To many it seems that this game has been in development for a decade now. Being on of the first titles announced for the PS2 this game all the potential to be great. A storyline that rivaled the Aliens’ movies to graphics that made the player feel the pure sense of terror. Somewhere in that decade of development this game lost it’s appeal and it’s chance of being something special. Come with me into another sad story of great idea gone horribly wrong!
Graphics
The visuals in this game are not entirely bad, in fact standing still they look pretty sweet. Then they start moving and it feels like the animators forgot to add a few frames of movement to the characters. They look stiff and positively ugly when in motion. The environments give a good sense of eeriness that rivals the Aliens’ universe, albeit a very similar style. A spaceship lost in the ass-end of space, all very dark and creepy, remember in space no one can hear you scream. Screaming is just one emotion that I can portray when describing these visuals, screenshots show promise but in action the game just falls short.
Sound
Hiring top talent to voice characters is not a rarity, in fact it is advised for developers who want gamers to take their characters seriously. RLH does a fine job of adding a sense of reality with top name actors voicing their stiff game models. The in-game music is also very fitting, creepy interludes spring through the speakers at just the right moment and give you a certain sense of terror that is lost in many games of this type. Sadly though the sound is the only category that this game excels at, shall I move on?
Gameplay
This is where more than a fair share of frustration comes into play. The controls are downright sloppy, you move with the analog stick which is standard fare. The problem is that the movement is very quick and unresponsive and this leads to many untimely deaths. The camera is also a pain in my ass, switching itself at just the right moment and causing and alien bastard to get a cheap shot on me in turn forcing me to use a health pack blah! The combat system is also a joke, you push the R1 button to bring out the weapons and switch targets with the square button, problem is that switching targets is useless since it is random. When you switch it could target an enemy well out of range causing the enemies right next to you an easy shot, damn sloppy controls.
Storyline
Ok you are Captain Nick Connor, while on a routine mission to collect minerals from a close by asteroid your ship is invaded by a supply ship full of alien baddies. When you come back from your mission you shack up with an alien security guard and together you must find survivors and eliminate the intruders. This somehow sounds familiar but I let that slide, the problem is that the game shoots to a cut scene every couple of minutes leaving me with more story than I care to know. The interruption of game play is annoying to say the least and completely slows down a supposedly fast paced game. Although one of the cut scenes gets my vote for most gruesome, once you arrive back on your ship the girl who was with you gets a little close and personal with a Brute and gets her head bitten off, then thrown at you followed by a lil squeeze to get the rest of the blood out, great stuff!
Overall
This game disappoints on so many levels I can’t even warrant a rental. PS2 fans that are starved for a great action/horror title are better off with The Thing or pretty much anything else within the last 3 months. This game is a perfect example of even with all that extra development time, it still sucks. It could have been stellar but in the end falls very short of even being noteworthy. The game’s title says it all, if you see it for rent “Run Like Hell!”.
