S.O.S.

"Can You Escape Your Death in The Titanic-esque Survival Horror Tragedy?"

Introduction---
Sink or Swim… a very good SNES game alright. This game introduces you to test your patience and mind skills. Quite creepy, too, a very little scary alright...for young kids. But be warned. After playing this game, you won’t feel the same when you’ll travel on a cruiser.

Story--- 6/10
The story is nothing big. You are on the cruiser “Lady Crithania”. Everything’s normal. People on it are waiting to arrive at destination. Peaceful night. That is, until a storm breaks out violently, which will force violent waves that will violently turn the cruiser upside down! Violent, no? So you must get out. FAST! There’s four main characters to choose from, each with different capabilities and stories. For example, the Medical Doctor can heal some passengers that suffered damage from the incident. Another example, the Sailor has a map of the ship (which doesn’t indicates your current position...). Not a big story, but suits perfectly this SNES ruby.

Gameplay--- 8/10
S.O.S. (not to be confused with “Secret of the Stars”) is quite hard if you’re slow in games. The controls are very simple. You must navigate in the survival horror in a Prince of Persia-esque (or Out of this World-esque) gameplay and controls, especially. Same pattern of controls.

Music--- 9.5/10
The music is great indeed. Though the music is quite dramatic. Listening to the opening music will give you the idea how dark the game can be. It sounds like there’s no hope of survival. You’ll see---or rather ‘hear’---what I mean.

Sound--- 7/10
The sound effects are nice, they sound quite realistic. Also, the scream when a character dies (mostly when you force them to fall from too high) WILL send chills up your hips. Freaky.

Graphics--- 7/10
The graphics are nice. The cutscenes are very well detailed, though not quite animated. S.O.S.’s graphics don’t match Prince of Persia’s graphics---especially the frames and animation of moving characters, but still, they’re well detailed. Nothing to be disappointed about.

The Survival Horror’s Timeline---
This is quite a nice system. The time counter starts RIGHT when you can ‘control’ your character. You have between 3 to 5 minutes until the cruiser starts shaking. Then, you’ll have 10 seconds before the ship finally turns itself upside down. That’s when the survival journey begins. You will now have one real-time hour left. During this hour, the ship will slowly fill itself with water from below. Then, after this hour, the boat will fill itself heavily with water under 15 seconds. It doesn’t matter if you find a spot without water to get air, because you will now have nearly 2 minutes or less until the cruiser sinks completely, cutting access to safety boats, thus, ending the game, leaving your character in a terrible, slow, wet death. Want to differ this tragedy? Concentrate, and leave the boat. You can do it!

The Passengers---
Of course, there are other passengers that are unharmed by the incident. About all of them can follow your character around, as they entrust their chances of survival and lives in your hands. HOWEVER... they’re stupid. Most of them will annoy you heavily, as they never jump far enough at most points, forcing you to go backward and find them again. That, or they’ll slow you down by waiting for you in another room because, even if you simply were about 20 cm far from them, they ‘lost sight of you and stopped to wait for you’. They’ll say “Wait!” to give you a hint...to actually wait for them as they get the will of opening doors and join you back. Quite annoying. You got little chances of saving your own life in this game alone, so having a passenger following you around WILL NOT make it easier. However, getting out of the cruiser with a fellow survivor will reward you with a different ending.

Replay Values---
Oh boy. You’ll love the game. You’ll play it, and try to finish it. You WILL replay the game again and again and again, trying to finish it. But its different endings and its great challenges will have you thirsting for more action. Thus, S.O.S.’s replay values are huge.

Buy or Rent?---
Well, it IS year 2003. You won’t find this game on the markets. It was a tad rare when it was out too. But if you still play with your good ol’ SNES console every days, and you get to find this game, buy it, it’s worth it. Or rent it if you can. Good luck, though.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 01/10/03, Updated 01/14/03