Confidential Mission

The light gun game has basically been forgotten by both those in the industry and gamers. It's hard to even remember the last light gun game to grace the console. Does anyone play them outside of the arcade (which has been going out of style for years now)?

Part of the reason for this is that it sucks to play these games without a light gun, but the gun adds significantly to the cost of play and also can be a pain to find now. When it comes to light games Sega is one of those companies that gets it right, and their ill fated Dreamcast saw a fair amount of these games, including Confidential Mission (which was the final light gun game to hit the console).

The game is a lot like Virtua Cop in terms of game play, bad guys pop up and you shoot them, and like House of the Dead you fight a boss at the end of each mission. So may find Confidential Mission's game play a bit tough, but if you're a good shot you can beat this in an hour or so. There are a few things that keep Confidential Mission's game play interesting, including justice shots, where you shoot the bad guy's hand to disarm him. I also like how it warns you which guys are going to shoot by having the cursors change colors (red means they're preparing to fire).

The coolest part is the special events which test your skills, such as accuracy and repeated shooting. These can be challenging, but thankfully there's a practice mode (Academy) to help you train. The use of different camera angles and visual effects really add to the addictive gameplay that gives Confidential Mission a very fresh feel from the usual tried and true light gun games.

Visually the game was excellent back in 2001 when the game was released for Dreamcast, but five years later loses some of its appeal. Even back then (and still now of course) there is some slowdown and collision detection issues.

The audio is not the game's strong point, but it never has been for light gun games. Expect the same cheesy voice acting from House of the Dead, many will want to hit the mute button to avoid all of this.

As mentioned earlier, the game is solid when it comes to its game play which is what matters most; I would recommend picking this up if you're a fan of Sega, into light gun games, or just want to bring the arcade fun home.