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The Plot:
 
Of all of this Summer's movies, "Men in Black 2" (and "Reign Of Fire", but hopefully that video game will be better than this one) seemed the most likely choice to have a video game tie-in. Unfortunately, although "Men In Black" could have made for a really cool gaming experience, the creators of this game seemingly haven't put much thought or effort into the project.
You can play as either Agent Kay or Jay, going into battle against waves of alien creatures. However - and this is the first of the game's several faults - neither character looks remotely like the actor in the movie. Players go through five episodes and 20 levels each. As I mentioned before, there are waves of aliens attacking at any one time - unfortunately, the game designers have added an often ridiculous amount of enemies to face at any one time. There seems to be aliens all around you at any moment and, while there are aliens firing at you from ahead, there's also probably a few firing their lasers from behind you. This starts to become very frustrating - even if you have some cool weapons (and the game does offer the same kind of nifty weapons as the movies), they're essentially useless if you're faced with this many enemies. Furthermore, not only does this become irritating, but there's really not that much strategy involved - all the game really requires is pressing the "fire" button about a billion times. Even if you hide behind something in the game, the aliens will either find you or appear right next to you.
Did I mention I didn't like this game? Overall, "MIB II: Alien Escape" is one of the least enjoyable games I've encountered lately.
Rating: 6/10
The DVD
Graphics: The graphics, as PS2 graphics go, are okay, but they're not too remarkable. The aliens are fairly crisp looking, but the environments are pretty bland and ordinary and there's nothing particularly interesting about how the weapons look. As I mentioned before, the two characters that you play as in the game don't look even close to Tommy Lee Jones or Will Smith. Overall, while not terrible, the look of the game was disapointing and generally uninspired. Also, be prepared for fairly long load times.
Rating: 6.3/10
Sound: ...And I can say the same thing about the audio. As the characters looked nothing like Will Smith or Tommy Lee Jones, they certainly didn't sound like them, either. The voice acting can best be described as weak and the sound effects are pretty average, too. Worst of all is the score - although "MIB" certainly needs an off-beat and edgy score, this weird fusion of jazz and electronic (at least that's what I think the composer was trying for) is difficult to stand.
Rating: 6/10
Gameplay: Although the gameplay is exceedingly - and absurdly, at times - difficult, the controls are fairly easy to learn and, at least in my case, didn't require a glance at the instruction manual. Still, there's little variation in the straightforward gameplay and the level of difficulty makes for little - if any - replay value, in my opinion.
Rating: 6.5/10
Rating Issues: The game is rated "T" (Teen). Although there's a lot of alien blasting/basic action, there's nothing objectionable about the game.
Final Thoughts: Even though this game does retail for $29.99, which is far less than most PS2 games, I still wouldn't recommend it. The graphics and audio aren't anything special and the game is often too frustrating to be even moderately enjoyable.
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