P.N. 03

"Only for shooter fans"

I spent weeks waiting for this game impatiently for weeks and when i finally got it I was pretty happy with what I got . However this game isn't without it's problems and might only please hardcore shooter fans who don't mind a repetative game with no real story whatsoever.

GAMEPLAY:8
basically you run through rooms shooting robots, while dodging their attacks by dancing around them. I like Capcom's new, stylish style to shooting, but some people may reject it and say it looks stupid. Anyway the real problem is how repetitive this game is, there are about 15 different kinds of rooms and they all get repeated constantly throughout the game. I hear that this was Capcom's intention, so you would get lost in this strange environment. if this is true then it definately works, in the trial missions in between the levels, you have to clear every room of robots. this is made very hard by the identical environments and you will find yourself struggling to remember which doors you went through.
another interesting decision by capcom was to give you a little report card after every level, it's nice to know how you went, but it really slows down the games pace.

STORY:2
the story actually seems like capcom only put it in out of necessity. it starts off with your character, a mercenary called Vanessa Z Scheider appearing on a desert planet and killing some robots. It seems that she has been hired by a mystery client for no reason. there is a little story later but it is pointless and only there to attract casual gamers.

CONTROL:10
A lot of reviews say that the control scheme is really annoying and like resident evil's control style. this couldn't be more wrong, the only connection between this and the style of resident evil is that is has digital control. Vanessa moves very fluidly and i can't understand anyone bashing the controls. the L and R buttons sidestep and the A and B buttons shoot and jump respectively. those are the basic buttons, but you will find your self using every button on the controller, including the D-Pad. Before you panic, the D-Pad isn't for controlling Vanessa. it's used for energy drives, giant super attacks that suck up your energy meter. these are performed by using the D-Pad in a street fighter cutton combination like
down, up, A. there is maybe a 10 minute learning curve but you'll become a pro really quickly.

GRAPHICS:5
the Vanessa model looks perfect and the robots look like they could really exist, the real problem is in the levels themselves. They look really bland and sterile, nothing exciting at to look at; at all. the other problem with the levels are how they look graphically, almost worse than something the Dreamcast could do. they really look terrible, and are really glitchy. they are supposed to be white, but they sometimes have hige orange, green, red and blue blocks in them that clearly arent supposed to be there.

REPLAYABILITY:7
once you have finished it you can still buy new suits to play in and upgrade. ther are also a couple of unlockable suits. one unlockable suit, the ******** suit is almost worth buying the game for! once you have finished the game, you can play it again in normal and HARD mode. Easy mode is really easy, but normal really knocks up the difficulty, I will worship you if you can finish hard mode without difficuly.

RENT OR BUY:
if you are a harcore fan of old school shooters, then this is probably worth your money. if you're not or aren't sure if you might want this game, rent first. you could easily finish all the missions in a rental period, but the extras are another story altogether.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 09/15/03