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The announcement from Sony that the licensing fees for producing PlayStation titles would significantly drop brought the word that it might not be long before we saw games as cheap as $9.99 on shelves. And sure enough, Take 2 Interactive has jumped onto the boat with the introduction of a series of extremely reduced priced titles whose quality, unfortunately, is directly reflected by the amount of money that they are sold for. One of the initial $9.99 titles is Grudge Warriors, a vehicular combat title in the same vein as 989 Studio’s Twisted Metal series. Surrounding the game is a plot concerning a series of gangs who are launching attacks at each other in an attempt to be the most powerful gang in the world. Despite having a plot to back up the game, there is seemingly no mention of any of this during the entire game. You wouldn’t even know there was a story to it all if it wasn’t for the manual included within the game’s packaging. Right from the start there’s a rendered introduction, and then it zips you to pick what gang you want to be a part of. No back-story on any of the gangs, no nothing. And this is simply this simply the start of an obviously low set of production values.
There’s little to complain about, and little to like about Grudge Warrior’s graphics. Put simply, the game is painfully average and bland looking. The frame rate is steady, except for the instance or two where it hit a little hitch for no apparent reason. The environments are nothing interesting, and feature the same generic landscapes that have been seen in every vehicular combat title before it. None of the character models for the game’s gangs are at all memorable. Unlike Vigilante 8 or Twisted Metal, none of the gangs seem to have a vehicle that showcases their personality to make them distinct. The only differences between them are their basic moves (which cause the same amount of damage, but have a different looking effect to them) and the eventual special move that’s obtained by collecting certain items. Instead of competing against specific gang members to be the first one to destroy everyone else, Grudge Warriors adds a little twist into the mix by having the goal to be destroying a series of generators. The generators aren’t scattered in open view all the time, and many times it will require having to pull off some timed leaps into in order to make it into the area where the generators are located. Having to destroy the generators is a nice distraction from simple killing, but it becomes boring after having destroyed nigh all of the enemies in the stage, and the only goal then being to wander around trying to find the generators. When it comes down to it, though, Grudge Warriors is barely worth the $9.99 that it costs to purchase. If you’re looking for a low-priced action title and have already had your fill of Twisted Metal and Vigilante 8, there are still other options out there that are better than this.
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