Japan is at no loss for groundbreaking, imaginative conceptions of our technologically infested future. While FeelPlus MindJack may share some of the same fresh ingenuity as many of its Eastern counterparts, this future fable unfortunately stumbles when trying to grasp the fundamentals of its genre.
As third-person shooters go, MindJack launches with a wicked twist: players jack other minds to use their bodies for strategic gain. Translated to the battlefield, it has recently fallen enemies becoming allies, the public are potential war machines and the occasional, oddly placed gorilla is a behemoth ready for battle.
Its a salivating prospect; one heightened by online single-player integration, meaning anyone can hack into your game, acting as friend or foe. It all sounds great on paper, but the mind-hacking nub is so poorly implemented that it fails to provide any tactical advantage.
This basic incompetence becomes a recurring motif throughout, with grinding gameplay, morose scenery and dire plotting (which is matched by sub-Resident Evil levels of trite dialogue) all failing to inspire. The latter comes bafflingly to a head when, at around the halfway point, the central protagonist, Jim, is in a state of shocked disbelief at the discovery of some insidious corporation using futuristic technology to control minds the exact same gameplay crux that hes been using himself throughout the game.
Confused? Well, the woeful scripting isnt even the worst of it. The mind-control element is often frustratingly dull handling a giant gorilla is nowhere near as fun as it should be - and its only when multiple online players infiltrate your game that any of the potential truly shines through.
However, not even the presence of gun-toting monkeys at one point can distract from what is otherwise just another monochrome, half-hearted third-person shooter. If the developers had injected some energy into the proceedings and implemented their concept more skilfully, then this couldve been more than just another by-the-numbers action release. Regrettably, its nothing but mindless stuff.