This category is the broadest of genres, I think. Yeah, I know that Sentient, Tail of the Sun, and Total Eclipse don't belong here, but they're the only titles in their respective categories I have so far. I may move them to more appropriate spots eventually. On to reviewing.
This game has recieved some of the most unanimous positive reviews this side of the original Tomb Raider. As such, I purchased it with a minimal amount of playing time. It is a decision I have not regretted. The developer, Psygnosis, first wowed me with their graphical prowess when I played the original Wipeout and again with the sequel. Once again all PlayStation graphics people should bow to the visual demigods that work at Psygnosis. But graphics isn't the only place this game shines.
The basic plot is that of an underpowered rebellion against an evil, opressive empire. This in itself isn't particularly novel. What makes things interesting is that our own Earth is the haven of the bad guys. The Earth Empire is a classic colonial power, sending their explorers to new worlds and establishing colonies there. Many parallels can be drawn between this conflict and our own Revolutionary War. The narrator that informs you of your cause in the opening FMV sequence is a passable imitation of James Earl Jones; my younger brother even thought that's who it really was. (A quick look at the credits cleared up that debate in short order.)
A very obvious aspect of this title is that it is very difficult. This lends a degree of realism that you don't feel in other games where it is relatively easy to overthrow the opressors. The first couple of missions go over well enough, but after that the difficulty factor increases dramatically. I've played through once so far, and I managed to earn what I believe is the worst possible ending in little over an hour's time. Practice is evidently required on my part.
I'm not very good at critiqueing technical aspects such as gameplay and that ilk, but I will do what I can. Control takes a little bit of getting used to, even compared to other space shooters out there. Many galactic combat games have your craft handle much like an airplane would in our own atmosphere. Things work a bit differently for you in your fight against the empire. Usually when one flies a game such as this, roll and pitch determine essentially on their own where the craft is headed. In Colony Wars the importance of yaw control is on the same level as that of roll; it perhaps even takes precedence, depending on your flying style. It does when I play, at any rate. But I have never claimed to be an accomplished gamer, particularly in games where reaction time and hand-eye coordination are paramount. (Hence my RPG bias.)
Let me now venture forth my opinions on dogfighting. AI for the enemy pilots beyond the first mission is excellent, and is aided by the fact that they have, in general, craft that are a bit more advanced than what you fly against them. Faster and more maneuverable, though not necessarily with more firepower. Speaking of firepower, the implementation of said weaponry is something with which I was quite impressed. It is not advisable to just go out and fire your default weapon. The reason for this is that there are different weapons geared toward shields, hull, and systems on the target. If a target possesses an energy shield, you must equip your anti-shield lasers or missiles. When the shield is down, a different set of lasers and missiles is used to damage the hull of the ship. In some cases, you can use EMP (Electro Magnetic Pulse) weapons to shut down some of the on-board systems of your target, i.e. sensors and the like. A continued attack renders the target completely helpless.
This is all I have to say until I can get some more playing time in, but since I have Final Fantasy VII back in my posession, this isn't likely to happen any time soon.
I like this game. I even like the name of the developer, Naughty Dog Software. While it may seem obvious that this game was Sony's answer to Mario 64, that's not really relevant, whether true or not. Crash is on a mission to save his surprisingly attractive (for an animated mammal) girlfriend from the evil Dr. Neo Cortex. Yeah, yeah, formula plot, but a good game can overcome stuff like that. This one does. I haven't played it enough to complete it, much like almost every other game I've played. I've finished very few. Challenge increases at a very reasonable pace. Graphics are excellent, even superb at points. The mostly 3D landscape is lush and colorful, and has enough little tricks thrown in that it's not stagnant. Animation is smooth and fluid. Crash does have a limited amount of moves, though. I'm also a fan of the music and sound in this game, particularly in the Hog Wild round. If the premise of this part of the game isn't enough to make you laugh, the music will at least bring you a smile. You're riding a wild boar through this, my favorite stretch that I've played through.
I guess I'll wind up here by saying that if you have the funds and like a good-sized game library (or even if you don't), buy this game. If you get bored with it, put it aside for awhile. I'm willing to bet it'll be fun again when you pick it back up.
