'G. I. Joe' could use more polish

• By JOSHUA WASCOM
• Special to 2theadvocate.com
• Published: Aug 12, 2009

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“G.I. JOE: The Rise of Cobra” picks up where its cinematic counterpart ends, following everyone’s favorite covert military organization as they try to track down the sinister forces of Cobra.

The Joes’ counterterrorism tactics are unorthodox but effective. They run down hallway after hallway, firing constantly. When faced with any sort of obstacle, they begin blowing up nearby things until a door opens or a force field dissipates. Don’t worry if that sounds too complex; you will always have four or five people in your earpiece telling you in drawn-out, silly dialogue to move forward and shoot things.

Mockery aside, the simplicity of the basic gameplay is actually one of the game’s strengths. There’s something to be said for the combination of huge waves of enemies and infinite ammunition. There is also actually a bit of tactical depth at times, particularly when you’re choosing which two Joes to send on a mission or when to activate your invincibility-granting accelerator suits.

But the mindless fun of the simple, fast-paced combat is severely hampered by some really annoying flaws. The game picks enemies to aim at automatically, which is usually fine, but there are frequent situations in which you want to take out a particular target quickly and must wrestle with the right analog stick to try to change the target.

You have absolutely no direct control over the camera, and while that makes sense in the 2-D arcade games that seem to have inspired “G.I. Joe,” the designers didn’t account for it properly. Off-screen enemies can’t even be aimed at. This can lead to you running around the battlefield, trying to figure out where to stand to get the game to show you the guy who’s shooting at you.

There is also a host of smaller but no less annoying problems, like the terrible vehicle controls or the way your life bar hovers over your head instead of staying at the top right with the rest of your stats. None of these flaws are terrible on their own, but they work together to really drive down the quality of the game.

“G. I. Joe” has its moments, and the longer you stick with it the easier it is to bear the bad parts. It’s particularly fun in co-op mode, once you’ve unlocked enough characters to make interesting pairings. Ultimately, though, with its repetitive central mechanics and lack of replayability, it simply isn’t going to be worth more than a rental.