CIMA: The Enemy

"A Slow But Fun Game"

CIMA: The Enemy is an overlooked game with a unique game play system and story. Thank you for reading my review, I will get on with the rest of it.

Graphics: This game has decent graphics in comparison to many other GBA games. You see everything from a top down isometric point of view. The sprites and backgrounds are detailed and bright, though some of the enemies are just recolored versions of other enemies. The graphics aren't great but they're certainly not bad. 7/10

Sound: The sounds in this game aren't very good. The music is repetitive and gets boring fast. The battle sounds are also used over and over. If you like excellent sound in games you'll be disappointed. I've heard worse, but I've also heard MUCH better. 4/10

Game play/Control: You babysit through the whole game. You guide up to fourteen characters to safety in each level. The combat is pretty crappy, but this is more of a strategy/puzzle game and you'll be having a hard time if you go out of your way to fight every single monster you find. Killing monsters in front of the people you protect makes them like you a little bit more, but allowing them to be attacked makes them dislike you. Once a character likes you enough it will be able to make items for you using items dropped by monsters. The bosses are difficult and will pose a great challenge to even the best gamers. The control is very stiff, you can command four people at a time or everyone at once. It's hard to perfectly select where you want them to go and you will usually have to settle for the area near where you wanted them. When you do get it they take forever to move so you're running back and forth slowly to kill monsters until your people are in the next room, then you do it again. 7/10

Story CIMA: The Enemy has an original, entertaining story. CIMA are monsters that feed on hope. They get hope by trapping people in dungeons with only one way out and until the end they let people believe they have a chance then they kill and do whatever they do with the hope. You play the role of Ark, a young man who was just made a guardian, one of the people who protects the other people. :p You, two other guardians, and fourteen pioneers are traveling by train across a large desert when a powerful CIMA sucks the whole train into the CIMAs' world. From there, the game begins. 9/10

Buy or Rent?
I doubt you will be able to find this in a rental store. If you find it for cheap then buy it. It is in no way a bad game, just a slow game that requires lots of thought.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 08/24/04