sci-fi

There is only a little in here that we haven't seen before. But it's all the Good Stuff with none of the drek.

The story will remind of Half-Life crossed with the Matrix, with shades of Bio Forge. But it's all presented in a fresh, smart way that makes it all very compelling.

The 1st person view point is also not what you're used to. It's not just the barrell of a big honkin gun sticking up from bottom of the screen. You engage in hand to hand combat with an array of puches, kicks, strikes and latter special attacks and powers (I won't spoil anything here!) and your hands and feet flying into the view frame and upside the enemies' heads puts you firmly in the action.

I am not even a little interested in yet another FPS, but this isn't one. It's a totally new spin on 1st person gaming which I predict will be copied from now on. NAMCO has blended the 3rd person acrobatics of titles like Tomb Raider and Splinter Cell with the shooting action of Quake and the fighting of Soul Caliber (almost). To rip off a phrase first used to describe Battlezone's new type of gameplay, "I weep at the birth of a new genre."

Go buy 2 and give one to someone you love. This is worth buying an XBOX for. No need to wait for Halo 2!

This is the most frustrating thing in the game. The combat was designed for one-on-one fistfighting, but you'll usually face anywhere from 2 to 6 enemies. Basically, this means you land a few punches while your character takes a lot of hits to the head. Half of every fight will be you getting knocked down, then being pummeled as you get up. If one enemy in a group of 4 knocks you down, you will die. The combos don't work too well; it doesn't feel like you have total control of what your character is doing.

The graphics aren't very good, especially for Xbox. The texturing isn't good, and the characters aren't all that well-animated or modeled. You spend most of your time walking down corridors that are exactly alike, waiting for the next enemy to come and kick your backside.

The story is riddled with cliches the way your character's body is riddled with bulletholes by the time you get to the end. Sometimes it seems like it's about to get interesting, but quickly falls back into the cliches. I have to admit, though, some of the "insanity" effects are well-done. Even though you're playing through them, they look like the kind of things that would happen in a movie.

The idea of a fistfighting first-person shooter is an interesting one, but I get the feeling that Namco didn't give the development team what they needed (first-person shooters aren't very popular in Japan). The entire thing has a bit of a low-budget feel to it. Still, it's enjoyable in small doses.

closer to 4 1/2 stars. this is a unique game in the view point and is also close to being a survival horror game. This is also the first game i ever seen use Hallucination sequences that you actually control (like walking in a dream) what has kept me from giving this game a 5 so far (and im still playing it)is the fact that ive play a good chunk of this game and it has mainly been all indoors. It would be nice to get some scenery here and there. Walking the endless buildings and halls can get old after awhile. Other than this, this game is awsome, and at the price you can not go wrong.