wish I had good news for you, but judging from this game’s merits, the rail shooting gun genre should be shot and put in the ground. I really wanted to like Time Crisis 4, but one thing after another piled up in the list of frustrations as I played until I was forced to acknowledge this as one of the worst games I’ve played in months.

I certainly recognize the charm of having a realistically shaped gun as a controller – we all grew up on this sort of thing. Unfortunately, the problems start right away with the new PS3 Guncon controller. It feels cheap, and the new analog sticks in particular are chintzy and hard to use. Once the game starts, players will be astounded to realize that no-reticle is the standard default approach to gameplay. In fact, only some of the levels even offer you the option to turn it back on.

The newly added first-person shooter game mode is dreadful. A traditional FPS on a normal controller in this day and age would never be released in this poor shape, and the fact that you’re using a gun shouldn’t have changed that assertion. You’ll trudge, slow as a turtle, through horribly linear and uninteresting level designs as enemies pop out to attack utilizing their “please shoot me” AI. The arcade mode levels fare little better, since they feel poorly balanced and stocked with cookie cutter villains, my favorite of which were the ridiculously named secret weapon engineered bug creatures called Terror Bites. Get it?

There seems to be an almost conscious effort to offer positively insulting story premises delivered through some of the worst dialogue ever penned. I’m going to chalk that up as being a byproduct of the genre and call it a wash.

Even ignoring the ludicrous plot, what really matters here should be the shooting mechanic, which just isn’t much fun. The strangely designed cover system has you popping up and down like a hyperactive rabbit, so you never really get a full view of the action. And get this: in the cooperative multiplayer, you play in split screen – in letterbox format! What were they thinking? I don’t know what else I can tell you to discourage you away from this complete disaster.