Time Crisis 5

[Skykid]

Posted this on GAF too.

I finally got to try this yesterday. Played it for 3 hours straight. By the time I was done I'd already gotten the 1cc, two separate times, but it was really rough at first.

I'm a series vet...the first game remains one of my all-time favs. 1cc-ed both it and 2, many times. Never spent enough time with 3 or 4 to get that good, but enjoyed them nonetheless, even though 4 seemed pretty uninspired.

The dual pedal mechanic is...really fun, actually, and did not take very long to get used to. The graphics are great, except for the occasional stutter--was not prepared for that. Also, the HACS at the end of 1-2 didn't explode at one point...just continued floating there as I walked on by, lol.

The difficulty seemed absolutely brutal at first. I knew that your amount of time to duck after seeing a red circle had dropped for TC4, but it seems to be even less time now. Thing is, the amount of time can vary greatly depending on the enemy's distance from you. During the final battle with Wild Dog, when he is on a moving vehicle some distance away, you actually have way more time to dodge than you do in Stage 1, where all of the enemies are in close proximity. Making matters worse is the fact that most of the attacking enemies attack again very soon after, sometimes less than half a second later, and then again after that. Casual players all got murdered very quickly and most did not bother continuing or trying again. My first few credits also ended very quickly.

Finally I changed my play style and had much more success; instead of waiting for red-shirted enemies to attack, then trying to counterattack, I instead learned their patterns and shot them down before they had a chance to attack. As usual, the non-red enemies seldom attack, so this generally led to safety. Most of the enemies appear in the same places every time, with few exceptions, and the boss battles/minigame events never change (though the "press the indicated pedal quickly!" event chooses randomly between the two, so you can't just fall asleep), so memorizing my way to victory was not difficult.

My final playthrough was completed in 7'02"85. That's the shortest Time Crisis game ever; while I think it was possible to clear the first game in under 10 minutes, you're talking world-record territory there.

The minigame events are entertaining, and there's nothing frustrating/silly like the 3-screen battles from TC4. Overall, it's a lot of fun, and very intense...while it lasts.

This sounds absolutely great! Thanks for the impressions. Sounds like they cut all the stupid shit from 4, and a 7 minute clear time? I'm in. I was a series vet until 4 which is the only one I skipped on demolishing. Hope this one rekindles the flame.

[xxx1993]

I actually beat the entire series. 5 is the only one left now.

[Smraedis]

I've finally got to play this, so I'll just give some quick Day 1 views.
The game is really pretty, and doesn't look outdated like TC4 when it came out.
Enemy proximity, it's a bit of a strange one, you'll have some enemies that are really close, or they are pretty far away, like previously said, some of the close enemies shoot at a really fast speed. Most of the times I've got hit are from when I've dodged what seems to be a quick shot and then come back out before it actually hits...
It feels that the first half of the first stage is the hardest bit in the whole game, where it really tries to end your credit in the first 2 minutes.
I like the 2 pedal system, it's much better than the multi screen system in TC4. It seems like good use of switching pedals makes the first stage a lot more manageable too.
Sadly I'm not liking the scoring system, it's a bit too much like Razing Storm and not TC4, so if you love the scoring in TC1, maybe you'll enjoy this game a lot more than TC4.

So I'm quite happy with the game, but the scoring as it is will make me get bored of the game quickly.

[gameoverDude]

Tried it today and enjoyed it. At least this looks in line graphically with the current gen consoles (PS4/XBOne).

Stage 1 is harder than the 2nd stage, TBQH. Unfortunately you can't store as much special ammo as before- here the caps are 100 for MG, 20 for SG, and 2 grenades. Grenades do seem weaker.

I've gotten a clear time of about 7'58". At least the short play time should be addressed by the TM Edition.
There was a rare stutter maybe about once or twice in a play-through.

As for the HACS, I took out the shotgun and started whaling him with it, then let the handgun auto-change in to finish that. Piece of cake, since this thing is very sluggish and can't quite keep up with you. As long as you use the dual-pedal system like you should, you'll tear it apart. I know you can use the machine gun to rack up a hit count, but am not sure if this would bring you ahead. Is it better to try for a speed kill?

