C.O.R.E. (DS)

GameSpot editors' review

• CNET editors' rating: 1.5 stars Poor
  Detailed editors' rating
  Overall score: 3.5 (1.5 stars)

• Reviewed by:
  Tom Shea
• Reviewed on: 08/18/2009
• Released on: 08/11/2009
• Originally published on GameSpot: C.O.R.E. (DS) Review

C.O.R.E. feels like a miserable trip through the annals of history. The foundation is reminiscent of Doom, with levels designed around hunts for multicolored keycards and enemy encounters built on reflexes rather than tactics. There is nothing wrong with a stripped-down first-person shooter, a blast to the past that capitalizes on what made the original games so compelling, but C.O.R.E. is not able to capture those nostalgic thrills. The levels are poorly constructed; with vague objectives and no map, it is extremely frustrating to make your way through the labyrinthine world without getting lost repeatedly. And the enemy encounters are cheap and unsatisfying, relying on unfair tactics to strike you down before you have a chance to retaliate. The multiplayer is serviceable, providing four-player killfests in claustrophobic levels, but it fails to excite because of the lackluster weapons and awkward controls. C.O.R.E. is adequate on a technical level, but the uninspired design and plethora of aggravating issues make it a pain to play.

6215515>A headshot doesn't even make him flinch.None

C.O.R.E uses a control scheme that has become standard for the genre on the Nintendo DS. You move your character with the D pad, shoot with the L button, and aim with the stylus. The basics are handled well, making it easy to run around corners and hit enemies with pinpoint accuracy. But deeper tactics are severely hampered by the control scheme. For instance, strafing around a solitary enemy in a large room works all right, but toss in a few more foes and it becomes maddeningly hard. The D pad is too small and imprecise to allow for the fine movement needed in such a situation, so circling a gang of attackers while avoiding their fire is grueling. Furthermore, you can jump by double-tapping the screen, but this works so inconsistently, it may as well not be in the game at all. You can also use the A button to get airborne, but that requires you to use your stylus hand, so forget about aiming your gun in the air. There are only a few instances in the game where you are forced to jump, but whenever those moments pop up, they serve only to highlight how awful the jumping mechanics are.

The finicky controls make the uninspired battles a chore, but there are more issues with the combat than a lack of precision. There are eight guns in the game, but they're missing the impact that should make shooting exciting. The shotgun, for instance, is slow and inaccurate, making it worth using only as a last resort after you run out of other ammunition. The rocket launcher dispatches foes quickly, but enemies fall lamely when struck, which strips away much of the appeal of the powerful weapon. Enemies don't react to getting hit, so guards will stand impassively still while you unload a clip from your automatic into their skulls, often not moving a muscle into they finally die. This lack of impact makes fights more difficult than they should be because it's often impossible to tell if you're hitting the enemy you're firing at. Compounding these issues is cheap enemy placement. They are frequently situated just out of sight on the other side of a closed door. Unless you know they are standing there before you enter, you will be shot a number of times before you find the source of your pain.

The level design follows on the heels of the unwieldy controls and uninteresting combat, piling on the frustration. The levels are composed of long corridors with doors to branching paths leading off in every direction, and you don't have the luxury of a map to guide you through this tangled mess. The visual style varies from level to level, but each individual stage is composed of repeating wall textures, so it's nearly impossible to get your bearings and figure out where you stand in relation to your objectives. Furthermore, even when you blast the in-game brightness setting to full, C.O.R.E. is still way too dark. It's bad enough that everything looks the same, but you frequently can't even see where you're going. The objectives are also too vague to properly guide you through levels. For instance, you are told that your target "should be somewhere in the east sector," even though there is no compass to point you in a specific direction. Because there are no navigation tools to help you along, it's way too easy to get lost in C.O.R.E.'s world.

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