Premise: your previous clone goes to a Nuclear testing site on Earth and hovers above a nuclear missile that is in the process of being launched. the missile hits his craft, causing him to crash roswell style.
later you find out that you will be playing as the next clone. Your clone convinces the superior that you should take over the Earth and destroy all humans. So it’s off to earth you go!
the first level takes place on a farm, you start off getting out of your ship and seeing (what I think at least) some pretty impressive graphics. It helps that this is one of the few PS2 games to support 480P. (you’ll also notice a few graphical glitches in the later levels, but nothing that completely deters from the fun factor) The blades of grass sway in the wind, the water ripples. the sky looks great… all very good for a 6 year old system.
The humor begins immediately, as your leader has you brain scan cows, because in some mix up, they are seen as the highest life forms on the planet. After doing so, and your character being insulted by the cows nearly taking a dump on him, he gets the next power. Levitate. Using the levitate power you send all of the cows flying towards the nearest county line. (this is a highly inventive “weapon” that can make for some great strategic battles.) Next you’ll have to deal with the farmer. Your boss gives you a ray gun to take care of the job, and it does the job nicely.
Graphics: 8/ 10 (some of the draw in gets really noticeable in certain portions, but it’s not overwhelming and it’s not every area.)
Sound: 10/10 Great nostalgia factor! I love the way it starts with a retro news cast.
Long term: 7/10 once you beat it only the side missions will keep you coming back, and that’s a hit or miss proposition depending on the player.
Overall: 8/10 A great game that let’s you play as the alien.
The left stick alone moves your character like mario in super mario 64… coupled with right stick which changes which way you are “looking” it allows you to circle strafe. It allows you to invert the X and Y for the “look” stick.
In the spaceship (which I didn’t get to in the review, that’s a whole nother level of fun) the left stick moves you around, while the “look” stick rotates your ship. This allows precision aiming for your weapons of destruction. It also allows you to easily dodge bullets and missiles, if you are paying attention.
The control isn’t like metal gear at all, and is more comparable to a third person shooter mixed with mario 64 style controls. They work well, but like anything there is a “fumbly” feel to it… It seems to me that only 2D games ever really felt perfect control wise though.
One oddity, is the jet pack… it allows you to jet up into the air, but then it runs out of “gas” and you start sputtering… For the life of me I can’t figure out where the “gauge” is for the jet pack. If someone else has played it (or like skydaemon will play it) and figures out the location of the jet pack fuel let me know.
Okay, the controls sound almost identical to Red Faction for the PS2 so I should be okay. I like that control style. I’ll probably have to go pick that up now. I’ll let you know what I find out about the jet pack thingy.
This really is a great game. Not too long back I rented the XBOX rendition, and ended up not returning it until 3 weeks later.
As skyth mentioned, the graphics are fantastic (I can’t speak for the ps2 version, but I didn’t notice any flaws of glitches), the gameplay is fast and challenging, and the storyline is engrossing. (comical though it is)
As you progress through the levels, you collect brainstems from your victims. (this of course is done by making their heads explode through telepathy) With these brainstems, you can have your own personal evil scientist (abourd the mothership, in space…duh) research new weapons and powers for both you and your flying saucer.
The gameplay itself has a sort of grand theft auto 3 feel, in that it presents a large world to you to do with as you wish. There are many levels, each presenting an expansive area to explore; each with a chain of main objectives and a vast amount of optional lesser objectives, (kill 10 farmers in 20 seconds using only your ANAL_PROBE…etc) both on foot and at the helm of your heat-ray brandishing flying saucer.
Personally, I had the most fun with the UFO. You can literally burn down an entire city with the war-of-the-worlds style heat ray. Shoot a house,watch a small fire slowly turn into a big one, as the helpless humans scatter.
Use your tractor beam to pick up cars and busses and fling them across the country side.
Abduct people and perform experiments.
This game would certainly fall in my top 20 all time games based purely on fun factor.
Oh hell yes! I still have it for both the SNES and the Genesis. That was my favorite game for the longest time. And i can probably still get copies of it for cheap if anyone is interested.
