XIII

"Another alright PC port"

INTRO: For a long time I have thought that a stealth FPS would make a great game. And I got my wish this game. But it's biggest downfall is that it wasn't designed the PS2. This is most evident in the control scheme. But this is still a very worthwhile game.

GRAPHICS: The cel shaded look is done very well here. The blocky environments portray shadows and light well, something other cel shaded games have a problem with. The framerate is also very good and it never slows down. The character models are respectable but when you use the cel shaded look you find that expressing minute details for individuality is very hard. But I must say I was impressed by the games visual gimmicks. The cut scenes are portrayed by moving storyboards giving it a nice comic book feel. Sounds are also portrayed by words coming up on the screen in batman like style. The little 3 storyboard scenes when you get a stealth kill is another nice touch.
Score 8

SOUND: The sounds for the most part are pretty unoticeable. None of the guns sound to powerful, even the rocket launcher sounds muted. The music is none existent in some places, to add tension but it isn't to succesful. The sound effects being shown visually on screen is nice, but not much effort was put into any other sound area.
Score 5

CONTROL: The controls are very touchy, obvisously an affect of porting a PC game. Movement can be hard at times, but it's nothing to horrible. Switching weapons, shooting, and jumping controls all repsond well, the the mapping of them is somewhat haphazard.
Score 6

STORY: Supposedly based off a French comicbook, the basic story is that you are an amnesinac you being questioned and held repsonsible for the murder of the president. You find out later that your not who you think you are and a government conspiracy. Overall the story is very boring, after the first few levels you won't pay attention at all to it.
Score 6

REPLAY: With both online and offline multiplayer this game does have some depth. The single player campaign is 34 levels long, making it a little more lengthy than others is's genre. The online multiplayer works well, but the game variety is a little shallow.
Score 8

GAMEPLAY: Just like any FPS except stealth is emphasized. There are some missions where if you don't kill stealthily then you lose the mission, ala Splinter Cell. A very good game concept, but the trial and error method gets old. The objectives are range escort, to finding something, to bugging a phone. The weapon variety is allright. but the shotgun seems much to weak. The level designs are not to impressive either, they look like the same ones over and over again.
Score 7

BOTTOM LINE: A good game but definitely has some flaws. I feel like if the port was handled this could have been a very good game, but as it stands its only a solid rental.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 04/17/04