The Shoot Review

The Shoot is an out and out rail shooter with a few variations and I am glad to report that albeit a few issues, the game provides a satisfying experience for any gamer who loves motion control based gaming. So as the name signifies, the game is all about shooting the bad guys, robots and ghosts! When I first started the game I remembered how I used to play that shoot the duck game on my 8-Bit console in the early 1990’s. Being a fan of the game during those days meant that I took no time adjusting to the game’s theme. After you have done calibrating the PlayStation Move you will jump in to the training session. Here you will learn a few interesting moves.

The first ability that you will learn is the time slowing mechanism; this can be initiated by rotating yourself 360 degrees. The next one is the Shockwave Blast which when available can clear the entire screen of enemies while pointing Move towards the ground. The last ability is the Rampage Rapid fire which when used will throw bullets from above. Obviously in order to get these abilities you have to shoot well and kill your enemies nonstop without missing anyone of them.

The Shoot is basically your classical Rail Shooter, but it has been intelligently designed with a colourful cast of foes that you are going to face in the game. The game takes place across five Hollywood style levels which take inspiration from horror and cowboy like movies. For each of these levels you will be facing a variety of enemies which have been excellently designed and when you get a bullet across them they will blow up in to pieces since they are all made out of wood. Also some of the objects in the environment are destructible which can give you some sort of a tactical advantage like blowing TNT or shooting through a window.

The game makes some very good use of the PlayStation Move controller and you will be forced to take evasive actions across each of the levels. You will have to be at your toes every time since you will be attacked by anything (grenades, burning lamps etc) and anytime. And this is where I think the game excels as compared to other rail shooters. Its ability to surprise is easily one of the unique elements of the game play and kudos to Cohort Studios for making this happen.  You are given a few takes (lives) per level so you will have to evade left or right, take cover etc in order to survive. Throughout the game your shooting has to impress the Director, which is your life bar. If you kill an innocent your Director will be pissed and points will be deducted from your total score.

The game is not without issues though. There were many times throughout the course of the game where the Eye and Move would just loose the calibration/tracking and while I am aiming the Move and the centre, the bullets would be shot somewhere else. This is a game breaking issue and due to this many times I had to restart the level.  Another issue is the lag of the controller. Occasionally the Move won’t just respond and doing a bit of excessive waving got the lag to be fixed somehow.

The Shoot could have been a much better game and would have also got a higher score, but some technical issues hold it back. Other than I think it’s a complete value for money product, with some intense shooting, interesting character design and innovative use of Move. If you love arcade style based shooters and you own a Move, than The Shoot should be a great addition to your library.

This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 3.