For the stage 1 end boss, I used shotgun on those four hatch guns at street level. Best to trash those quick IMO.

Takeshi Miura did return to do the BGM for this one, according to Timecrisispedia at wikia.

[gameoverDude]

TC5 Crashes

Youtube user 9mvp9 has TC5 crash on him, with a Windows 7 error message coming up on screen.
Namco's System ES3 board is running Windows 7 Embedded- yup, it's PC hardware.

Wild Dog 20 second kill in final battle
And... Wild Dog can be beaten in as little as 20 seconds.

[Smraedis]

Already bored of the game sadly, too many things wrong with it.

You can get hit while coming into and out of cover, which has never been in place in a TC game.
The game lags, sometimes stopping you from covering! Also lots of parts have frame drops and skips.
The machine gun is a waste of time, using any other weapons can deal a lot more damage.
Scoring system is really weak, just speed through the game for a really high score. You can spend almost all of Stage 3 hiding, and shooting one enemy will result you with a 100k accuracy bonus on 3-1 and on 3-2 you can just shoot the targets and get 100%
The rankings on attract mode scroll from 20 to 1, but only the top 5 scores are saved! (why?)

Hope the game really gets changed when the full version comes out, the arcade near me removed TC4 and RS for this...

[cave hermit]

Well I played this the other day at a boardwalk arcade at Ocean City NJ.

The fact that there were only 3 rather short stages (my playtime clocking in at about 10 minutes), one of which was just a trivial Gatling gun sequence, was pretty disappointing. Not to mention that the game ends on a cliffhanger ad for the upcoming rerelease! There's something wrong when a publisher ships a game advertising itself as soon to be obsolete.

It's kinda sad that this large, expensive lightgun setup only has about 10 minutes of gameplay in it...

There was a second loop at least, but it didn't seem any tougher.

Speaking of difficulty I felt that the first stage was substantially more difficult than the other two.

[Skykid]

I am disappoint.

Had high hopes for this.

[gameoverDude]

Already bored of the game sadly, too many things wrong with it.

You can get hit while coming into and out of cover, which has never been in place in a TC game.
The game lags, sometimes stopping you from covering! Also lots of parts have frame drops and skips.
The machine gun is a waste of time, using any other weapons can deal a lot more damage.
Scoring system is really weak, just speed through the game for a really high score. You can spend almost all of Stage 3 hiding, and shooting one enemy will result you with a 100k accuracy bonus on 3-1 and on 3-2 you can just shoot the targets and get 100%
The rankings on attract mode scroll from 20 to 1, but only the top 5 scores are saved! (why?)

Hope the game really gets changed when the full version comes out, the arcade near me removed TC4 and RS for this...

Hopefully Namco is taking a serious listen to player feedback.

I have to agree about the MG being a waste of time in general. I think you'd come out ahead just using a fast handgun on the HACS instead of trying to milk it with the MG. And I've seen a HZH Stage 1 1P replay on YouTube where he uses a grenade and then some shotgun rounds to deal with the seekers.

That TME upgrade sure has more to address than adding another 3 stages. The lag has to be fixed. HZH shares that concern, saying "Violence doesn't cause deaths. Lag does." on his comment about LEO's Stage 1 2P replay. So right. When the enemy bullets are faster than TC4, this lag blows ass.

Wait, WHAT? Just shoot one enemy on 3-1 and 3-2 and then cover for 100,000 accuracy bonus? That's mighty broken. And is it just me, or does the scoring seem awfully overbalanced toward stage 1? On my 1.25M playthru, I think 700K came from S1.

Though their TC3 is long gone, my Dave & Buster's still has their TC4 and RS machines, thankfully. When the PS4 home version is released, I'd like to see it in a compilation with all other TC titles.

[Smraedis]

The time bonus for Stage 1 is like this,
If you clear all 3 areas, every second is worth:
Area 1 - 7200
Area 2 - 4800
Area 3 - 2400
This is because the time used for the calculations is a total time of all areas, and not just the individual area.