A DOOM sequel is a DOOM sequel is a DOOM sequel. And this game does nothing to deviate from that statement. I own this game, but that's only because I bought my PSX secondhand from its original owner and this game was part of the package (as was Tomb Raider). It is, of course, DOOM I with different levels and such. If you like DOOM, you are almost unconditionally guaranteed to like this game. 'Nuf said.
I read a review of this game accusing it of trying to reproduce Resident Evil. If it is, it fails miserably. Not that this title is THAT bad, it's just that RE is sooo good. Overblood is basically the same game format minus the zombies and bloodthirsty wolves. You are a man who has woken up from a cryogenic sleep when something goes wrong with the power system inside the complex where you've been stored. You can't remember who you are when you wake up, and when you look up your file on the computer (once you've restored auxilliary power) you find you were scheduled to be terminated. So you go on a quest to figure out who you are and why you were meant to die. The first part of the game moves rather well until a certain point, where both my brother and I utterly failed to find a way to go forward. In this frustrated spirit we returned the game and haven't played it since. If you can find your way past this part, the game may get better and a little more fun. But we couldn't and the lack of action translates into a lack of interest. Like I said, not a complete failure, but no sale.
I have limited playing time on this title, and therefore don't have a lot of intelligent things to say. But what I can say I will say, regardless of intelligence.
Nikki and Fargus are a girl and a jester that have let loose some magic of some kind. It's been awhile, so I'm a bit fuzzy on the plot of this one. I like the graphics here. Colorful and relatively rich. Animation is up to par, as is play control. Both adequate, but nothing to rave about. The interesting thing about this game is that it's a 2D platformer in 3D guise. You move in all three dimensions, but you can't deviate from the path. It's kind of like one dimensional level below Crash Bandicoot. But the tricks they use are effective in getting a platformer-tired old boy like me to play a platform game. Then you push all the techie stuff aside and realize that this game is good for a couple of laughs. I chuckled repeatedly in spite of myself at an early enemy that waddles across the screen saying "duhhh" in a funny voice. There's other stuff like this to keep one interested. Moving back to some techie stuff to finish off, some of the imitation-3D magic comes from a roving camera angle that strikes a nearly perfect balance between motion and playability. It moves when it has to, and doesn't swing around when it doesn't. You get a good view of the action at all times through the fantasy landscape. Definitely a possible purchase game, assuming one likes it.
I don't know where to classify this game, but I don't think that really matters. This game shouldn't have been produced. the programmers sallied forth intending to create a world as close to reality as possible, and they went too far. This game, as far as I went (which wasn't far at all), has very little action. You can interact with every person on the solar space station that you are investigating, and can have real conversations, as far as real conversations in a game can go. You are presented with a screenful of choices. When the person responds, you may get a couple of others. The initial choices are questions, and later ones are responses. The most useful are "What should I do now?" and "Where is ____?" There are many questions like the second, where you fill in the blank with a word from a menu.
If you think the conversation system is complex, the station layout is worse. The layout itself isn't bad, but the way you have to find your way around is incomprehensible. I didn't even complete the first task because I couldn't find my way to where I was supposed to go. Maybe the game gets better once you figure that out, but as far as I'm concerned, this one's a dud. Stay away, unless you want to think pretty hard.
If you like Star Wars and you like DOOM, you'll probably like this game. Then again, maybe you won't. It's not particularly exciting. As you have probably divined, this game is in the DOOM-style first-person perspective. But at least it's not so mindless. Yes there are parts where you have to go out guns blazing and wax some Stormtroopers, but compared to walking around and getting the right switches pushed and so on, there isn't really that much. You're given a couple of objectives at the beginning of each mission, and most of them aren't that hard. I haven't finished this one either, so I don't even know how close I am to the end. If memory serves, I'm about on the 8th mission on my memory card. And you only get one slot per card. I hate it when games do that to me.
Action is basically low, and despite the various "puzzles", so is the thinking. To solve the puzzles you basically have to wander around and find switches to push. So you do a lot of back-tracking. Never an asset to any game. But on the upside, if you can call it that, you do get to know a couple of the areas very well. My advice: If you like games like this but with more action, get an N64 and 007: Goldeneye.
