly win with firepower as opposed to decent AI, but some bosses will surprise the hell outta ya, like that dude with the akimbo pistols. Man did he ever catch me off-guard…

Weapons are relatively simple, and you'll usually have a use for all of them. They are the .45 pistol, shotgun, smg, rocket launcher, silenced pistol, and c4 remote-detonation explosives. You'll be using the .45 pistol the most, guaranteed.

There is also a locational-damage system, so you won't have to do too much worrying about having to pump an enemy with shotgun shells for a quick kill. A bullet to the head will do just as good.

The levels can get quite interesting, but they all carry a similar theme, that being either industrial or military, and stick with it, so you won't usually be going "Deeewwwd! What the fuck am I doing here?!" There's also plenty of things to keep your ass covered, which you'll need to do a lot of, as the action can get very hectic.

For an action/stealth game, Winback is the best you'll get for the N64. Although I haven't played Metal Gear Solid, Winback I think, is a very fair substitute for a system that should have at least one game like that.

NWC