Take to the streets of Chicago as one of Al Capone's notorious enforcers in Chicago Enforcer, an action FPS. Choose from a variety of authentic gangster weapons and make your opposition an offer they can't refuse. You'll need these weapons, along with your character's special moves, to survive intense action scenarios such as bombing rival breweries or saving Capone himself. In addition to single-player missions, Chicago Enforcer features multiplayer modes that support up to eight players.
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Budget PC FPS ported to Xbox, for some reason
Chicago Enforcer was originally called Mob Enforcer on the PC and was released a year prior. I’ve never played No One Lives Forever 2, but apparently, this game uses the same engine, certain gun models, and the gunplay. This port onto Xbox had its name changed I guess so it could have the “ONLY ON XBOX” stamp at the top. At least there’s a new addition with multiplayer.
The first thing you’ll notice in Chicago Enforcer is how terrible the graphics and textures are for 2005. It looks worse than late 90’s FPS’. Completely inexcusable for a late Xbox release. At least the performance is fine, except for the god awful load times. While running on original hardware, it takes 45 seconds to load at every death. Doesn’t sound long, but on normal difficulty, you’ll die fairly often. I recommend playing this game on easy simply so you won’t have to sit there and wait.
The presentation is horrendous. There’s absolutely no music during gameplay, and no ambience either. You walk around large maps in complete silence. The title screens, load screens and UI are all stock and generic. It’s a budget title so I don’t care too much, but it’s worth mentioning.
The gameplay is Chicago Enforcer is mixed to say the least. The gunplay is fine, but the levels don’t facilitate it too well. Chicago Enforcer has large open maps where you wander around completely objectives intermittently killing enemies. There’s a whole lot of boring walking in this game. These maps are way too big and are constantly reused, even with the game being extremely short. These open areas make for poor combat as well. All you can do is sit and shoot at them as hope you don’t take too much damage. The other failure in the combat are areas that have the opposite problem; linear corridors. The enemy AI just runs at you while you hold down the fire button with the Tommy gun or shotgun.
There’s a few areas that got it right, however. The brewery is open, yet tight at the same time. The AI even used obstacles to attack from flanks, while the player does the same. Some of the objectives are interesting. There’s a neat mechanic with holstering your weapon so cops on the street don’t shoot at you. There’s even a Half-Life inspired section with logic puzzles and platforming. Chicago Enforcer features some nice blood effects and animations when killing enemies. There are contextual animations for when enemies die in certain places. When they roll down the steps it’s quite hilarious. I’m also a huge fan of viable lean mechanics in first-person shooters. Using the lean in cover will actually help tremendously in reducing damage.
There’s something to be said for a game that’s not boring. No aspect of Chicago Enforcer is a strength, but at least the gunplay is fine and it throws a steady amount of enemies at you. In the less than 3 hours it took me to beat this game, I never got stuck or rolled my eyes when enemies would arrive. It’s just a budget title and that’s okay.
3/10
Chicago Enforcer was originally called Mob Enforcer on the PC and was released a year prior. I’ve never played No One Lives Forever 2, but apparently, this game uses the same engine, certain gun models, and the gunplay. This port onto Xbox had its name changed I guess so it could have the “ONLY ON XBOX” stamp at the top. At least there’s a new addition with multiplayer.
The first thing you’ll notice in Chicago Enforcer is how terrible the graphics and textures are for 2005. It looks worse than late 90’s FPS’. Completely inexcusable for a late Xbox release. At least the performance is fine, except for the god awful load times. While running on original hardware, it takes 45 seconds to load at every death. Doesn’t sound long, but on normal difficulty, you’ll die fairly often. I recommend playing this game on easy simply so you won’t have to sit there and wait.
The presentation is horrendous. There’s absolutely no music during gameplay, and no ambience either. You walk around large maps in complete silence. The title screens, load screens and UI are all stock and generic. It’s a budget title so I don’t care too much, but it’s worth mentioning.
The gameplay is Chicago Enforcer is mixed to say the least. The gunplay is fine, but the levels don’t facilitate it too well. Chicago Enforcer has large open maps where you wander around completely objectives intermittently killing enemies. There’s a whole lot of boring walking in this game. These maps are way too big and are constantly reused, even with the game being extremely short. These open areas make for poor combat as well. All you can do is sit and shoot at them as hope you don’t take too much damage. The other failure in the combat are areas that have the opposite problem; linear corridors. The enemy AI just runs at you while you hold down the fire button with the Tommy gun or shotgun.
There’s a few areas that got it right, however. The brewery is open, yet tight at the same time. The AI even used obstacles to attack from flanks, while the player does the same. Some of the objectives are interesting. There’s a neat mechanic with holstering your weapon so cops on the street don’t shoot at you. There’s even a Half-Life inspired section with logic puzzles and platforming. Chicago Enforcer features some nice blood effects and animations when killing enemies. There are contextual animations for when enemies die in certain places. When they roll down the steps it’s quite hilarious. I’m also a huge fan of viable lean mechanics in first-person shooters. Using the lean in cover will actually help tremendously in reducing damage.
There’s something to be said for a game that’s not boring. No aspect of Chicago Enforcer is a strength, but at least the gunplay is fine and it throws a steady amount of enemies at you. In the less than 3 hours it took me to beat this game, I never got stuck or rolled my eyes when enemies would arrive. It’s just a budget title and that’s okay.
3/10