"I'm federal agent Jack Bauer, and today is the longest day of my life."

Ever since 2001, I have loved 24. It is a show that blends terrorism with suspense and a whole lot of yelling. It stars counter terrorism agent Jack Bauer, and how he has to do one incredible act after another to save our country. In season one; Jack had to save a presidential candidates life from Serbian terrorists as well as try to save his wife and daughter. In season two; Jack had to stop a group of Muslim terrorists from setting off a nuclear bomb. Season three focused on a former British agent who wanted to release a deadly virus. Season four was even more action packed. Jack first had to save the secretary of defense and his daughter from Muslim terrorists. Later the same terrorists tried to melt down several nuclear power plants, and sent a nuclear missile at Los Angeles. The new season has everything from trying to save a group of hostages at an airport; to trying to find several canisters of nerve gas from Russian terrorists. Who knows what season six and beyond will bring. Now after all that success, they have decided to make a 24 video game. 24: The Game is fantastic, and really serves the show a great justice.

However, when this game was announced, the fear was that it wouldn't be very successful. The reason is because most T.V. shows and movies that are turned into videogames aren't that good. Sure King Kong and Goldeneye were successful, but what about E.T. or the Matrix? E.T. was so successful that Atari buried five million copies of the game in a New Mexico landfill (note the sarcasm). I am happy to say that 24 turned out to be a great product. One thing that I am happy for is that the games storyline helps to clear up the massive gap between seasons two and three. At the end of season two, someone named Max tried to assassinate President Palmer. Then at the beginning of season three it was said that those people had been brought to justice. Nothing else was ever said until now. The game also explains the back story of how Kim, Chase, and Chloe came to CTU. We may even learn more about Nina Myers as well. Of course, don't expect any mention of the Drazens, Steven Saunders, Habib Marwan, or Vladimir Bierko. They aren't included in this storyline at all.

Graphically the game really impresses me. When you are out in Los Angeles, the backgrounds are incredible. The character models look fantastic. They look just like they do on the show, especially Chloe and Tony. The sound is also fantastic. The shows music was put into the game, giving it a 24 feel. The best part of all may be the character voices. Sure, it would have been easy to find some half baked actors to play the characters, but instead that got that same people from the show to lend their voices for the game. Nice touch!

All this is pretty mute if the gameplay isn't good. Well, that isn't the case. The game lets you play as Jack most of the time, but also Tony, Chase, Michelle, and Kim as well. All in all the game is pretty easy in my opinion. The lock on system works great, and save points are well placed threw out the game. The basic mission will have you dropped in a location, and you need to accomplish your goal. And yes, you are actually encouraged to kill all of the terrorists. Another type of mission is a driving mission. Chasing after a suspect is cool, but the controls aren't that great when driving. If you hit the brake even slightly, expect to do a 180 degree turn that really can slow you down. Still, they are fun to play. Easier missions include hacking into something, or using info red satellite to pick up terrorists in a building. There are also stealth missions, but it still is more fun the blast every enemy you see. The sniping missions are blast and the controls are very responsive. Finally, there are interrogation missions. The object to these missions is to get information out of your suspect. You can either use a calm, aggressive, or neutral technique. There is a time limit of course, but you should be able to break an enemy in time.

The clock from the show has made an appearance as well. The game even breaks into a split screen as the show does at certain times. All in all, everything that has made the show great is implemented in the game. Sure, there are some camera issues at times, but basically this game is blast to play. There is a massive amount of hidden content to unlock if you do very well in the missions, so there is replay value. As Jack would say “I'm federal agent Jack Bauer, and today is the longest day of my life”. I'm glad that it is.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 03/13/06, Updated 09/15/06