I appreciate gritty and tense, I understand the need for drama and realism, for clever puzzles and challenging design but somehow, somewhere along the line, we seem to have lost fun.
Every now and then fun waves to us from Burnout: Paradise but we're all looking at Gran Tourismo and don't notice.
Occasionally Fun shouts in our direction from Saints Row but everyone is paying attention to GTA: IV, secretly wishing it Vice City... so they could have more fun.
Right now Fun is screaming and waving and jumping up and down in a city called Blue Ridge - but Fun isn't just trying to get your attention - Fun needs saving!

Blue Ridge is New York City - The bridge, the park, the subway... all present and correct. However this latest in a long line of videogame approximations of the big apple comes from not only a resoundingly Japanese perspective but a deliberately unrealistic one. It's a city determined to exist only inside your Nintendo Wii, a place where beating up on trash cans yields giant, energy replenishing burgers, where if you're REALLY lucky wailing on an oil drum - of which there seem to be a surplus in Blue Ridge - might reveal some extra tasty road kill to revive you entirely!
Early on in Disaster: DOC you encounter the cities Mayor. Is this balding, bespectacled, moustachioed sexagenarian found at city hall, is he behind a desk in an office overseeing the events of the game from afar? Oh no, in Blue Ridge you encounter the Mayor at street level, trying to free a man from beneath falling rubble as the cities inhabitants flee all around him! The Mayor of Blue Ridge is a man of very much hands on action! A fellow city official named Haggar over in Metro City would be proud that his legacy lives on.
But hang on... Rubble? Fleeing citizens? Trapped men? What's going on here then??

Allow me to back track.
One year after his boyhood chum and partner in the International Rescue Team (I'm steadfastly refusing to make a Thunderbird joke) dies on a volcano side, our hero Ray learns that said partners sister, who he's never met, has been kidnapped by a team of ex-special forces chaps for unknown reasons.
Then there's an earthquake and then a tsunami and then lots of fire... all punctuated by gunfights and injured folk lying all over the show that need saving... and more fire...
I think that's everything...
Did I mention the stolen nuclear warhead?

Day of Crisis is as mad as a bag of bears - just as you think you've got a handle on all the crazy shenanigans it throws a hilarious and knowing set piece in your face or you'll turn around and bump into a pimp-looking FBI agent who invites you to try out his shooting gallery... by throwing trash at it.
Beneath the madness however is great, old fashioned, wonderfully realised arcade game that goes out of its way to use the Wii's unique controls to heighten your enjoyment.
The plot has Ray sent out into the earthquake ravaged city to track down the kidnappers and rescue his dead best friends sister - but Ray is a guy that can't just walk past a fellow human in danger or distress, Ray is a guy who can help - and by god he WILL help!
You will encounter:
Fire that must be run through, shaking the controllers to douse your burning clothes on the other side.
Smoke that must be cleared from your lungs by breathing rhythmically.
Injuries that need to be washed by using the IR as a water jet and then bandaged by rotating the thumb stick.
Heart attack victims who need cardiac massage performed by pushing the Wii remote down with the correct timing.
People dangling from buildings, a sway of the controller in the right direction at the right time is needed to catch them.
Add to all this people who need carrying away from fire and smoke and others who just want to tax your first aid kits and you'll get the idea of what Ray is up against as he travels from A-B. And then there's those damn special forces guys...

SCURGE they call themselves and they're everywhere! So prevalent are these pesky antagonists that gunning them down, despite the vast amount of people that need saving, is what takes up the bulk of Ray's time.
Forgive me a little lazy reviewing here but if you've ever played Time Crisis you'll have no trouble at all with understanding the mechanics of Disasters core shooting game.
Pull your 'Z' button to hide behind cover, release it to pop out and start shooting. Shake your nun chuck to reload, point at the screen and pull the trigger to cap those evil melon farmers!
The position and actions of the enemies on screen is, like the aforementioned Time Crisis, scripted. I can, to an extent, understand how this may be jarring for players used to AI controlled opponents who appear to predict your every action but D:DOC just isn't that kind of game and it would never want to be. Your movement in these sections too is of the on rails, automatic variety - so you just need to pay attention to your aim.
There's a 'concentration' feature too whereby pressing 'C' zooms in on your target reticule and any hits count for double damage - brilliantly, that's damage dealt AND damage received which gives the whole thing a classic risk/reward dynamic.
To help deal justice to these scum bags you have four types of weapon at hand, each upgradable in between levels.
Your abilities are also up for some tweaking with the points you garner from your general heroic behaviour.

When you throw all this together, add a couple of neat driving sections and an overall tone that revels in absurd B-movie clichés and knowing humour you find yourself with a game that at first appears to be heading for "jack of all trades, master of none" tag... but D:DOC gets under your skin it moves along at such a pace that before you know it you're faced with a game that amounts to so much more than the sum of its parts - and it's our old friend Fun that makes this happen.

Raymond Bryce has not only rediscovered Fun, he's rescued it, revived it and is offering it for your enjoyment.
You'd be fool not to take advantage of his generosity.

I can't think think of a worse criticism than 54 reads - 0 Comments.

Back to the drawing board.

I have a comment!

Stop resurrecting your old threads.

curlycrouton:
I have a comment!

Stop resurrecting your old threads.

Bet me to it. If someone can't be bothered to post, don't make them post in anger at you.

This site just might have the most insular boards on the whole internet.

*reads* *comments*

I thought it wasn't a bad little review. Didn't 'cause me to make a decision on a game for a console I rarely buy for, but I at least feel informed.

JaguarWong:
This site just might have the most insular boards on the whole internet.

"Might"...?

