| Author | Review |
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CheneyHeadshot
167,660
TA Score for this game: 2,064
Posted on 18 May 12 at 12:33, Edited on 18 May 12 at 13:57 |
This review has 24 positive votes and 9 negative votes. Please log in to vote. |
Released to little or no fanfare in January 2011, this game probably passed you by. Critically panned with a Metacritic rating of 43 it soon fell into the bargain basement section. I grabbed it for £5 ($8) in July purely to boost my beandive stats so didn't expect much anyway.
The signs aren't good when you start the game up. Crappy looking graphics, appalling voice acting and an immediate introduction to the mindjacking mechanic are enough to make you think twice. In fact, I popped the first achievement and didn't go back until 5 weeks later. Something piqued my interest the first time, this game was intriguing regardless of its readily apparent flaws.
You play as the main protagonist Jim Corbijn (the name sounds Dutch but he certainly doesn't) who's caught up in a plot blah blah dead wife blah blah government agency bleh. The plot is secondary to the whole mindjacking mechanic. If you play this game as a cover based shooter you'll hate it. Without a doubt. But once you get used to the idiosyncracies of the game, you'll soon uncover diamonds amongst all the dogshit smeared all over your screen.
You can unload a clip into an enemy and he'll die just as in any other shooter. But if you time your weapon burst just fine and you're close enough to him, he'll be weakened and you can mindslave him at which point he'll turn on his erstwhile comrades. You can then jump out of your body and become a floating entity, then mindjack into your new friend thus taking control of his actions.
This is straightforward enough with the standard footsoldiers, the key difference being your health doesn't recharge so death is permanent. At which point you're thrown out of the host body and have to jack into another body before getting back into the action.
However, if Jim or or his female companion are incapacitated, one must revive the other as a form of insurance. Once all the mindslaves or civilians in a subsection have been exhausted it's just the two of you. If both of you are taken out, you'll fail that section and have to start again.
The only enemies you won't be able to take control of are larger mechs or occasional boss characters, but there's enough cannon fodder to keep you in bodies to throw into the mix.
Where the game comes into its own is by allowing other players to hack into your game either as an ally or adversary. This happens seamlessly if you're the host. In the heat of the action, the only hint someone's joined you is by the sound effect their avatar (known as a traveller) makes as they search for a body to take over. Sometimes it's something you can do without as some boss battles are easier without incidental characters being taken over by a real person, but as the host you can kick people out easily.
In conclusion then, a flawed game that looks shitty and doesn't seem to have any redeeming features but somehow manages to endear itself. The more you play it, the more you'll enjoy it.
p.s. If you negvote please can you say why by commenting? Ta!
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