Lifeline

"What a perfectly innovative game"

Introduction
I will keep this short, the game is called Lifeline and is for the Sony Playstation 2. This game REQUIRES a USB Headset so if you don't got one...then I wouldn't suggest playing this game. To actually play this game you control this character through voice commands like Check out that chair or something. On with the review

Storyline 10/10
This is how the introduction goes, you and your girl friend are invited to a party at the first ever space hotel. During the party these ''Aliens'' come in and more or less kill everything and eat them too! You play as a lucky schmuck who is lucky enough to get locked in a control room, which can control more or less everything in the Hotel (Except your own door lock apparently -_-). Soon after catching up with Current Events you meet a girl in a prison cell, she asked to be freed and of course if you have any heart at all or just want to progress the game, you will let her out! That is more or less where the adventure begins, during the adventure you will find out questions and answers to this great storyline like.

What's up with Rio?
Aliens...? How plausible is that? (Don't worry this isn't so Sci-Fi that aliens are common place)
and many many others (Honest!)

Gameplay - 8/10
Now here is some innovation for you, unlike other games where you have complete control of your character, this one has you giving orders you the character. Sounds pretty fun huh? It doesn't come without it's flaws though, sometimes it's gets frustrating when you are trying to describe what an object is and Rio will go ''Huh?''. A good example is this, you see a stack of paper on a table, now what pops into your mind first? Was it report? Newspaper? Note? Or was it a letter? Now unless you are amazingly smart your answer should have been stack of paper. Don't worry though, Rio is smart enough to recognize things like this. She will go ''Are you talking about this?'' and it reveals the voice command for that object! Now don't get me wrong, this game WILL get frustrating at times but when it all works out it can be bliss. Sometimes it will proceed a little slow and the second play through can be annoying since you cannot skip long conversations...but why would you want to? The convos are great because they will build a good or bad (depending on you) relationship with Rio depending on what you say to her! You can hold semi-intelligent conversations in this game, which is another great thing about this game. Oh yea..just to add it recognizes over 5000 words, so yippe for us

Graphics - 9/10
Although not as great graphically as Konami's other games like Metal Gear Solid, it is still an amazing game graphically. It runs smoothly at all times. Also the infamous ''jaggies'' that are found in most PS2 are NOT present in this game, so rejoice for there are great graphics for you.

Controls - 6/10
Well this can work both ways. Since Controls work according to your voice, if you have a heavy heavy heavy accent then you might not want to play this game, since it might not understand you. I can play this game fine with little to none control screw ups, but I am also posting this review for the little man. The game more or less requires you to remain calm at all times (even in those hard hard battles) because if you don't...well...Rio might do something stupid that you don't want her to do. So even in tense situation remain calm and you should have no problems controlling her.

Sound - 10/10
Although the music is only above average the voice acting is what really got this a great score. This game has some of the BEST voice acting I have ever seen in a game. It rivals that of Xenosaga and the Metal Gear series. Very thumbs up here. Good job to Kristen Miller for doing a wonderful job as Rio.

Rent/Buy - Rent
Note: Although this game is great, it may not suit your taste, so there is a high chance you won't like it because you really can't control your character besides using the voice command and well, so many people will find this a turn off I understand, so you might want to rent it first.
But if you really like games like Socom which uses the USB headset, then sure go buy it, worth every penny I spent on it.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 03/06/04