Jaws Unleashed
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| Jaws Unleashed | |
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| Developer(s) | Appaloosa Interactive |
| Publisher(s) | Majesco Entertainment |
| Platform(s) | PlayStation 2, Xbox, PC |
| Release date | PlayStation 2 & Xbox [1] [2] USA May 23, 2006 EUR October 20, 2006 AUS October 26, 2006 Windows [3] EUR September 22, 2006 USA October 18, 2006 AUS October 26, 2006 |
| Genre(s) | Action-Adventure |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: Mature 17+ OFLC: MA15+ OFLC (NZ): M |
| Media | DVD |
Jaws Unleashed is a 2006 video game licensed from the 1975 film Jaws. It was developed by Appaloosa Interactive, developer of the popular Ecco the Dolphin series, and released by Majesco. Like the Grand Theft Auto series, the game is open-ended; the player can free roam throughout the water, feeding on other animals and destroying everything in his path.
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[edit] Storyline
Jaws Unleashed follows a great white shark (called "Jaws" in the game) from the film series of the same name as he invades and terrorizes Amity Island 30 years after the original film. The game also features references to plot elements from the other three films.
Amity Island is growing, with huge businesses like Environplus moving in and others making the island a huge tourist attraction. Jaws kills the son of Enviroplus' CEO, forcing him to hire shark hunter Cruz Ruddock to kill the shark. Amity Marine biologist Michael (son of Chief Brody) wants to capture Jaws to study it. Players are introduced to the controls and abilities of Jaws in a tutorial, where the player kills several divers, learns to attack swimmers at a beach, and must destroy a set of docks. Michael shows up at this point, and captures Jaws and transports him to a waterpark, similar to Sea World.
The CEO puts Jaws in a holding tank, where Mayor Vaughn and Michael are arguing about what to do with the shark. The CEO wants Jaws to be killed as he is endangering the beaches. After they leave, the shark grabs one of the Scientists and uses him to unlock the entrance to the secondary tank, in this part of the game, the player must ram the underwater window in a scene similar to the one in the the film Jaws 3-D, this allows the player to flood the tunnel, the player is now free to destroy the waterpark. In one of the exhibit tanks, there is an orca battle. After this, the player is free to roam.
Jaws finds his way into a beach party in the middle of the night, and attacks the swimmers. When a truck starts throwing explosive barrels in the water, Jaws grabs one, and throws it at a pipe line filled with oil. The barrel explodes, causing a chain reaction as the oil ignites that causes the entire Environplus refinery to catch fire and collapse into the ocean . After this he causes more carnage such as destroying an underwater facility, destroying an oil shipment and finally killing the mayor. Seeing this as the last straw Cruz sets to blow up Jaws, but he is killed when his boat is destroyed. His mission completed, Jaws then swims off into the sunset.
[edit] Free roam
The game also contains a free roam mode. In this mode, players can travel above water and under it, exploring the sea. The player may encounter an array of different creatures, although some of the animals from the story missions are absent in free roam mode (for example, the colossal squid from the level entitled "The Facility"). However, players can encounter smaller, less powerful squid. A few of the creatures players can meet are octopus, squid, crocodiles, orcas, whale sharks, and many other species of sharks. Notable features of the free roam mode include the skeletons of enormous animals on the sea floor and a dead blue whale in Fisherman's Isle. At the borders of the map in certain areas, it is possible to see several species of live whales, including blue whale, sperm whales and humpback whales.
Also in free roam are small side challenges that do not advance the story. Some of the side challenges recreate scenes from the films. For example, in one mission, players must sneak up on a girl, drag her across the surface of the water, smash her onto a buoy, and finally kill her. This is a recreation of the opening scene of the movie where Chrissie Watkins is killed by the shark.
There is one area where players are able to swim up into a river (Grand Oceanis Canals). This may or may not be a reference to the events that inspired the novel, JAWS, in which a shark swam upriver and attacked three people- killing two and wounding one.
Players are able to kill and eat as many people as they like or destroy different kinds of boats. But similar to the police system in GTA, killing enough people will send the Coast Guard after you (which consists of two helicopters and a large ship). While players can swim off, it is almost impossible to outrun the Coast Guard. However, if players manage to swim closer to shore, the Coast Guard will be unable to follow you.
[edit] Levels
Jaws Unleashed has many levels that can be revisited upon completion.
[edit] Reception
Jaws Unleashed received a mixed to poor critical reaction. Most complaints against the game center around the game's glitches and freezing up and its camera problems. One of the most positive reviews came from IGN, which rewarded the game with a score of 7.4 out of 10 while calling it "Grand Shark Auto". Some other reviews however were far more harsh such as GameSpot who gave the game a rating of a 3.8 out of 10, while Official Playstation Magazine gave it a 1.5 out of 5. Game Rankings's aggregate scores for Jaws Unleashed were 54% for the PS2 version and 53% for the Xbox version. Game Informer magazine gave the game a sub-par 4.75, saying, "This game reaches a new level of video game absurdity, going well out of its way to make a complete mockery of the license it's based on." As the game was released on PC, players experienced a better overall performance, handling, and fewer problems during game play were reported, thus indicating the later released PC version to be better than the console versions, with an averahe score of 60%. The same has been thought to be true in the PAL (Europe) version as indicated by higher reviews scores (such as a 7/10 from OPN UK). Despite this, the game was a commercial success, selling over 250,000 copies, therefore earning it Gamespot's "Worst Game Everyone Played of 2006" award [4]
[edit] References
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[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Official Jaws Unleashed website
- Official Majesco Entertainment website
- Official Appaloosa Interactive website
- NTSC-uk's Jaws Unleashed Review
- Jaws Unleashed at MobyGames
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