Lifeline

"Innovative idea but a failed attempt"

Life Line is a single player voice action/horror survival game. The view is bird's view.

My brother bought this game and I thought I'd give it a try. This game reminds me of Hey You, Pikachu although you don't tell the little rat to shoot monsters and try to run away from them at the same time. This game however, is very interesting but it fails as a game. It (to me) is consider an eye toy and nothing more.

Controls: 6
The controls are very confusing and hard to use. I had a hard time adjusting to this game not to mention getting use to tell Rio(our main character) what to do or where to go. I can swear she has a hearing problem. It is so hard to understand "pick up book" doesn't mean "leave the room" which she did. :(

Sounds: 8
The sounds in this game is wonderful. From firing you gun to hearing the screams and roars of the monsters. Even the music sets the eerie mood perfectly. Although this is kinda like a cheap Resident Evil ripoff, RE never made a voice action game. But still..................moving on...

Graphics: 8
The graphics are superb in this game especially in the CGI scenes. The graphics are very smooth and detailed. Some of the monsters are kinda polygon-like though.....

Game Play: 3
This is the major downfall for this game. Like Hey You, Pikachu or any other voice action game in this fact, are very frustrating and hard to play especially this game. Most of the time Rio doesn't understand you unless you have a clear voice. She would do things like leave the room when you tell her to pick up an item or vice versa. Whats even harder is the battle system. Some times she will run instead of shooting when you tell her to.
Just to sum it all up, it is almost impossible to control her unless you have a clear toned voice. I only played this game for an hr and afterwards I never even bother to play it again. It was so aggravating and frustrating try to get her to do anything without screwing up! There is very little if any replay values. Just to unlock costumes, items and some other things.

Story: Its Christmas Eve, 2029 and there's a grand opening of a space station hotel. You and your girl friend are invited to the grand opening party. As the party goes on, strange creatures attack party members and killed most of them. Somehow you get knocked unconcious and when you awake, you find yourself in the security room. You turn on the cameras to find the only surviver is a waitress name Rio. She manages to get a gun and now she needs your help in surviving this horrifying experience.

Buy or Rent:
Rent it. A definite rent is the best option for this game. If you like it after renting it, buy it.
But in my personal opinion, don't buy or play this game. This game looks fun and interesting but rather its very frustrating and a headache to tell someone who can't understand plain English to do anything. This game is nothing more than eye candy. Although this is an innovative game.

Also this game doesn't come with the microphone head set which is needed to play this game. You have to buy it separately unless you own it.
Just a word from the wise........looks can be deceiving.

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 06/10/04