A friend and I got to play about a half dozen games on Stern's latest release at the Playdium in Mississauga.

Overall play is quite good, as typical with modern Sterns the muliballs (Suitcase, Safe House and Sniper) are plentiful and not overly difficult to get. There is a fairly deep rule set (partly defined by completing 'scenes' as well as the multi-ball modes) After completing the multiballs there are three further levels on each of the three modes and we were able to get thru 4 or 5 but haven't yet completed any of them.

Of the toys the suitcase is better done than the safe house but the highlight to me was the sniper pop up targets (very similar to Cactus Canyon). In different modes as you kill (knock down) a terrorist another would popup somehwere else on the playfield.

There are also MOLE and CHOLE targets that move you forward as you complete them but I didn't really pay attention to what exactly they were doing.

Anyway that's the first impression I'm curious to hear what other's think of it but I liked it (much more than CSI)


Squid

I enjoyed it, played about 3 games yesterday (I beat your buddys GC score ), first impressions.

A good layout, some really nice and tight shots.  The snipper shot is really tight and tough to hit.  Whne you have that counter counting down and you are trying to hit it it adds a real nice sense of urgency.  

I began to understand how to complete the diffrent modes, and found that was a little lacking.  There is an animation for every shot made but I didn't understand really what was going on as the 24 modes are running at all times.  I made it threw about 15 of the 24 modes in one game.  

The Sniper toy is chessy as hell, but if you replaced the crappy GI Joe figure with something that looked better, I think it would be a better overall toy.

The safe house toy is also pretty well done, the shot into the safehouse is another nice tight shot, makes it very satisfying to hit, the drop targets and stand up targets around the house are well done as well.  

The suit case mutliball I enjoyed, haveing the shoot the left ramp to light the lock during multiball and then lock up all 3 balls to light super jackpot.  I just couldn't figure out how to get the final jackpot, I'm sure I'll figure it ou.

The pop up terrorist targets were also cool, ala CC.  But I couldn't understand what I was doing to make them pop up, I know when you start the safe house multiball they pop up, but I got to a point when completing the modes I think they also poped up.  I think if I understood exactly why they were popping up I would like it more.  

Overall I enjoyed the game, good flow, tight shots and fun to play.  I would have played more but I had to head home, ball times are similar to that of a normal stern  My first game went quick as I was just feeling things out, only ended up with 4 million on that game.  Second game was quite a bit longer ending up with in and around 90 mil I think or so and my third game I had upwards of 140 million, without getting to any of the wizard modes, not even sure they are programmed at this point.  

Anyway, ranking wise, I'd say it's right up there in terms of my game play for Stern with POTC and FG.  Not as good as LOTR, TSPP & SM, but better then Nascar, RCT, and Monopoly.  I'm stilll not sure where CSI would fall in that list as the game is still growing on me, but Batman and IJ4 don't even come close.