A trifecta of villains team up against everyone's favorite TV spy in "Alias." Is Sydney as sexy on the consoles as she is on primetime? "X-Play" goes undercover and finds that we don't fit into slinky, low-cut skirts nearly as well Jennifer Garner.
Also known as...
"Alias" is a perfect license for a good bit of the old stealth-based action, and Acclaim wisely focuses on the show's strong points for the game. This means the game has an overriding plot, complete with plenty of cinematic sequences and authentic voice acting. And then there's the hardware and fisticuffs. Count on lots of gadgets and plenty of opportunities for stealth, martial arts fighting, gunplay, and, of course, Garner in as many tight-fitting outfits as the developers could think of.
The plot of the game focuses on Sydney's three main villains teaming up against her. Seems they all want to develop a new laser weapon, as villains often do. Infiltrating a casino swamped with bad guys, she soon finds herself knee deep in terrorist plots and danger. She won't play cards all night as she has important work to do in Romania and Saudi Arabia.
The developer's intent to keep the strong plotting of the show a central facet of the game can get pervasive at times. The action is interrupted too often by communications between Sydney and her team members, but the dialog is, thankfully, amusing for the most part.
Stealthy girl
"Alias" plays out in the standard third-person perspective, with a rotating camera that you'll end up fiddling with a lot to get a decent view. Certain items and weapons will switch the view to a temporary first-person view, as well. Being based on a TV license, "Alias" will certainly match players' expectations. Well, it will if most people are used to games based on TV shows being derivative and average, anyway. The game doesn't make any attempt to break new ground, but it does a solid job of letting players get into the shoes (though sadly, not the pants) of Garner's character.
You can sneak, crawl, hug walls, and show off acrobatic fighting skills regularly. Avoiding detection, striking enemies from behind, and firing off machine gun rounds into terrorists are all par for the course. There are also different vision modes. The infrared mode is perfect for night details (especially when outside), and the black-and-white targeting mode lets you keep track of threats while staying out of sight.
Gadgets galore
Gadgets are a big part of the game, and you'll have access to lockpicks, a wireless modem, a laser, and several different types of security-beating devices to overcome retina scanners, light beams, print scanners, and other kinds of devices. Sydney can change outfits during a mission, posing as a waitress, for example, with a skin tight, almost criminally short metallic skirt.
You'll have to play various simple minigames to overcome locks -- both virtual and physical -- throughout the game. This involves solving code combinations for computer locks by finding the correct series of buttons to press. At times, these mandatory side events are timed, so getting good at them is imperative.
The real test for any game of this sort is how well it balances stealth and combat. Sneaking around and staying in shadows, creeping up to bad guys and taking them out quietly all work well here. When stealth fails, however, the big flaws in "Alias" become apparent. Sydney has an array of hard-hitting, smoothly animated combat moves, can snatch weapons from enemies and pick up objects around her to bash with, but the combat is simply too clumsy to be entirely effective. She'll go off on tangents and into combos you don't want or face the wrong direction way too long. Also, selecting an enemy to attack is a pain.
She looks so lovely tonight
Presentation-wise, "Alias" owes a lot to its television counterpart. The game deftly uses cool-looking, split-screen views at times to show the action from different angles. When Sydney must sneak past guards or something important happens elsewhere, the screen splits to show both views. While an interesting attempt at style, the sudden split often makes the game harder to play.
Graphics and sound are adequate, but won't be setting any technical benchmarks. The locations look reasonably realistic, character animations are smooth but a little repetitive, and the facial scanning of the actors makes their virtual counterparts look fairly close to the real thing. The cast of the show lends their voices to the game as well, and the music is scored to match.
Spying goodness
"Alias" is not a great game, but it's a solid stealth action title for fans of the TV show who have never played "Metal Gear Solid" or "Splinter Cell" and don't know any better. It's sharp-looking, has challenging missions, and manages to do the show justice. However, the PlayStation 2 version of "Alias" is far inferior to the Xbox version. In addition to glitchy graphics, it includes a multitude of game-stopping bugs. If you're only looking to get the PlayStation 2 iteration, drop the score a full point.
"Alias" (Xbox)
Also available on the PlayStation 2
