Jaws Unleashed review

Ridiculous goals aside, Jaws Unleashed is a fairly slick shark simulator, with players able to explore a huge undersea environment filled with prey and smashable scenery. Jaws himself can do many sharky things, like biting, ramming through obstacles and smacking things with his tail. And as he gets stronger, he'll earn increasingly silly abilities, like the power to tail-whip people to make them explode.

Between missions, he'll be regularly attacked by hunters, smaller sharks and robot submarines called SeaSeekers, which gets a little tiresome. But meeting random boaters and swimmers makes wandering worthwhile. This is where the game gets really gory; Jaws can rip most marine life in half, but humans can actually be torn limb from detachable limb.

But the best part of the game is in the simple pleasures of being nature's premiere bastard. Chewing up a JetSki enthusiast has its perks, but it's not nearly as fun as leaping out of the water, spitting him out and watching him fly. Not because you're hungry, but because you're a jerk.

With a game this vicious, it's a shame that the camera can't seem to stay focused on Jaws, instead choosing to swing around wildly at crucial moments (at one point, we got dragged around by an orca and were treated to a lengthy inside view of its ribcage). It's even more annoying when Jaws gets too close to the surface, as it immediately switches to an overhead view of the semi-opaque waves, making it impossible to see what you're fighting.