Because the HACS is in Area 2, there is no other way to get 4800 per second, so the best way to deal with it is to shoot it as fast as possible, with handgun.
And because of these values, the Stage 1 time bonuses contribute a huge amount of the whole game score, Stage 2 and 3 are on forced rails, so there isn't really much of a time bonus there.
I've already scored 1.7m of a possible max of 2.2m, and I've barely been trying.

[gameoverDude]

The time bonus for Stage 1 is like this,
If you clear all 3 areas, every second is worth:
Area 1 - 7200
Area 2 - 4800
Area 3 - 2400
This is because the time used for the calculations is a total time of all areas, and not just the individual area.

Because the HACS is in Area 2, there is no other way to get 4800 per second, so the best way to deal with it is to shoot it as fast as possible, with handgun.
And because of these values, the Stage 1 time bonuses contribute a huge amount of the whole game score, Stage 2 and 3 are on forced rails, so there isn't really much of a time bonus there.
I've already scored 1.7m of a possible max of 2.2m, and I've barely been trying.

HZH pulls 1M on his whole stage 1, that's almost halfway there.

Is 1H2B still useful? I get the feeling it's not that important in this one.
So the time bonus in stages 2 & 3 all comes down to how fast you deal with the boss battles (one player I've seen on Youtube has a video dedicated to a 20-second Wild Dog kill, and ends up with 2.09 M). His stage 3 time bonus is +130360, and I'm guessing none of that was influenced by the first two areas, being on rails.

Scoring does seem rather imbalanced. Looks like a lot of my 700K came off the S1 time bonuses.
I wonder if any of the 2M+ scorers use the "shoot one" exploit. That reminds me of the Night Striker pacifist bonus, only easier because you just stay in cover after one kill. IINM, the S1A3 jeep battle from TC3 required that you kill everything to move on, rather than just reach the checkpoint.

Hopefully the added content from TME will not have any more vehicle battles.

[gameoverDude]

I had another go at it today, and ended up with a 1CC. The score was 1.57M with a clear time of 6'52".

On the first stage, I had around 800,000 with a end-stage time bonus just over 300,000.

No use was made of the machine gun except for the smoke grenade part. That's pretty sad how far a favorite weapon of TC3 has fallen. I tried the "shoot one" exploit on S3A1 & S3A2. In S3A2 the two trucks will wipe out if you leave them be. Shame they didn't handle this part like the TC3 jeep battle.

I've seen a video from the Japanese version on Youtube. The voice work for Wild Dog is better, and should've been the tone that the English VA went for. He doesn't sound like a damn clown in that one.

My clear time of 6'52" did make me stop and think for a second: Damn, this game is very short. I can see the full TC5 clocking in at about TC2 length, which would be acceptable. Hopefully a PS4 version would add a Robert side-story mission (but don't make it FPS style, please stick with the style of the main game like Alicia's Rescue Mission from TC3).

[Pretas]

Sony gradually, quietly backed away from Playstation Move support in the PS3's later months until they had ceased acknowledging it entirely (their last attempt at keeping it going was moneyhatting Move compatibility for Bioshock Infinite), so I'm not hopeful for a home port.

Of course, Namco could make their own GunCon 4, but I seriously doubt they will in this day and age. I'm surprised that the GunCon 3 ever existed.

Recently discovered that Deadstorm Pirates got an arcade-only update last year with two new levels and a new ending - wow, four years after release.

[gameoverDude]

Sony gradually, quietly backed away from Playstation Move support in the PS3's later months until they had ceased acknowledging it entirely (their last attempt at keeping it going was moneyhatting Move compatibility for Bioshock Infinite), so I'm not hopeful for a home port.

Of course, Namco could make their own GunCon 4, but I seriously doubt they will in this day and age. I'm surprised that the GunCon 3 ever existed.

Recently discovered that Deadstorm Pirates got an arcade-only update last year with two new levels and a new ending - wow, four years after release.

