Galerians

"An interesting twist to the Survival Adventure genre"

Galerians is quite a special game within the gallery of 3rd-person adventure titles. The essence is apparently the same as a Resident Evil or any other action game's, but it's actually something different and new to see in the veteran, yet everlasting PlayStation.

The entire game is more based in story than the average Survival Horror adventure. And that's a luck, for this story is one that shouldn't be missed. In Galerians, we are placed in the skin of Rion Steiner, a young boy who has lost his memory, and wakes up inside a strange hospital.

When we start a new game, we see Rion lying in his bed, apparently being used as a subject for a sinister-looking experiment. After being injected with unknown drugs, he hears the voice of someone called Lilia, asking for his help repeatedly. His handcuffs loose him, and, far from being asleep, Rion rises. And that's how his search for freedom starts. His first goal is escaping that complex building, and finding out the answers to his recurring questions: Why is he there? What was he being used for? And most important, who is he? The answers will be revealed gradually, and giving a surprise with each revelation.

For the new player, the control isn't very hard to master. The movement style is the same as in Silent Hill and Resident Evil games: with the side arrows, we rotate our character, and walk the direction we're facing by holding Up. To make things easier, the L2 button allows us to run without having to hold Up+Square all the time. The main functions (map, inventory, and such) are also easy to use. So the control is, as it should be, a tool for the player, and not an additional difficulty for the game.

The fighting system is pretty interesting. The first thing you'll realize when you try and face your enemies, is that in Galerians, there are no weapons. Instead, Rion was given a special treatment with PPECs (Psychic Power Enhanced Chemicals) during his experiment. That secret class of drug gives him mental powers that will be used to fight our enemies, as well as to progress during the adventure and finding clues to the mystery of Rion's identity.

To fight when we need to, there is a variety of drugs that we can use. By holding the R1 button, we start to charge our psychic attack, then with X we release it on our foes. Rion has to inject himself with different PPECs that give him specific powers. For example, the "Nalcon" drug allows him to launch a kinetic wave to strike matter. And the "Red" chemical allows him to shake bodies at a molecular level, causing them to burn. It is interesting to see the effects of our attacks depending on the grade of power that we use. We need some time to charge Rion's mental energy before attacking; if we attack quickly, we'll make little damage to our enemies, and if we charge it fully, we'll deliver a powerful blow that can kill them in seconds. For example, if we are using the Red chemical and try to attack as quickly as possible, we'll barely heat our enemy up, but if we do a slower, more concentrated attack, it will result in a wave of heat that burns our unlucky foe to death. It is fun to try our possibilities against each kind of enemy with the different powers that we acquire and enhance during the game.

But it's not that easy, and Rion has to pay a great price for using his powers. To use our combat abilities, we must first find a cartridge with the needed drug and use it. Whenever we attack with that power, the drug meter will decrease, and we'll need another cartridge when it becomes empty. That is the limitation to our fighting powers, and we'll have to choose carefully whether we should fight or run away and save our energies for the toughest enemies.

Also, Rion has to keep himself stable, so that his mind isn't under the heaviest pressures. We have an AP (Addiction Points) meter, which increases over time, and increases faster when are fighting constantly. If Rion's Addiction level grows too high, he'll become unstable and won't be able to use his mental powers appropriately, also damaging himself. We will have to regulate his AP using "Delmetor" capsules, and keep his Health Points high with pain-relieving pills. As a result, our boy will end up looking like a walking pharmacy, just to maintain himself sane until the very end of his quest.

Also, Rion has a "Sense" ability. This power can be used anytime, but only on certain places or things. When we make use of it, Rion will touch the target with his hand, revealing a picture, sound, or animation of something related to it. It never gives more than a partial vision, but ultimately we can use it to know what we have to do if we get stuck, or to get a clue that will help us understand Rion's mysteries.

As a Survival/Adventure game, Galerians makes up for a fun experience. Each Stage is located in a particular place, where we'll have to solve some simple puzzles, discover any clues to the mysteries we want to reveal, and meet other characters to progress. The boss battles are particularly entertaining. Every boss fight is unique and very challenging. Each boss has a different strategy, which changes according to the way we fight and the damage we do to them. These situations are very well choreographed, with bosses who yell furiously at you during the confrontation, or try to confuse you with their own psychic tricks.

Graphically, I can make no complain to Galerians. The game uses the traditional 3D character/2D background scheme, as seen in many other adventures. But in Galerians, the graphics are superior to those seen in RE or Parasite Eve titles. The scenarios are specially beautiful, with detailed textures and large, realistic rooms, and designed in such a way that they seem complex, but we won't get lost too often as we can identify the places quickly. The only thing that could be better is the characters' movement: they tend to look a little *robotic* when they walk, but it's not something that terrible.

Also, since the game is strongly based on story, as said above, there is a lot of FMV movies that we get to see in the course of the adventure. Those scenes are graphically amazing, and there's around 60 of them, which is why the game comes in 3 CDs.

This shouldn't be considered a "Survival Horror" title. It's about survival, but if it does bring any horror, it's more psychologycal than anything else. Just try to play it at night... you'll find it strangely creepy, but I couldn't explain why.

However, not everything in the game is great. Although the music gives a well-made environment to each stage and boss fight, the characters' voice acting is, with a few exceptions, pretty poor. Rion's voice is really displeasant to hear so often... Also, there are very few challenging puzzles; most of them consist of finding a key item, then using it somewhere else to gain access to another place or item. There are no mind-beating puzzles at all (by "mind-beating puzzle", I mean something like the piano/poem enigma in Silent Hill).

However, the main flaw in Galerians is, by far, the extremely tedious load times. Whenever we move to another room or stage, the game keeps us waiting with a black screen that repeats "GALERIANS - GALERIANS - GALERIANS" until it finishes loading the necessary data. It's not something that can be avoided, but if the game didn't take so much time to load (or at least placed some door-opening animation, like the RE games), it could have gained a higher score.

However, all of this is not enough to sink this title, which should be made a place in the collection of any player who wants to try something different from Resident Evil and its fellows.

Game Balance

The Best

+ A mature, dark and very compelling story
+ Very high quality in graphics and FMVs
+ Intuitive, easy-to-master controls
+ The main character's cool powers
+ Good music that aids in creating the futurist environment
+ Challenging, entertaining boss battles

The Worst

- Slow, tedious load times
- Mediocre voice acting
- Lack of challenging puzzles
- Bad lip-sync during FMV sequences
- Very little replay value

Conclusion

Despite its several flaws, Galerians is a worthy game. Certainly not the best around, but I suggest giving it a try. If you like 3rd person adventure games, this is one you should not miss. If you're new to the genre, I suggest to rent it first - either way, you're likely to enjoy it.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 02/22/05