UNG

CID The Dummy
Publisher- O-Games
Developer- 12 Interactive
Multiplayer- None
Version Reviewed- PSP

In one of the more interesting and creative titles that I have played on the PSP recently, I must say that CID The Dummy can be an enjoyable and quick shot of fun for those times when you might need your PSP the most. Not all can be fun and games however for O-Games’ portable platformer, CID The Dummy can be quite the challenging and almost frustrating title as well.

Not such a dummy now aren't I?!

Lets talk about the premise of the game for just a minute. If you have not yet guessed it by the title, you are playing as CID, a crash test dummy that is just starting to get bored with his life. He is simply getting tired of being put into a car and rammed into a wall everyday, wouldn’t you?. He wants more excitement and adventure and most of all, danger. Well luckily for you and CID, you get selected by the crash test dummy inventor Professor B.M Werhen to stike out on your own and locate his daughter who was kidnapped by the evil “D-Troit”. So to aid you in your journey to search for the professor’s daughter, Werhen outfits you with some of the latest and greatest combat gear and weaponry any crash test dummy has ever seen!. You get to use quite a large selection of guns such as flame throwers, missile launchers, a bazooka, etc. You get to put your new kung fu knowledge to the test as well as your newfound abilities to super jump, sprint and to perform wall climbs. CID also has a panic mode and a stealth mode that you can activate, which is actually just a “tippytoed walk” that will help you get past landmines and you can use it to stick to walls to avoid security cameras.

This is a change, I'm actually not being slammed into the walls....

Right from the start of the game, you might think that this is a full roaming 3D platformer, but actually that is not the case here. Once you start your journey to find the professor’s daughter, you’ll see that the game moves you along in a 2D fashion while you have 3D control. I guess you could refer to CID The Dummy as a “2.5D title”. So due to this you unfortunately do not have full 3D control of the camera and this is really where the biggest problem with the game lies. On numerous occasions I had a hard time judging jumps, aiming to shoot the enemies and performing wall jumps and climbs because of the camera’s limited movement. After quite some time in getting more aquainted with CID I began to get used to the feel of the game, it’s just that the shooting and jumping mechanics never feel very precise due to the camera. I found myself always playing through the game nervously, worrying that I was going to make a bad mistake due to my limited visibility of the game world.

Graphically the game is hit and miss. Most of the visuals don’t seem to be extremely colorful and may seem a tad bland at times. CID looks as sharp as a crash test dummy could look I guess, but some of the enemies in the game look rather low poly and blurry. See why I mentioned “hit and miss”? It’s like this through the whole game. One moment you might think, “Wow, this looks great for a PSP game!”, then you’ll come across a new level or enemy and you’ll think, “Well I’ve seen better”. The variations of the levels on the other hand is pretty impressive. Some of these level designs are purely ingenious. You’ll get to do things like bounce from spring to spring much in the style of Sonic The Hedgehog, shimmy across ropes and ledges and swim underwater avoiding “dummy eating fish” and underwater mines. Is there a health meter in the game you ask? Well, of course there is! Well actually it is a battery meter, (you are a dummy afterall). Unfortunately it does not recharge like alot of health meters do these days, so you’ll want to keep an eye on your energy level and grab as many pickups as you can from the surrounding crates and barrels in the game world.

The campaign is pretty long and manages to stay enjoyable, if not challenging due to the numerous obstacles and enemies that you will encounter in the game. If you consider yourself a skilled platform gamer, this game is your cup of tea. If you are good enough to get past the challenging campaign mode, you will have some unlocks to check out such as a crash-test car driving minigame among others. There are no multiplayer options or modes in this title at all, CID is obviously a loner, but the game still managed to impress me overall and kept me playing for quite some time. If you are not a fan of platformers, you need not apply here, CID The Dummy is for the hardcore platformers only.

Popularity: 3% [?]