|
 |
Project Snowblind - Australian Review (Reviews)10/05/2005 11:11:32
Intelligent, innovative, intriguing and action-packed, Project Snowblind is an exceptional gaming experience. It's more addictive than popping bubble-wrap, sucking you into a futuristic war zone, piling you up with all sorts of crazy gizmos and weapons and then giving you the freedom to achieve each objective as your personality sees fit. It's a thinking-gamers game and an action-junkies game combined into one and its here to show Killzone and Halo 2 where it's at. Hong Kong, 2065 A.D - civil war has torn the nation in twain and it doesn't take long for the tensions to escalate to a global scale. The armed forces of a wayward General are duking it out in the city streets against a peacekeeping coalition of which our hero, Lieutenant Nathan Frost, is a lowly grunt. However, in the games opening battle, an explosion tears our hero quite a few new holes, allowing scientists to rebuild him Robocop-style into a super-soldier equipped with a large array of augmentations. Now one of the coalition's elite, Nathan heads back into battle only to discover the true secrets of the General's plans and the threat he poses to all of mankind. Make no mistake; PS is a product of quality development. The story is linked by wonderfully choreographed cut-scenes that really entertain and the world has plenty of depth to it. In the second mission, as you stumble out of the medical wing and begin sussing out your new role in the coalition and the powers of your new body you will be captivated. Every nook and cranny has something - an interesting sci-fi model, an injured soldier screaming in pain, loitering droids, NPCs interacting with each other and should you chat to them, they will respond with a lot of dialogue variety. But you're here to fight and it doesn't take long to get into the action. Despite its sci-fi, futuristic setting, PS's core gameplay is urban combat and it delivers just what you would expect. When you step into the war zone you truly feel the experience, darting around explosions and debris, engaging in wild gunfights against human and mechanical forces (such as Mechs) and working with your team-mates to best push the enemy back - it's frantic, fun action. You don't get to control your squad, but they are intelligent and will act in your best interests without ever getting in the way. The enemy AI is equally as sharp, although it does have a tendency to run straight into your line-of-fire at a doorway.
Not all the missions are team-based and with or without his mates, Nathan is his own army. There is a massive variety in weapons and augmentations (see boxout) and they all feel unique and futuristic. More importantly, they almost all serve a purpose within the gameplay. Pistols are good for taking out cameras, rocket launchers are great for mechs or robots, the sniper rifle works well for taking out elevated enemies and the EMP gun will deactivate droids. Each weapon has an inventive alternate fire, plus, you can control vehicles (including tanks and mechs). But PS's killer feature is its non-linear gameplay - few gamers will play out the same experience. Take a tunnel, for example, where you are at one end and the enemy is at the other. You could jack a vehicle, rush down there and try and run them all over, you could snipe out the enemies from a barricade, you could hack into the nearby computer and take control of the turret gun, then use it to mow down your foes. What about climbing up into the venting system and creeping around the scene. And then there are the augmentations - you could activate reflex boost and charge in, taking everyone out before they can react, or use cloak and sneak past altogether. As you can see, the options for just this one section of the level are ridiculously impressive and it gives the relatively short single player experience (< 10hrs) plenty of replayablity. Thus, as you would expect, the level design is pretty solid and is only tarnished by occasional back-tracking. They are reasonably interactive, with glass and debris flying around admirably, plus you can pick up and move some boxes around, although this rarely serves a purpose. Enemies don't do stupid things like file out of rooms with no doors, plus there are frequent mini-action sequences for you to enjoy. It's not that difficult through and experienced gamers may trundle through a little too easily.
They will also find the controls a delight. Everything is in its right place and despite the massive array of weapons/grenades and augmentations, the interface and button mapping is a treat. There is a melee attack and jump button, while fine-tuning headshots and creeping slowly also work admirably when required. Controlling the cars can be a bit tricky at first (especially if you're used to Halo) but otherwise it's as good a controlling FPS as you will find. It's also one of the best looking - the atmosphere is spot on. There are nice weather effects (such as rain), varied environments, good explosions, a nice array of death animations, great physics, an effective HUD and well detailed character models. What's more, the various augmentations feel right, with the bullet-time an absolute blast and effects such as snow-blindness (where your an EMP blast causes your HUD to go static) proving impressively disconcerting. The score is also wonderful, capturing the Hong Kong flavour and giving each level a distinctive air. Snowblind is an undeniable, but short, winner. It's a credit to Crystal Dynamics; beautiful, entertaining and above all fun. It craps all over most of the genre's other titles and gives heavyweights such as Halo 2 a real run for their money. And what's more, it's got great multiplayer (see boxout) and its multi-format - you little ripper.
Score = 10/10
 [ Printer Friendly Version ] [ Other stories about Gameplay, HIS Limited, ACT, PLUS, Sharp ]
|
Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of IDG Communications is prohibited.
IDG Sites: PC World | GoodGearGuide | Computerworld Australia | CIO Australia | CSO Online | LinuxWorld.com.au | ARN
Subscribe to Newsletters | Contacts |
Terms Of Service Agreement | Privacy Statement | Email Us | Advertise
