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Jumper: Griffin’s Story has received little hype,
or in-fact, any kind of press coverage at all prior to release.
Perhaps that’s because the film which the title is based on has also
received
 little in the way of attention when considering it’s lead
actors; Hollywood heavyweight Samuel L. Jackson and
born-to-be-wooden son of Star Wars Hayden Christensen.
It’s not all-too-shocking that the game has slipped by
many unnoticed – regardless of whether the motion picture deserved
more of the lime light – it’s rather low budget and reasonably
unknown development team – Brash Games - don’t exactly inspire a
even a glimmer of hope.
However, this may be unjustified. Jumper: Griffin’s
Story has some interesting ideas. Following the rather generic
formula of a Third-Person Action game, the basic gameplay is a
rather uninspired linear trudge through drones of identikit enemies
– and a rather short one at that. The Combat System, however, is
very well crafted. Automatically locking-on to the closest enemy,
four rectangles appear around the target: front, back, left and
right. Each rectangle on the enemy corresponds to a Face Button, and
pressing any will attack that location. Further depth is added by
red layers, which when attacked will result in an enemy
counter-attack that lands a devastating blow ninety-five percent of
the time, and green layers, which when attacked will increase the
charge in the player’s Finishing Move Meter.
The green Meter below the Health Bar represents the
availability of your Finishing Moves. Finishing Moves are executed
by holding the LB Button and, once again, by pressing any Face
Button; incredibly deadly; but can be blocked
 like any other move.
The occasional random besting of an enemy will initiate a Cut-Scene
in which a special Drop Zone kill is achieved – these are by far
the best technical demonstration within the title, and while
pleasing at first, entirely unoriginal.
Consisting of only six Levels, it’s not difficult to
complete the game in less than three hours. However, as can be seen
by the alignment of the Xbox360 Achievements, the game encourages
several replays. Exactly why the developers would think the player
would wish to play through the title a second time – other than for
the Achievements – is entirely a mystery. A lack of High Score
Tables, Unlockables or even differing Difficulty Settings
immediately hamstring this entirely half-baked approach of adding
longevity when compared to modern day classics in the genre;
Devil May Cry 4,
Kingdom Under Fire: Circle Of Doom
and
God Of War all offer drastically more rewarding
incentives.
Jumper: Griffin’s Story is aesthetically basic,
to put it mildly. Using what appear to be PlayStation2-based
Character Models and with only the odd texture representing what the
Xbox360 is capable of – although it has to be said those specific
textures do out-perform the
 likes if
BladeStorm: The Hundred Year
War and even The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion – Jumper:
Griffin’s Story is dull and uninviting. The sound too is basic,
although not uncommon for film licence-based titles. The sound
effects are repetitive to the point where the line “I’m running out
of one-liners” will be heard long after many others have been
repeated several times.
Jumper: Griffin’s Story’s only other redeeming
feature would be that of the presentation of it’s story; with it’s
delightful montage of motioned comic book strips. However, the story
is so diluted and full of holes that it’ll only make sense to those
who have seen the film, with any scene not involving action – and
most of the characters – having been removed entirely. It can only
be assumed that a lack of time and the stifling budget lead to the
developers settling for a title that was basic while hoping to show
some flair, but when the overall package is this dull and
unrewarding, and the developers’ previous efforts haven’t exactly
been stellar, it’ll be a struggle to build a reputation from
here-on-in.
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