X-Squad is the first game that has been developed in house in Japan by EA Square, this 3D squad based action game that doesn't really offer gamers anything new or revolutionary. The game's general mediocrity begins with its lifeless storyline that puts the player under the control of Ash, the leader of a covert paramilitary organization known as X-Squad, in the year 2037.
Gameplay
X-Squad is played out in a standard over-the-shoulder 3D perspective that's much like Spyhon Filter. The aspect of the game that makes is stand out amongst the flood of third-person action games that are currently on the market is that it makes excellent use of the two analog sticks on the Dual Shock 2 controller.
The left analog stick controls the general movement of the player -- left and right is used for strafing and pressing up will make the player run forward and pressing down will make him run backwards. Meanwhile, the right analog stick is used for turning your character and aiming his weapon, much like the mouse look in PC first-person shooters like Quake and Half-Life. With only a few simple button presses, it's easy to order your teammates, which will include up to three other players at one time, and have them do tasks that range from scouting out an area to backing you up with gunfire. The problem is that your teammates are never really as helpful as they should be and there's never really a point where getting through a mission depends on you effectively managing your comrades.
Because of this, the game pretty much settles down into a pattern of shooting up enemies, unlocking a door that leads to more enemies and repeat until you reach the boss at the end of the level. While the gunplay is satisfying and the number of different weapons that can be purchased between missions are quite varied and tremendously rewarding, it doesn't help cover up the fact that the game is completely shallow.
Beyond the game's complete lack of depth in either mission structure or design, X-Squad also suffers from being an incredibly short game. Whilst the game is really challenging on both the Intermediate and Expert difficulty settings, there are just not a lot of missions to be completed by the player. A good player will be able to blow through the game in just a few hours and a less skilled player will probably be able to do the same simply by playing through it on the game's Novice setting.
Graphics
The texture details are decent enough and there are a lot of nice lighting effects that help give the game a nice atmosphere. Though a bit plastic looking, the characters are modeled quite well and have some really nice motion captured animation that is accentuated by the fact that the game has been locked in at a very silky smooth 30 frames per second. The only significant problem with the animation is that it occasionally gets in the way of gameplay as you'll find your character often locked in an animation when you really would like to just get out of the way of enemy gunfire.
The visuals are also marred by plenty of weird little graphical glitches that can be seen in both the game's 3D environments and character models. You'll notice plenty of glitches with the models and backgrounds that really shouldn't be there. Plus, there's also this slight flicker problem that can be seen in the hair of some characters that make them look a little bit on the freaky side.
Sound
There are plenty of voices to be heard when playing X-Squad as you and your teammates will communicate throughout the game both during gameplay in pre-level cinemas. Luckily, the voice acting isn't too bad and some of the voices are actually handled quite convincingly. On the downside, the game's music is a bit monotonous and gets really repetitive and even slightly annoying after a short while. And as everyone already knows, monotonous and annoying music is not something to look forward to.
