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Brash Entertainment’s second title doesn’t deliver quite the second thrills as the movie.
Jumper: Griffin’s Story is loosely based on the recently released film of the same name (sort of). Griffin is a jumper (someone who can teleport anywhere) and wants to avenge the death of his parents, who were killed by Paladins. Paladins and Jumpers have been in war for ages now and Griffin is intent on ending it. While the game stars Griffin (played by Jamie Bell in the film), the actual movie’s lead is David (Hayden Christensen’s character) with Griffin’s character playing a secondary role.
Brash Entertainment and developer Red Tide didn’t intend on reinventing the wheel with this game. The game is a linear brawler, where you move through levels (taken from the movie) defeating various Paladins. As you’re doing this, you’re facing increasing tougher enemies (because you’re moving up the chain) that can only be attacked from a certain angle, forcing you to throw some strategy into the mix. It isn’t very hard to figure out what you have to do and once you’ve figured it out, all you have to do is rinse and repeat. Eventually, you’ll fight Roland, the leader of the Paladin played by Samuel L. Jackson in the film.
Jumper: Griffin’s Story doesn’t utilize its license too much, which is a shame because the game could have been a great film adaptation. You are given the ability to use the teleport power to escape an enemy’s grab and sometimes, the game will automatically show Griffin taking an enemy and teleporting him off to a random location, usually to their impending doom. Those moments are easily the highlight of the game but they are few and far in between.
The game, which is being released on the Xbox 360, PS2 and Wii was very clearly developed for the PS2. The character models are okay but they are decidedly last-gen. You can still tell who Roland and Griffin is if you watched the film but just barely. The levels are decent but they are plagued with simple architecture and bad textures. There are some cool cut-scenes in between levels to move the story along which do look pretty good. The soundtrack is okay and fits the game well, while the sound effects aren’t anything special. Jamie Bell provided the voice acting for Griffin but the dialogue isn’t especially good.
Overall, the gameplay is stale and the presentation is below average. Yet, there are some fun moments to be found in the game (and the fleshing of Griffin’s character is neat) but this mostly serves to remind of how much potential a Jumper game had. If you’re a fan of the movie, a rental may be in order but as it stands, it’s hard to recommend the game as a purchase to even the most devout movie fans. -- Jose Liz, PGNx Media
---- Feb 21, 2008
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