Maybe I would have liked this game better if I had been able to force myself to go beyond the second level. But I couldn't. I'll get to that later, though. I'll start at the beginning. The best part of this game that I got to was being able to fly a B-Wing right away. This is a craft that has been sorely neglected. A pity, really. It's one of the most interesting and original vessels in the fleet. But the first level itself didn't exactly meet with my expectations. You're chasing some TIE fighters through and asteroid field. You are limited to a range of motion within the screen; no 360-degree freedom here. I was hoping for the X-Wing v. TIE Fighter flight format. Oh, well. It was fun enough, I suppose.
Level 2 was infuriating. You have crash landed on a planet and are now either in an Imperial base or a Rebel base taken by the Empire (I forget which.) You are hiding behind a barricade of supplies and shooting at Stormtroopers. Especially after flying you expect the crosshairs to go up when you press down. But they don't. Maybe a lot of people like that, but it always always always screws me up. I couldn't get the controls to invert, either. From the options screen it looks like you can, but I never got it to work. So I can't say anything substantial about this title, except that I don't like it very much. You may disagree with me. Tough.
An inventive if not exciting offering from the people that brought the world Aquanaut's Holiday. I haven't played Aquanaut's Holiday; I just thought I'd throw in that bit of trivia for ya. Object: build a thriving civilization from 3 original tribal members. You get to "be" one member, there are 2 men and one woman from which to choose. Once started, you catch animals, collect fruit, and basically sustain your village so they can produce children and technology. Hey, a spear was technology when spears were new. While my brother and I didn't go very far, and I didn't stick with it long, he had some fun with it. You can't help but laugh when you're running around hunting and gathering and your character gets tired, falls asleep, and slides a few feet along the ground on his face, especially downhill. You sleep for a little bit and wake up refreshed. Days and nights are accelerated "real time." It's neat to be off hunting for a week or however long and make your way back to your village and see all the new huts from your growing population. The world even has distinct climate zones, with different animals and vegetation available in each. And by the way, different flora improve different parts of your people's anatomy, i.e. legs, arms, lung capacity, reproduction, and brain power. Graphics and animation are rudimentary, but adequate. This game will not appeal to everyone, but I am sure there will be dedicated fans of this one out there. Rent first, buy later.
I will start by saying any serious gamer must own this title. This game has graphics, a sexy heroine, action, enemies, guns, dinosaurs, puzzles, reflexes, the list goes on. Any good quality an adventure game can have this has in abundance. Yeah, yeah, the graphics accelerated version for PC looks better, but as far as the PlayStation goes this is about as good as it gets, pixelation aside. Until now, what with Tomb Raider 2 released and all. But I haven't played that yet. Lara Croft is very easily controlled, and the number of actions she can perform is impressive. Auto target lock makes killing things a lot easier and less frustrating, but Eidos did it in a way that you're not guaranteed to get a hit. You at least have to be facing in the general direction of the target. Unfortunately, my gaming skills have left me stranded at a point where I keep falling to my death, so I haven't gotten extremely far yet. I will end this review by restating my assertion that this is a must-have for PSX owners. It should come with the system, if you ask me.
What I have to say about this game is "Ehh..."
I first played the non-turbo TE on the 3DO when the 3DO was fresh and new and promising. Back then, this game was good. Graphics, music, and gameplay were all very decent, but have since been "eclipsed" (pardon the pun) by successive releases. This is a very straightforward shooter where you are a crack pilot attempting to save the earth and human race from the evil Drak-Sai, who like to play with other races in the galaxy by waging war on them and destroying their worlds. The Drak-Sai call it "The Hunt." Your solo mission is to destroy the "Sun Dagger," a universe-roaming weapon that, as the name implies, destroys the central star of planetary systems, killing all life on those planets. Not a bad concept, really. This game just suffers from progress. Only truly great games survive once the technology advances. And this is not one of them. A main complaint is that the terrain only changes pretty much by different coloration. You have overland and tunnel flights. The tunnels are even less distinctive than the surfaces of the various planets. None of the planets have any sign of indiginous life. But hey, we'll cut it some slack due to its age. I bought this game because it was $15. It wasn't a bad purchase, but if it had cost any more I would have regretted it. Get it if you like this sort of thing and it's around ten bucks or so.