Posted on: April 17, 2009
sinisteragent
Games: Reviews: 2
Mediocre, but reasonably entertaining.
A basically average turn-based combat game with slight hints of Resident Evil-esque exploration/item hunting in between battles. You take control of three soldiers thrown into a mysteriously deserted Russian city filled with mutants, equipped with a few guns and healing items. You wander around a nicely drawn, if ageing, series of backgrounds, visiting on interesting objects or areas, and sparking off frequent (and unspottable - the map is inert, with all enemies invisible until a battle starts) battles with monsters, which you must kill to continue. Occasionally you get a boss monster or have to defend an objective. The former can be fun and quite imaginative, while the latter are basically just a minor annoyance. It's almost totally linear, with an unremarkable plot (and an incredibly, annoyingly abrupt ending just as the plot thickens), but the battles themselves can be won however you like - your soldiers gain experience with each weapon as they use it, and many monsters have resistances to particular damage types, meaning you must specialise in something to make the most of your gear, but also experiment now and then. The weapons and items are the meat of the game - there's a wide range available, including standard pistols and rifles to paralysing tasers, molotovs, ice guns and powerful one-shot energy cannons. Careful hoarding of ammunition is possible with regular use of clubs, knives and axes, but you could also hurl grenades and bullets around for most battles without losing out too badly. Bonus points for including one of the best flamethrowers ever to feature in a videogame, too. The monsters are, I suppose, the bread, coming in a variety of flavours with their own unique attacks, and some rather odd names. You'll find some charmingly useless cannon fodder, and others a royal pain in the military-grade rear. The sound is generally a strong point, with moody (if repetitive) background music and some satisfying weapon effects. Voice acting is rather bad, and the script has many wonderfully silly moments that I'm not sure were intentional, but just about manage to work as tongue-in-cheek, b-movie style entertainment if you don't take them seriously. For example, your lead soldier is an obvious idiot and his wee Polish subordinate tactfully tryies to spare his feelings when he makes a fool of himself. It's a bit rubbish, but it knows it. Major strong suits if the game are its fun weapons and monsters, as well as a lack of similar games, and a fairly unique charm. Its biggest weaknesses are the sudden ending, a few trial-and-error battles and a vague sense that it could have been a lot more. Also, you lose any time any character under your care dies (you pick up and ditch allies for short spells at preset points, and can arm and control them as you do your men), including the ones who are going to die immediately after the battle anyway, which is lazy and more than a little cheap. There's also very little replay value beyond trying different weapons for the hell of it, as there's no random battle mode or anything of the sort. Overall, it does nothing particularly badly, but nothing particularly well. A reasonable, but unremarkable game for the price.
Is this helpful to you?
