Folks, that's the best example of a great start and pathetic finish. Level design is simplified judging of today but gives you good kicks at the beginning... ...but it simply degrades towards the end. Final levels are a bunch of blunt, mediocre technical installations with surrounding fogs, intense steam, falling metallic bridges, coming from nowhere hard-to-kill enemies, radio screams and other pseudo stimulus of fast acting... You don't have this great destructible environment starting from somehow middle of the game. You don't find bonus missions to complete. There is nothing to discover, just to follow predefined linear path to complete the level. Properly started story line becomes flat and unacceptably predictable once you complete first third of the game. It looks like the team working on the game either was completely replaced at some point or got extremely demotivated, so much for a drastic difference you see after 1/3 of the game is complete. The game has overall good balance towards length of the level and general length of the game, but definitely has '0' replay value. Difficulty curve is extreme sharp and once you are half of the game through it becomes simply annoying. Life System with regeneration is fine solution, but it doesn't help much later on. Saving system is per checkpoint/level. Just like on console. Very inconvenient. Bottom line: frustrating and disappointing experience. What's good: I experienced no single technical issue, moving and physics in general are good and it still looks OK for an old game. What's bad: second half of the game is extremely dull/flat/cliche/etc,,. and the game has '0' replay value (not considering the unlocking different models, pictures etc.). Check some longplays and other people feedback prior to purchase to make sure the game fits you. P.S. There was some botmatch option... maybe this will fix it? But I even didn't bother to try when I've completed the game. It was insta-uninstall case.
Well, I've completed it recently and ready to review it. This is an old and console game, so... Physics: -Dated, especially moving. Even remapped to ASWD you mouse will move you, there is no mouse look. Jumping is mostly useless (somebody called if 'bunny hop' and was 100% correct!). Strafing and moving forward can get you temporary stuck when facing some walls Video: -The resolution is fixed, seems to be 640x480 or some sort of early SVGA modes, but it is sufficient to keep the HUD conveniently-sized -Textures are OK bearing in mind the age of the game Gameplay: -You have a freedom exploring the map and the progress sequence is not much fixed, but if you consider yourself so smart not to stick to the design sequence (like I did) you will find yourself backtracking too much -Difficulty is fine and on the condition you move with caution it is easy to keep up with it -Only one small section involving acrobatics which is challenging considering dated movement physics; (but you just have to stick to thin lines and enter the section from the correct side) -Enemies killed don't respawn, dropped items (except for life boosts) don't disappear -There is automap Level design: - Mostly nice but simplified by today standards, all sections are with their own theme and predominating enemies - Only one section of the mansion is awful in it's obsolete design with irregulary-shaped small cubiculas. Brings some nausea though. The rest are balanced in terms of size and enemy per area - Found some secrets and even Easter eggs -Interesting idea for motion-capture cutscenes played directly in game to follow the story Audio: - Handful of music tracks, good and atmospheric - Sound effects - fine, but quality is quite low Stability and compatibility: Minor issues with cutscenes (probably due to codec). Played under old Vista SP2 32-bit with GeForce G105M So if you are into old console games and really know what this means, especially in terms of controls, give it a try!
Up to now the game is dead: - the game rushes like cheetah / framerate issue, so you just can't play it - emulator interface works with joystick, the game - doesn't.
Actually this game is much better then is being rated. I suppose it should have been a huge blast back to the times it hit the stores. There are 2 things you have to consider making your decision - the release date, and the fact this game is rather sim/tactical than regular arcade shooter. Run-and-gun won't work and will only bring you frustration. Don't expect ammo boxes and medikits around each corner and there is armor at all. 2-3 bullet hits at easy difficulty and you are dead. So, summarizing it up: CONs: - quite a scripted gameplay, but no wonder considering the release date - rather poor squad mates AI by contemporary means (again consider the release date) - misses skip button, because every time you die, you have no other option than to see the letter to protagonist's parents and listen to the narrator reading it. This is rather annoying when you have to restart hard locations multiple times and listen this all over again and again. In fact this is my only complaint. - checkpoint saves only, no quick saves - seems to have relatively low replay value PROs: - good story - good voice acting - still the graphics looks good, really cool vegetation around - has a good balance between arcade action and simulation. It really matters if you pick Chinese Type-56 or original AK-47 etc., but you still enjoy the action whatever you do. - despite being old and scripted you can still have more than one valid solution sometimes - challenging but not frustrating - rather long gameplay - virtually '0' amount of physics and engine glitches (noticed only 2 engine glitches during all the game) - quite accurate models of armor, helicopters and weapons P.S. I've tried to use the cheat code to get through couple of difficult locations but it worked for me only once.