Actually, it seems Sony is planning a Move 2 along with their Project Morpheus, which will be named RealEyes. The big lightbulb found on the current Move wand is absent.
Attack of the Fanboy story on Move 2 & RealEyes
I can see Namco using Move 2 for a home version. A bundle of TC5 along with other TC games (especially versions of 1-3 that are HD compatible) and a 3D version of Deadstorm Pirates Special Edition would be great.

[yyr]

Interesting to read about others' experiences. During my playthroughs I did wonder about shooting one dude and then staying in cover for the really short, on-rails areas, but I just can't bring myself to actually do that, lol. I'm equal parts amused and horrified that it works for a 100k accuracy bonus, heh.

I'm well aware that VGChartz is in no way official, but their estimate is that the Razing Storm collection sold about 500k on PS3 worldwide, which is quite a bit better than I expected. Still, after that first year or so of Move, which also saw the release of HotD 4, we haven't seen much as far as "light gun" ports. Nothing has been said of Deadstorm Pirates Special Edition, there's been no release of Dark Escape, and Sega hasn't even brought out Let's Go Jungle, let alone Island. I guess what I'm trying to say here is that we can't assume Time Crisis 5 is coming home. I'll believe it when I hear it.

[gameoverDude]

Interesting to read about others' experiences. During my playthroughs I did wonder about shooting one dude and then staying in cover for the really short, on-rails areas, but I just can't bring myself to actually do that, lol. I'm equal parts amused and horrified that it works for a 100k accuracy bonus, heh.

I'm well aware that VGChartz is in no way official, but their estimate is that the Razing Storm collection sold about 500k on PS3 worldwide, which is quite a bit better than I expected. Still, after that first year or so of Move, which also saw the release of HotD 4, we haven't seen much as far as "light gun" ports. Nothing has been said of Deadstorm Pirates Special Edition, there's been no release of Dark Escape, and Sega hasn't even brought out Let's Go Jungle, let alone Island. I guess what I'm trying to say here is that we can't assume Time Crisis 5 is coming home. I'll believe it when I hear it.

Dark Escape probably didn't make it to PS3 due to the PS4 coming out- and it does look above what a PS3 may be able to do. Namco would probably rather put it on the new system. But they're likely waiting on Move 2 before they speak up, and with respect to TC5 it's probably too early. Operators who just paid $20000 for a TC5 cabinet wouldn't like to hear a known release date for a port so soon.

[JBC]

Just spotted the marquee in a Dave & Buster's/Pixels movie ad that mentions Candy Crush, Subway Surfers (?), & Pac-Man Battle Royale so many years after it's release.

At least some people will know there's a new Time Crisis, although I wish the full version was out.

[gameoverDude]

Just spotted the marquee in a Dave & Buster's/Pixels movie ad that mentions Candy Crush, Subway Surfers (?), & Pac-Man Battle Royale so many years after it's release.

At least some people will know there's a new Time Crisis, although I wish the full version was out.

I know... I'm sure the full version will be great. There is some promise shown, despite the faults.

In areas 3-1 & 3-2, I think Namco should consider making the motorcycle-riding enemies worth maybe 8,000 each to allow for a greater score than using the 100% accuracy trick. As it is now, if you shoot one enemy and hide, assuming it was one shot, you have probably 100,200 or 100,400 guaranteed. But if they were worth 8,000 each and you killed 10 with a 60% accuracy, you'd get 140,000. It'd be hard to rejig this section to require killing all enemies, but making them worth a substantial amount of points would be a good incentive to not remain covered.

I've been trying (esp. on 3-1) to get a few more kills while shooting accurately. I wonder what the max possible area score is if you play that part legitly.

[gameoverDude]

Today, the TC5 machine I played on had more stutters than usual. Stage 2 was where I had seen most of this happening.
I've been close to 1.7M and have finally gone a little over it.

I'm starting to doubt that the shotgun against the 4 turrets on the quad-armor boss of stage 1 is that much better than a fast handgun. If I'm out of shotgun, the HG can do in a pinch.

