Ice Nine

"Trust no one...who says this is a bad game."

Ice Nine was announced a long time ago. Around the time of its release, gaming websites seemed to stop caring about it and no reviews were ever posted. The game seemed to vanish from existence. But now, over a year later, gamers are presented with this wonderful first-person-shooter from Bam! Entertainment. Is it a disappointment? Read on to find out.


STORY: 6/10

On a secret CIA training facility called 'The Farm', trainee agent Tom Carter has failed his training. Even after Tom has failed, his ex-trainer recruits him to take on a top-secret mission. The mission? Find out who is planning on stealing ICE NINE and stop his plans. ICE NINE is a computer virus that could kill the world's power supply.
Not the most ingaging story, but it sets the foundation for a FPS and does it well. The game often seems to stray away from the story, making you feel like he was copied out of his current mission, and pasted into a new one. However, the game throws in a plot twist which is followed by one of the hardest and most fun missions in the game. Trust no one... (That is the games motto)

GAMEPLAY: 7/10

The gameplay for this is set in first person mode, which is very different from most GBA games. From the start of the game, you'll have access to a variety of, well..., everything. You have a knife in the training, then you later acquire a pistol and a sniper rifle. The training mission puts you on 'The Farm' knifing targets and avoiding civilian targets. The next mission, you are following an agent through the city streets to tag the person at the end. While you are tracking her, other agents will be shooting at you and you must tag them with rubber pellets. The rest of the missions play out very well. Ranging from a maze of office rooms, to docks near the sea. Even taking a bunch of elevators up taking out baddies floor by floor in a skyscraper.

The mission objectives vary quite a bit at the beginning and end of the game. The middle feels like something is missing. The levels are basically the same, with different locations Shoot that, tag him, flip this switch. Luckily, those levels are tolerable with the amazing weapon variety and your new night vision goggles. Other small changes in the level variety include bomb-planting and racing against the clock trying to get out. This is not an easy task because the enemy AI are incredibly good shots. They will often stand there while you riddle them with lead or grenades, but they will pop your head off if you are surrounded.

Another obstacle blocking your way as you're trying to race the clock, is the map system. It works fairly well, but it takes longer than it should to distinguish a path to the exit, or into a doorway you need to go to. The level design is either very poor, or intentionally confusing. You will find yourself trekking all over office rooms that look identical, trying to find that last keycard, laptop, bomb or switch. The enemies do not respawn however, so if you see a baddie, you haven't been there yet.

You will find many different weapons in the game, including your standard knife and pistol, sniper rifle, grenade launcher, automatic machine gun and rocket launcher. Pistol and machine gun ammo is very easy to come by, while you will have to often hold back on your grenades and sniper rifle. You will love the rocket launcher, but you'll cry when you realise you only have a handful of rockets and no more in sight.

Another interesting feature about the levels, is that there are many destructible objects such as lockers, desks, trees, water jugs, computers, trash cans, fire extinguishers and fences. If you don't want to waste your ammo on those items, you can also destroy them with your knife.

Overall, the pacing of the game is very nice. The levels are nothing special, in fact many of them are quite tedious and 'when will it end?!' sort of stuff, but the missions with addtional objectives, plot twists or a new landscape are quite fun. The unlockables add more life to the short single-player experience.

GRAPHICS: 10/10

Ask any FPS vet if graphics are important in a first person shooter and they will most likely say yes. Being in a first person mode, the game has to be in 3D. (Ever played a 2D FPS?) The GBA isn't very well known for it's graphical power. In fact, the GBA is said to not have the power to process true 3D. This is where Torus Games and Bam! Entertainment proves them wrong. Bam! Entertainment has created many other FPSs on the GBA, so they have perfected the graphics. The levels are in full 3-D while the enemies are in semi-3D. Many 2D objects are in the game too, but they don detract at all. Everything moves at a fast frame rate, slowing down only when you get an explosion in your face. The enemies do not have faces, which is a downside, but on the GBA, something like that is to be expected. The enemies have very little variety and are merely a color palette swap but once again, it does not detract from the game very much.

Overall, the graphics are very nice. You will not find a better 3D game on the GBA, or hardly any 3D games on the GBA period. If this game looked any better, it would probably have been saved for DS.


CONTROLS: 7.9/10
Often times, controls make or break a game. Especially a game where you need precise movements. Even with the GBA's limited amount of buttons, you can do an amazing variety of stuff. Including freelooking, switching weapons, night vision goggles and strafing. The only complaint I really had with the controls, is the slow turn time and the slight delay between pressing select to switch weapons and the actual switching of weapons. The control scheme is set out very well otherwise and it feels very comfortable on the GBA.

SOUND: 5.5/10
The main song at the beginning? That is the best part of the sound period. There are only two other songs in the game. One during the credits and a short tune when you are talking with someone. The death voices are around average and sound grainy. The weapons sound very good however, which is a high point, but everything else is so muffled, grainy and plain, it's hard to give this section a good score. More tunes and less-grainy sound effects would've helped greatly to improve this section. With how great the rest of the game is, this section is a disappointment.

MULTIPLAYER: ??/10
I do know other people with GBAs, but not a single one has Ice Nine. There is no single-cart play and this game is pretty hard to come by, so multi-link is out of the question. However, according to the manual, four players can do a timed deathmatch in one of four stages. I would've really liked to try this feature out, but you can't have everything can you?

LASTING APPEAL: Around 20 hours.

After playing through the single-player portion of the game, you will find very few extras or unlockables, but what is there will last you for another play-through of the game. If you can find people to play multiplayer with, it will give this game more replay value.


OVERALL:
I am very proud of myself for buying this when I did. My copy was in perfect condition and this game is actually pretty rare. This is a fantastic GBA FPS romp while it is a little short, you'll find yourself replaying quite a few missions. If you like FPS, or GBA games with good graphics, or both, or you just want a good game. I highly recommend it. If you can find somewhere to rent it from, you would have plenty of time to beat the game and enjoy the extras before returning it. That is, if you don't want to own such a great game. I also read this game was released with a $20 price tag in-store. Really? Wow, what an awesome deal.



Give this game a shot and you won't be disappointed, I sure wasn't. Now remember, when you're off on secret missions, trust no one....not even your boss.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 11/09/07

Game Release: Ice Nine (US, 02/28/05)