Gameplay
You basically play with one of two characters,who are inter-changable at any moment;
Elliot Ballade & Dogs Bower, the first one being the faster & weaker one. Elliot moves
swift, uses his weapons fast and can only use the weaker projectile weapons like a
pistol,shotgun, etc... while Dogs is the slower character who has great stamina which
comes in handy with bosses, he can also use the heavy artillery of the game: the bowgun,
railgun, the chaingun (everybody's favourite weapon in ANY game), etc...
Next to the guns you get to equip a secondary weapon (apart from your standard hands &
feet) for close range battles: axe, stunrod, raysword (everybody LOVES a lightsaber,
right??), etc...
You play in a third person view mode similar to Tomb Raider series. Its your basic
survival horror stuff: finding keycards to open doors, solving puzzles to unlock new areas,
killing mutated humans on the way.
And herein lies the fun of the game; although promoted as a survival horror game at the
time of its launch, its more than that. Take a RE style game, but without the fixed
cameras; mutants drop money when destroyed and recovery items & (some) weapons & ammo
can be bought through vending machines who are all over the place.
The kill-for-money-to buy-items system sounds as if this makes the game easier; it does not,
most weapons cost insane ammounts of money, & while saving for em, you'll spill your ammo
which needs to be bought with ...well money, and so on. The good thing is that every time you
enter a room that had enemies, they'll be there again; this makes earning money a little easier).
As with a lot of first gen DC games, the camera screws up at times (specially when in small rooms),
but with only a small efford, you can adjust your character control to the camera so that you get
a decent view at most times.
Graphics
Nothing bad can be said in this department, its an awesome looking game, considering it was a
launchtitle. Climax really did a great job here. Nice looking textures, gameplay flowing into
cinematic footage & back again without you noticing it.Great lighting effects, the game almost
looks as if they tried to make it look like a 3D cartoon.
Sound/Music
This game has one of the best soundtracks out there, the music fits the action perfectly;
I always have the ipmression that I'm in a Jurassic PArk movie when playing this game.
Sound effects are perfect too, from gunshots to footsteps; the stunrod makes this great
crackling electrical sound, like something's really being toasted. Voice acting is better than
average as well, the only complaint I have here, is that the lip syncing really sucks (as with
many a dubbed game)
Story
Classic: 65 million years ago, a meteorite hit the earth that killed the
dinosaurs. In 2000 an earthquake hits Mexico & a new island surfaces. Scientists set
up a lab there, something goes horribly wong & the rest unfolds while playing.
Replay
Great imo, although you'll be able to dream all the conversations when playing it for the third time,
every time you complete it, the game lets you saven from which you can start a new game which
will then start giving you items & weapons you didn't get on the previous run.
Overall
8/10
Great story & gameplay, totally awesome music, a bunch of awesome weapons. Good replay value. Camera screws up sometimes but its not that
bad.
I'm not sure that the true survival horror freaks will love it, coz its really more action/adventure
oriented, with horror influences. But all in all a great game.
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