In the last part of stage 1 area 1, playing as Luke (left player), I'll start from RIGHT cover even though the game says to start from the left. That's because I try to take the propane tanks early to get it done quick (remembering that a second here is worth 7200!). What makes this part a bitch is that there will be 2 enemies approaching Wild Dog from his right. First is a red soldier, who will stop near him and fire if you don't hit him first. And there will be a dark blue "ninja" machine gunner who will keep going right on past, spraying as he goes. When this one comes, start pelting him. Your shots should keep him stunned until he dies. This part used to realy bug me when I first started playing TC5.

My fastest clear time is around 6'38. I wonder if a WR clear time would go under 6M.

HZH was "experimenting" with machine gun to milk the Stage1 boss for more hits in his S1 video, but I don't feel this is worth it. Why not just try to take it down quickly?

[gameoverDude]

On Youtube, I saw a couple of videos with "Time Crisis 5 Mastermind ending" in the titles, which are cut scenes not found in the original 3 stage TC5. That can only mean one thing: that the True Mastermind edition is ready.

One of them reveals the identity of VSSE's traitor. It's NOT who you may think...

WARNING: These videos contain serious spoilers. #1 is the ending, and #2 is a cut scene before the final battle.

TC5 TM "ending 1" This is the ending.
TC5 TM "ending 2" The cutscene just before you fight the traitor.

Here's a good 1.7M playthrough on video (not by me, however) of original TC5. One thing this guy does is to repeatedly switch the pedal to delay the combo timer. I've beaten his stage 1 score (my record there is 930k) but he catches up on stage 2, saving his hit count by using that trick. You can't combo for shit in stage 3, with the exception of Wild Dog. And BTW, the two trucks in stage 3-2 are simply allowed to wreck (yep... all about accuracy).

I feel it may not be worth it to try for combo count in stage 1. Just wreck everything as quick as you can.
Time Crisis 5 original edition 1CC 1.7M by OLI

[xxx1993]

Great, now I wanna know what the final battle is gonna be like.

[evil_ash_xero]

I really hate the attire of the main characters. Looks like they're out of a K-Pop boy band.

[JBC]

It's pretty bad, but much better than 3 & 4's protagonists. They really should stick to 'everyman' designs. TC 1 & 2 are the least embarrassing when it comes to that.

[xxx1993]

Haven't the attire for VSSE agents always looked ridiculous? I mean, Richard Miller looked like a greaser delinquent, for example.

[JBC]

You watch your tone when talking about the one man army :p

He always looked pretty normal to me. The guys in TC2 look like they would read parking meters for a living.

I'm fine with that, it's the meteosexual & hipster crap that bothers me. No one would hire someone who dresses like that to be an agent. They really suck the masculinity right out of it.

Crisis Zone & Razing Storm's dudes all look cool.

[xxx1993]

Then how about the attire for the VSSE agents in 3 and 4? In 3, Alan looks like a Digimon protagonist, and in 4, look at Evan, he looks like Titus from Final Fantasy X.

[xxx1993]

Also, spoilers aside, but does Wild Dog appear in the True Mastermind Edition?

[JBC]

Then how about the attire for the VSSE agents in 3 and 4? In 3, Alan looks like a Digimon protagonist, and in 4, look at Evan, he looks like Titus from Final Fantasy X.

That's what I'm saying, it's truly awful. 1 & 2 are fine, 3 & 4 are gross, & 5 is questionable. CZ & RS are pretty much where it's at for protagonist design. Give me function over style any day.

[Obiwanshinobi]

I'm fine with that, it's the meteosexual & hipster crap that bothers me. No one would hire someone who dresses like that to be an agent. They really suck the masculinity right out of it.

Why would anyone hire someone dressing the way "everyone" thinks agents dress like? The point Serpico made, that cops in plain clothes who everybody can tell they are cops can't really merge with the crowd sounds reasonable to me.

[gameoverDude]

Also, spoilers aside, but does Wild Dog appear in the True Mastermind Edition?

Spoiler

Stage 3 is probably the last you see of Wild Dog until TC6.

I wonder why we haven't seen more than these two videos if it's indeed out. Arcade Heroes turns up nada, and I couldn't see any info on Namco's official sites.