Oi vey! Abomination is one way to describe this game.
Actually it ain’t that bad, graphically at least. The engine is robust and competent enough to recreate whats already been seen before in games like Quake 3 – industrial and old complexes bustling with steam pipes and the ubiquitous dark corridors. Who said originality was dead?
So what we are given here is a FPS a la Quake 3. Although in the similar vain of a deathmatch game, the game here pits you against respawning foes, of the familiar kind. You wait for the enemy to spawn, you kill it. And thus it continues.
Sure you get to collect things here and there, bulk up your armour etc. But really, there is little in here that has not been done before and done better.
The developers GSC Gameworld have tried to introduce elements to distinguish itself from the run-of-the-mill by providing various characters that differ in health, armour and speed and preferential weapon. You also have psychic abilities, and special abilities – its all rather redundant however….
Sonics are pretty adequate, doing the job well. Crushing metallic sound, time stretching sound during slow mo fights, its very solid in this department at least. The music is forgettable however, so best to turn this off.
As mentioned the graphics engine is pretty good, however, this is based on a title that has enclosed small spaces in which to carry out combat. It’s not a fair reflection of what the engine is really capable of (Serious Sam: The Second Encounter’s engine is still used for benchmarking and shows what custom engines can really be capable of if programmed well).
You wait for the enemy to spawn, you kill it. And thus it continues
The game suffers from a number of problems. Although it is nice to have the theory of different characters with varying abilities, in practice this fails to work as their are not enough variables to really make any serious variation in how each character plays. Its a poor after thought that has not been fully thought through on how it will reflect the game play.
Its quite a bad game, with the graphics being its only redeeming features – and the sound. The characters seem floaty, in particular the enemies. There is no innovation, and whatever has been done before in other FPS DeathMatch titles has been done a 100% better with older technology. This game assumes that Quake 3 and Unreal Tournament never happened, or at least that’s how it comes across.
If there was no DeathMatch FPS ever made prior to this, it would be the most innovative title in the FPS Genre. Sadly for this title, this is far from the truth.
Verdict: A Poor “me too” FPS Death Match title. Avoid.