Blue Stinger

"For a game that everyone says bad things about, it’s surprisingly good."

Why does everyone give this game such a bad rating? It is a good game. You must just look past the flaws (there aren’t that many of them), and settle in for a good game which if you are open-minded, you will most likely enjoy. Now, onto the review!

Graphics-9/10
Beautiful. Simply put, the graphics are amazingly good, and the textures are sharp and very meticulously detailed. Yes, the game may be too bright and colorful to really scare you, but who cares. It looks good. The bosses and beasts you fight in the game normally are intriguingly designed and very cool looking. There are some flaws, such as clipping and sometimes the textures for doors and other orifices look hand drawn, with no seams so that you can tell the door apart from the wall, but overall the graphics are great.

Sound-10/10
The voice acting is great, there’s good emotion, and it doesn’t sound like the voice actors are reading their lines off of a script. The monsters, however, have a set voice and hardly ever make any other noise. The bird enemies do make a creepy screeching noise. However, that complaint doesn’t detract from the overall quality of the sound and voice acting.

Controls-7/10
Here’s where the game falls a bit. The controls are straightforward and easy to learn and use, but sometimes the game fails to recognize this. Minor problems, yes, and the fact that your character runs very slowly. Very slowly. In fact, too slow at times. But it’s an easy problem to overlook. The only glaring problem with the controls are the swimming controls. They’re not bad but not great either. They don’t hurt the game so bad because there are only a few areas in which you need to swim.

Gameplay-9/10
This game has it where it counts-fun. This game is fun, and if you have an open mind, you’ll like it (as stated before). There’s always something to kill, always a new weapon to find, always money to buy things with (plenty of good weapons that you can’t find anywhere) , but you must buy health items, you don’t always find them. And to top it off, the game never gets frustrating and you’re never far from a save point.

Replay-8/10
This game will have your attention once you start playing it. With tons of unlockable “cheats”, three difficulties, and a fairly long quest the first time through, its worth the $20.00 it is now.

Overall-8/10
With sharp, graphics, great sound effects, decent controls and great gameplay, how can you go wrong with Blue Stinger? Granted, the game has its flaws, and can be strange at times, it’s still a game worthy of at least your rental. Although it might not have the aura of a Resident Evil title, Blue Stinger is still a good game that deserves a chance.

Buy/Rent
I’d say rent this one first, because it might not be what you are expecting it to be-it’s nothing like the Resident Evil series.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 12/14/01, Updated 12/14/01