First, a bit of backstory -- it's the year 2032, and players Konoko, a punkish, tough-as-nails, ultra-bad cop who just might be more than human (gasp!). Hardheaded and strictly business, she's literally gunning to take down the Syndicate, which terrorizes the city with just about every techno-threat that's seen the light of your standard neo-anywhere. The real backstory, of course, is that this game's been in development forever. So long and dubious has this game's history been that the developers probably cringe when they hear the words "I heard it had real architects working on the level designs..." -- which is exactly where we'll start.
For those of you who haven't been following this game's conception: The levels are dull. Really dull. Which is not to say that they don't look great, with excellent subtle lighting and great expanses of a dystopian world. But there's nary a potted plant, promotional poster or left-over coffee cup -- no sign at all that people actually inhabit these walls. The game doesn't do a whole lot with textures, either.
Actually playing through the game is a pretty positive experience -- the level designers and their fancy "real world" hired guns have done a pretty good job of keeping the player well oriented during gameplay, yet convincingly rooted in the fantasy. Better yet, there's refreshingly little emphasis on lever pulling or jumping puzzles -- someone out there is listening.
Movement, and especially combat -- the real meat of the game -- is mostly a dream, occasionally a nightmare. It features the deep sort of control scheme you could only have imagined before, but it takes a good while before your skills match your progress -- you can afford to be sloppy early on, but later levels require you to demonstrate much more finesse. Movement is relayed to the player through interpolative animation, so smoothly shifting from creep to sprint to jump to cartwheel to slide then killer stranglehold is certainly possible, provided the player can keep up. Combos are introduced with regularity, and while they're myriad, most of them are easy to pull off, and wincingly brutal.
Fighting (wo)man-to-man is a delight, but when the odds stack up against Konoko to any real degree, the action hits a snag: Essentially, if there's more than one aggressor on each side, you're in big trouble. It's not a huge problem, but it's the single niggling point that'll cause you to clench your teeth as that smooth control vanishes quickly down the drain. In a way, we're not even faulting the developers; maybe we gamers just need to undergo a little evolution, which is exactly where this game stands -- no matter the title's ultimate success, it will stand as a stepping stone to deeper, clearer action gaming.
While there are guns a-plenty, shooting definitely takes a backseat to hand-to-hand -- firearms are almost always end-capped with plenty of fisticuffs. Despite what the game's promotional materials might lead you to believe, Konoko can only carry one weapon at a time. It's a wise decision on the part of the game's designers; the option to switch would only have handicapped the fighting. While side arms are scattered in sufficient numbers, dealing with them can be a bit of a drag -- at times, you may find yourself wishing for the more accurate control of a mouse.
While the visuals are a little on the vanilla side of things, that doesn't mean they're bad -- everyone here agrees the game looks better running on the PS2 than it does on the PC. The aforementioned interpolative animation makes for remarkably fluid action, and the various weapon's effects, while simple, are handled nicely. The anime trappings, while lacking that elusive magic touch that separates the real stuff from the clones, are pretty good, and well suited to both the gameplay and the storyline. Cutscenes won't quicken any pulses, but they're well placed and there are plenty of nice, semi-scripted sequences (such as Konoko's erratically useful backup flunkies) that keep things interesting.
In order to keep the action flowing, the game features an excellent onscreen display, allowing players to keep track of their ammunition, hypo sprays and health with ease. The tutorial is great, too; with its simulated combat and movement training that's both effective and thorough. Plenty of nice touches like these abound -- making it all too clear that the designers were shooting for just about everything, and had to leave a few things here and there by the wayside.
Earlier we mentioned this game's impact on the future of 3D gaming -- that future notwithstanding, the game here and now is a lot of fun. It's fun to watch, fun to learn and, for the most part, really fun to play. Although its handsome brand of blandness might mask the fact, there's quite simply nothing like it -- rest assured that already someone is hard at work taking the game's mechanics further.
The Bottom Line: It's good, real good. But we can't wait to see where someone else takes these ideas.
