Enemy Zero

"Three words define this game: Scary, Suspenseful, and Immersing"

Not exactly the kind of game I expected it to be but it's not bad at all. When I first saw previews of Enemy Zero on gaming magazines, I thought it was a survival horror game like Resident Evil but when I finally played it, it's not even close to capcom's survival horror master piece.

Enemy Zero is a first-person cinematic game developed by warp for the Sega Saturn. It has similarities in terms of gameplay, to warp's previous cinematic horror game, D, originally released on the 3D0, then the Playstation and the Sega Saturn. D is a great game in its time, with scary environments, suspenseful theme, and immersing gameplay all because of its CG graphics. Enemy Zero gameplay is like D but in a much faster pace, you can run, observe and interact objects faster, and full 360 degree view of your surrounding. You also need to do a lot of investigating like D but you also fight invisible aliens, yup! that's right invisible aliens, the storyline is engaging, it's all science fiction stuff. You can't see them but you can detect that they're near with your motion sensor and to kill these aliens. You must listen carefully to the sound of your detector, if it beeps slow it's far, if beeps are going faster it means it's closing in on you, and if it beeps fast it's close likely to be in front of you now, then you need to time the release of the trigger of your gun, it has a 5 second charge, miss your timing and you're dead. That kind of gameplay is very exhilarating, killing an invisible predator seconds before it kills you, it's what makes enemy zero unique and very immersing. Turn the lights off and play in a quiet room and you'll get the Enemy Zero experience at its fullest.

Controls in Enemy Zero is simple you have a run button, interact/observe button, look around and walk via directional pad, and the shoot button, no complicated buttons so you can adjust yourself with the game easily. The Music is great, orchestrated music by Mr. Kenji Eno himself to give you that scary, immersing, and suspenseful mood. Sound effects are nice with computer accessing sounds, clanging sounds as you walk or run around in duct systems, fitting voices on the NPCs, and those satisfying alien screams and sounds. One thing bothers me is that Laura, the main protagonist, doesn't talk when she interacts with an NPC, you'll only hear her voice when you load the game activating the voice recorder. It's very weird really, especially when encountering someone whom she has a special relationship with and also she does is some mannerisms or emotional expressions, no spoken word. This seems to be a standard on warp's other cinematic games, the protagonist doesn't speak with NPCs. The graphics are good, CG on interactive rooms and on events but when you're on the move(hallways, duct systems, etc.) it's full polygonal 3D environments. You only have a first-person perspective which is a bummer, they could've at least added a third-person perspective but it's okay, it works very well. For gameplay and replay value, as I've stated more than a couple of times, it's scary, suspenseful and very immersing especially when played in a dark quiet room. As for replay value, well not much, you might want to play it a third and fourth time for the experience but other than that no special extras to keep you playing.

So my verdict on Enemy Zero, a very good game, I recommend it just for its originality and unique gameplay. Everyone who owns a Sega Saturn should at least try it, rent it and see if you like it. For hardcore shooting fans with an itchy trigger finger, you might want to avoid it, you'll just be impatient and even be bored since you don't shoot anything all the time.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 05/21/03, Updated 05/21/03