MrD3a7h's Two Cents: August 2009

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The game opens with you standing in a bathroom of a roadhouse, looking at a mirror. You are a Native American in love with the smoking bar tender, and you are desperate to leave the reservation with her.

Leaving the bathroom, you find yourself talking to your grandfather who feels “great change in the wind”. For seemingly a long time you have nothing to do but wander around the bar, playing with the jukebox, TV, and pay phone. Eventually the bartender, Jen, has you pickup your wrench from the bar, with the two rednecks at the bar hitting on her. After the bargoers try to force themselves on Jen, you beat them to death with your wrench.

Then the aliens show up.

Seriously. The bar shakes, the roof dissolves, and you are sucked up through a shaft of light along with your gramps and Jen. After traveling along a rollercoaster strapped to a metal slab, someone sabotages the machine, freeing only you. You then travel through the ship trying to free Jen and your grandfather.

Owned.

You’ll be fighting with a broad selection of weapons, from your trusty wrench to a wealth of alien semi-organic weapons (including bug-nades). The first weapon you receive is arguably the best, with a decent rate of fire, plentiful ammunition, and a nice scope.

This is not a straight up shooter. Instead, you’ll be solving complex puzzles Half-Life style. You’ll be using portals, gravity sidewalks, breakable doors, shrinking, and much more. This becomes more difficult as the game progresses, especially after you get in touch with your Native American spirit. You can then leave your body in spirit form to access places your earthly self cannot. You will solve puzzles using explosives, force fields, wall-walks, and changing the direction of gravity itself.

An easy puzzle.

From time to time, you find earth artifacts scattered around the alien ship. You’ll see a poster here, an airplane there. The most informative parts are when you listen in on a radio show, hosted by Art Bell. He has different callers from different parts of the country that let you know how things are going planet-side.

Your enemies will consist of several basic types, in different combinations. You fight against riflemen/snipers, mutants and huge hulks. You’ll be armed with powerful weapons, and each will be most efficient at taking out one type of enemy.

When you are killed, you will not return to the last checkpoint. Instead, you take a “death walk”. Shooting red targets will give you health, blue will return spirit power. Once the timer expires, you’ll respawn where you died with your earnings.

Perhaps the most disturbing thing (and that’s saying a lot), are the “ghost children”. Yes. Dead children that attack you. Not only do you get to witness a child being killed, you eventually have to fight them. And they are damn hard to get by.

Top: Bad. Bottom: Worse.

There are several boss fights, each a little bit harder than the last. They are not difficult, and even seem a little uninspired. The first time you see the different kinds of boss monsters, it can be a little bit intimidating. After they introduce each type, the next fight will simply feature more of the same. Your larger guns will pretty easily down each type. You really only need to fear them if you are low on ammo.

The final boss level, and the final boss fight, are difficult. Health is fairly scarce, and ammo need to be managed. The fighting is intense, and you can expect to do the death walk several times.

At a Glance:
Graphics: 10/10
For a game that began development in 1997, the game looks fantastic. Running at 1440x900 with textures at their highest settings, the game is sharp, and has amazingly vivid and colorful scenes. The game has extraordinary visuals.

Sound: 8/10
An exiting musical score backgrounds vibrant sound effects.

Game Play: 8/10
Fighting enemies are both intense and rewarding.

Plot: 6/10
Interesting plot, but very unbelievable during most of the game.

Boss Fights: 8/10
Intense fights, but they become repetitive very quickly. The final fight was better when multiple enemy types spawned at the same time.