^_^

I liked the review. You have a bright & optimistic tone which is very original & readable. I especially liked the phrase "mad as a bag of bears". Perhaps a little too casual & 'slangy' but better than most reviews on here. Finally someone who doesn't go for the snoozeworthy Graphics/Gameplay/Sound(!)/Lifespan approach. Thumbs up.

Might I suggest fixing the spacing of this review? For example:

JaguarWong:
I appreciate gritty and tense, I understand the need for drama and realism, for clever puzzles and challenging design but somehow, somewhere along the line, we seem to have lost fun.

Every now and then fun waves to us from Burnout: Paradise but we're all looking at Gran Tourismo and don't notice.

Occasionally Fun shouts in our direction from Saints Row but everyone is paying attention to GTA: IV, secretly wishing it Vice City... so they could have more fun. Right now Fun is screaming and waving and jumping up and down in a city called Blue Ridge - but Fun isn't just trying to get your attention - Fun needs saving!

Blue Ridge is New York City - The bridge, the park, the subway... all present and correct. However this latest in a long line of videogame approximations of the big apple comes from not only a resoundingly Japanese perspective but a deliberately unrealistic one. It's a city determined to exist only inside your Nintendo Wii, a place where beating up on trash cans yields giant, energy replenishing burgers, where if you're REALLY lucky wailing on an oil drum - of which there seem to be a surplus in Blue Ridge - might reveal some extra tasty road kill to revive you entirely!

Early on in Disaster: DOC you encounter the cities Mayor. Is this balding, bespectacled, moustachioed sexagenarian found at city hall, is he behind a desk in an office overseeing the events of the game from afar? Oh no, in Blue Ridge you encounter the Mayor at street level, trying to free a man from beneath falling rubble as the cities inhabitants flee all around him! The Mayor of Blue Ridge is a man of very much hands on action! A fellow city official named Haggar over in Metro City would be proud that his legacy lives on.
But hang on... Rubble? Fleeing citizens? Trapped men? What's going on here then??

Allow me to back track.

One year after his boyhood chum and partner in the International Rescue Team (I'm steadfastly refusing to make a Thunderbird joke) dies on a volcano side, our hero Ray learns that said partners sister, who he's never met, has been kidnapped by a team of ex-special forces chaps for unknown reasons.

Then there's an earthquake and then a tsunami and then lots of fire... all punctuated by gunfights and injured folk lying all over the show that need saving... and more fire...
I think that's everything...

Did I mention the stolen nuclear warhead?

Day of Crisis is as mad as a bag of bears - just as you think you've got a handle on all the crazy shenanigans it throws a hilarious and knowing set piece in your face or you'll turn around and bump into a pimp-looking FBI agent who invites you to try out his shooting gallery... by throwing trash at it.

Beneath the madness however is great, old fashioned, wonderfully realised arcade game that goes out of its way to use the Wii's unique controls to heighten your enjoyment.

The plot has Ray sent out into the earthquake ravaged city to track down the kidnappers and rescue his dead best friends sister - but Ray is a guy that can't just walk past a fellow human in danger or distress, Ray is a guy who can help - and by god he WILL help!

You will encounter: Fire that must be run through, shaking the controllers to douse your burning clothes on the other side. Smoke that must be cleared from your lungs by breathing rhythmically.Injuries that need to be washed by using the IR as a water jet and then bandaged by rotating the thumb stick.Heart attack victims who need cardiac massage performed by pushing the Wii remote down with the correct timing.People dangling from buildings, a sway of the controller in the right direction at the right time is needed to catch them.

Add to all this people who need carrying away from fire and smoke and others who just want to tax your first aid kits and you'll get the idea of what Ray is up against as he travels from A-B. And then there's those damn special forces guys...

SCURGE they call themselves and they're everywhere! So prevalent are these pesky antagonists that gunning them down, despite the vast amount of people that need saving, is what takes up the bulk of Ray's time.

Forgive me a little lazy reviewing here but if you've ever played Time Crisis you'll have no trouble at all with understanding the mechanics of Disasters core shooting game. Pull your 'Z' button to hide behind cover, release it to pop out and start shooting. Shake your nun chuck to reload, point at the screen and pull the trigger to cap those evil melon farmers!

The position and actions of the enemies on screen is, like the aforementioned Time Crisis, scripted. I can, to an extent, understand how this may be jarring for players used to AI controlled opponents who appear to predict your every action but D:DOC just isn't that kind of game and it would never want to be. Your movement in these sections too is of the on rails, automatic variety - so you just need to pay attention to your aim.

There's a 'concentration' feature too whereby pressing 'C' zooms in on your target reticule and any hits count for double damage - brilliantly, that's damage dealt AND damage received which gives the whole thing a classic risk/reward dynamic.

To help deal justice to these scum bags you have four types of weapon at hand, each upgradable in between levels. Your abilities are also up for some tweaking with the points you garner from your general heroic behaviour.

When you throw all this together, add a couple of neat driving sections and an overall tone that revels in absurd B-movie clichés and knowing humour you find yourself with a game that at first appears to be heading for "jack of all trades, master of none" tag... but D:DOC gets under your skin it moves along at such a pace that before you know it you're faced with a game that amounts to so much more than the sum of its parts - and it's our old friend Fun that makes this happen.

Raymond Bryce has not only rediscovered Fun, he's rescued it, revived it and is offering it for your enjoyment.

You'd be fool not to take advantage of his generosity.

It's just a personal preference, though. I find it makes it much easier to read - and more aesthetically pleasing.

Minus my nit-pick, fine review. It was very well written.

mjhhiv:
Might I suggest fixing the spacing of this review? For example....

I have a man who comes round and spaces my reviews but he was off that day ;)

Noted. Thank you.