Disaster Report

"Incredible, but flawed"

Disaster Report is an amazing game. It tells the story of Keith Helm, a newspaper reporter, who gets stuck on Stiver Island, a manmade island, on his way to work. A major earthquake hits the island, though, and many others follow as Keith tries to find his way off the abandoned island and out of harm's way. You don't fight any bad guys, just Mother Nature herself. If that is her real name.

Gameplay - 9/10
This game's controls are fairly straightforward. X is the action button, Square opens the inventory/menu, Triangle is First Person View, and Circle is held to run. The L1 button calls people, the R1 button makes you hide or brace yourself for earthquakes, etc. You go through the game on the streets and through the city, collecting and assembling items to assist in your escape. Earthquakes constantly shake the island (less as the game progresses) and frequently block your path. That's where you need to think of alternate ways to get out. There are times when you get to use other methods of transportation, but it's typically rare and short. The controls are responsive, except during slowdown, but it doesn't screw you over. The camera is what will screw you over; some of the angles and ways will cause sudden deaths (which happen a lot), but not too much to piss you off.

Graphics - 6/10
The graphics are pretty bad. Very simple and plain, lots of gray. However, the areas are rather large and full of things, like a real city. Parked and abandoned cars, benches, signs, and many buildings. Lots of parts of the city and inside buildings are breakable from earthquakes, which causes the slowdown. Whole buildings fall, rooms completely self-destruct, just like in a real earthquake. Because most of the scenery in the game is breakable, it would certainly call for some slowdown, so it's excusable. The character models are decent, and the textures are a bit below average. But overall they don't screw the game over; things still look fine and the game itself it so great that you won't care.

Sound - 4/10
The sound is plain awful. The voice acting is random; some cutscenes have them, others don't. When there is voice acting, it's awkwardly spaced apart. There is very little music. It only occurs during a few select scenes, but what there is is pretty good. Most of the time you listen to plain silence and your own footsteps. The footsteps are very repetetive, but at least change on different textures. The ''ambience'' is terrible. Whenever you're near water or wind, it will make the proper sound. However, the sound doesn't fade in as you get closer, it just kind of appears as soon as you're in an area, or goes away as soon as you leave one. And it drowns out your footsteps, the only other sound. Oh well.

Replay Value - 8/10
There's no real reason to play again. There are multiple endings, judged from decisions you make in the game, and I've only seen Ending 1. But I've been told the endings aren't really worth replaying. What makes it worth replaying is how awesome it is. It's just a fun experience. Avoiding earthquakes and trying to save yourself is just a great time. It can be finished in about six hours the first time through, less any other times. But it's still a helluva lot of fun, and I suggest you pick it up. It goes for about $10-20, and is worth every cent. Don't let the graphics and sound turn you off, this is a great great game. You won't regret it.

Overall - 8/10

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 04/04/04