When this title came out, it showed me a few things. First the trailers were my introduction to something called "dub-step." This turned out to be not my thing, but a new style of music is a new style of music. Nor was it the worst thing as it also brought up memories of the old game of the same name. I was never great at the game, but I loved it's take on a dystopian corporate run cyberpunk world where your place is as much about the hardware installed under your skin as who signs your paychecks. Suffice it to say, I was curious about this new iteration, but between reviews and price, I decided to wait on it.
A few years down the line the game proved very unpopular, but my curiosity was unsated... so when I found it for $5, I picked it up. Glad it was that cheap, because believe me, it probably wasn't even worth that.
You are Kilo, a corporate soldier for Eurocorp, potentially the biggest corporation on the planet... and you are in trouble. You just woke up in a dingy room strapped to a chair with a guy punching you in the face. So what does a corporate soldier do in a situation like this? You break out and kick ass, starting with this asshole! Of course he has a chance to yell that you are free before he goes down so now his team are all looking to ruin your day. Your only goal right now, escape by any means.
This mission will introduce you to the basic First Person controls, forcing you to run, crouch through tunnels, slide, and slam through walls before you execute a soldier, letting you take his gun of and begin really fighting back. Throughout this part you will also be introduced to one of the core mechanics the game will use to try to stand out from other FPS titles: the Dart Overlay. When you use this power, a percentage meter will begin running, during which time the world will be in slow motion, you will take more damage (and may even have some extra regeneration), and anyone you have seen will be outlined and displayed, even through walls (color coded to identify friends, enemies, and those who are dying and wont matter much in a moment). The effects stop when you turn it off, saving some charge or you run out. It does recharge over time, but getting caught without at least a small reserve is not advised. Get used to this, as it is one of the main functions you will rely on the battles ahead.
But for this mission, your escape is ultimately proven pointless, since however brutal you were, none of it was real. You just killed troopers of your own company in an exercise to prove the capabilities you gain in the use of the newest cybernetic chip implant, the Dart chip version 6. You feel that lack of point? Expect to feel that a lot during this game as the plot is pretty flimsy.
While you are being inspected and performance data is being downloaded from your skull and analyzed, you are pulled into your first actual mission to take out an opposing corporation's scientist who's work on their own implant chips is a little to close to Eurocrop's. That's right, plagiarism has been committed and the penalty is death! But before you go, you need training. You see the scientist who is reviewing your progress downloaded a new hacking power to your chip, allowing you to select anyone with an implanted chip and cause them to commit suicide, and the game can't let you go out there before making sure you know how to use it well enough to matter. But after this short interruption you are off storm the skyscraper!
This is one of three missions the 20 "milestones" that make up this game will take you through and also the most meaningless one, since when it ends, you basically go home, talk with the big boss and get sent on your next mission. This mission will actually setup the majority of the entire game as well as the most cliche story line I could ever imagine. Seriously you will probably figure out the story before you even finish the opening events where that other company breaks into your star scientist's home and kidnaps her.
Nor is this story the biggest problem this game has. The gameplay also suffers this lack of care or ideas of it's own. That Dart Overlay and the hacking powers you will gain are just about as close as the game gets to aping the much better and recently released at it's launch Deus Ex: Human Revolution. It also apes the "upgrade" mechanic, but does it in such a lazy way that I could barely count it as having an effect on the game and absolutely no effect in how you get to play it. Meanwhile the game also took the time to ape Halo with a regenerating health system and only letting you carry two weapons at once, letting it's only quasi-stand-out function really be that Dart Overlay, even as that is basically something done by many other games before it.
And that is basically the biggest issue this game has... a complete lack of originality. I normally frown on using other games as reference, but in this case, it just explains so well what is wrong with this game. From your weapons, to your enemies, to even the bosses, there is really very little here you haven't seen before, and most of the time, you've seen it done better.
Bugs: Nor can I even call this game bug-less. Do not get me wrong, it generally ran well and looked good, but the real tragedy is there was one single boss-fight that was actually kinda original... and that was when a bug struck. Late in the game, you are forced to fight a boss by hacking the missiles he fires at you so they fly at him instead, requiring you to keep a distance so you have time to react to the batches he sends as he jumps between platforms above you. It's actually very different from any other boss you play (which basically involve keeping a column or some over cover between you and them circling around till your Dart Overlay is ready so you can turn it on and unload on them... rinse and repeat) requiring you to pay attention to where he is, your distance, and when he throws jammers you have to destroy BEFORE you can handle the missiles. But here's where the bug is, because if you are on the ball, it's possible to break it before the jammer lands.... and then it just wont break anyway. This bug almost got me killed.
Overall: Outside of the mobile market, it's hard to come by a game that was clearly made to try to take all the current trends in games, from First Person Shooters in general to the key traits in the game-play of the biggest games in the genre and mimic them just enough to look like it might be something good. In short this game is a straight up cash-grab with a cyberpunk paint over it. Avoid this game.
Score:
3/10
System Requirements:
- Intel Core Duo (E4600) at 2.4 Ghz or Athalon 64 X2
- 2 GB RAM
- GeForce 8800GT or ATi 4650 with at least 512 MB VRAM
- Windows XP with SP2/Vista/7/8/10
- 10.5 GB hard drive space
- Ryzen 7 (2700) 3.2 Ghz
- 16 GB RAM
- Nvidia Geforce 1660 (6GB VRAM)
- Windows 10 (64 Bit)
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