Time Crisis is a light gun shooter arcade game released by Namco in December 1995. It was later ported for the PlayStation in 1997, bundled with the Guncon light gun controller. Time Crisis is a three-dimensional first-person rail shooter similar to Virtua Cop and The House of the Dead installments, in which the player uses a light gun to fire at on-screen enemies. Time Crisis is best known for its cover system, in which players can duck behind cover to avoid enemy fire and reload their weapons. There are three stages, each consisting of three areas and a boss battle. The unique features are described below. A foot pedal that performs multiple functions: when the pedal is released, the player takes cover to conserve hit points while reloading the gun. While the pedal is released, the player cannot attack. In console conversions, a button command replicates the foot pedal's functions. The player loses a life if he/she is hit by a direct bullet or obstacle whilst not taking cover, with the game ending if he/she loses all lives. A light gun (introduced in Point Blank), which utilized a special memory chip to synchronize areas of the screen's image as the player rotated the gun around. The light gun also features a blowback function, which simulates real-life gun recoil. A countdown timer, recharged by clearing an area of enemies. As running down the clock causes an instant game over, the player must take risks, shooting enemies rapidly and hiding only when necessary. A time extension is rewarded when an area is passed, and there are also time bonuses awarded for shooting certain enemies quickly. The PlayStation port features an exclusive side-story mode, in which the player's performance, such as how quickly he can clear an area, affects the path he takes through the game, resulting in multiple possibilities.
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Storyline
In 1995, the V.S.S.E., an international protection agency, helps Sercian opposition leader William McPhearson engineer a coup that overthrows a century-old authoritarian regime. Shortly afterwards, McPhearson is elected as the Sercian republic's first president. However, Sherudo Garo, the last survivor of the regime, plots to restore the old order, launching a series of attacks and assassinations that quickly destabilize the nation. As the finishing touch, Sherudo has McPhearson's daughter Rachel abducted and imprisoned in his family's castle on a remote island, demanding vital military secrets in exchange for her life. A desperate McPhearson contacts the V.S.S.E., who in turn dispatch veteran agent Richard Miller, the "One Man Army", to infiltrate the castle and rescue Rachel. Miller reaches the island and rams his explosives-rigged boat into the castle's exterior to create an entrance. Sherudo hears the resulting boom, but his head of security, Wild Dog, assures him that Miller won't last long against his highly trained mercenaries. Meanwhile, Miller makes his way to the main courtyard against heavy resistance, eventually reaching Rachel's location. She warns him of a setup before being whisked away. Miller is then confronted by Dog's chief assassin, Moz, and his unit. He defeats them and interrogates Moz, who reveals that the true hiding spot is in the clock tower. There, Miller is attacked by Sherudo, a trained knife thrower, and guns him down, only to find Rachel held at gunpoint by Dog. Angered by Sherudo's death (since it means he won't be paid), Dog reveals his intentions to blow up the castle with Richard inside and escape with Rachel. Pursuing them to the castle's helipad, Miller arrives just as Rachel manages to break free, leading Dog to shoot her. A furious Miller engages Dog in a fast-and-loose gun battle across the rooftop, during which Dog accidentally sets off his detonator, killing himself in a fiery explosion. Richard collects the wounded Rachel and escapes in Sherudo's chopper just as the rest of the castle goes up in flames. In the PS1 version, players can also unlock a special mission known as the "Kantaris Deal", which takes place several weeks after the main story's events. Miller is alerted by V.S.S.E to the presence of an illegal arms factory in a Sercian hotel with ties to Wild Dog's organization. He is assigned to infiltrate the factory and eliminate its owner, Kantaris. Upon clearing the lobby, Miller has three different paths to his target. The first takes him through the ballroom/casino, where he eliminates Kantaris's scythe-hand assassin, Spider. He then pursues her to the swimming pool just as she attempts to escape by air. After shooting down an escort gunship, Miller damages the engines of Kantaris's ship just as it takes off, causing it to crash and explode. The second path, which can only be accessed if there are less than 22 seconds left on the clock, instead goes through the shopping mall and down into a garbage disposal. There, Miller uses a claw arm to punch a hole in the wall, allowing him to access the underground arms factory. From there, he makes his way to Kantaris's office in the Lounge and defeats her personal security droid, which then malfunctions and rolls out the window, taking her with it. The third path can be made available if Richard does not activate the claw in time. Instead of entering the factory, he goes through the parking lot. After defeating a spider-legged battle tank, Miller disables Kantaris's car, forcing it to crash. If in any of these scenarios Miller fails to take action soon enough, Kantaris escapes and the mission is aborted. (Canonically, the spin-off game Time Crisis: Project Titan takes place after the mission's failure.)
