What if a crash test dummy got tired of plowing his head through windshields and longed to explore the wider world? It’s a good concept that’s been squandered in CID The Dummy.

The biggest problem is it’s not even remotely amusing, despite lame efforts to entertain. The identikit hero and bad guys have stepped straight off the assembly line and into one of the most charmless, by-the-numbers platformers of recent years. Stealth sections and ‘light puzzles’? Check. Constant frustration? Check, and underlined three times. The reason for this is because CID The Dummy has lives.

You know, old-fashioned lives that throw you back to the start of the level – checkpoints erased – once depleted. That wouldn’t be a bad thing if the game didn’t play in an unhelpful, side-on perspective, making depth perception a nightmare. By the end you’ll want to unbuckle CID’s seatbelt and drive him into the nearest brick wall.

Jun 12, 2009