It couldve been amazing, but the length leaves you wanting more
The premise, well these guys should be given an award of some sort for creativity. The story starts out with a Cherokee Indian named Tommy. You assume the role of Tommy, who wants nothing more than to get his girlfriend off the reservation. Tommys grandpa and girlfriend Jen, want to stay. Jen owns the bar you start out in, which is quickly rattle with an alien abduction. You then fight your way through the alien ship to rescue your girlfriend, and save the world.
The difficulty, well, there is none. Death really has no consquence of any sort as you are instantly transported from where you died to the "Spirt Realm". Here you just shoot down flying creatures with your bow and arrow, gaining back the health you lost. You are then thrown back right where you died. Enemies you injured before death stay at the level of health you left them at. So really, theres no point in the game you are gonna say hey, ease up.
The portals are executed very well in this game. It is pretty fun just to get lost looking at them from the side and not be able to see them, turn a bit OH there they are. But admittedly, these portals couldve been so much more. There is usually just one leading you right where you need to go. Wouldve been nice to see multiple portals with a destination unknown. There is one point in the game where you see thousands of portals, but they all close up and only one is left.
The walkways are a nice change of pace from the norm. Youll see a walkway and it leads up the wall and onto the ceiling. Staying on this walkway you will be changing gravity with it. Its pretty cool and can allow for some good ambushes as when you jump you go to the correct gravity, so you could pop down right behind someone and blam.
There is gravity changers in here as well, but never in a combat squence. There are they for puzzles only. Walking into a room you may see a giant gap that you couldnt jump over. More often than not, look up and youll see one the the gravity changers. Shooting it makes the ceiling the new floor, allowing you to pass.
Sometimes youll come to a forcefield, and be unable to go through it. This is where a technique you learn in the game comes in handy. Its Spirt Walk, with just a push of a button your soul leaves the body and can pass through things you normally couldnt. 9 times out of 10 though, youll come through the forcefield, and right on the other side is a button to deactivate the field.
Weapons in this game are pretty to look at, but are pretty much you standard affair for a FPS. Every weapon is one from the aliens, so you wont be holding any Colt 45s or such. Even though they are alien weapons, they still functions as their earthly counterparts. Your main gun is a burst machine and secondary use is a sniper rifle. Most every weapon in the game has a secondary function. The grenades can be set as mines or just thrown, rocket laucher launches or creates a forcefield. Theres about 7 weapons in all.
Multiplayer was more or less included just because of the genre. There is death match, team death match, and ...thats it. Theres about 7 maps in all. The mulitplayer lags more than any 360 game Ive witnessed thus far. If you are going to play, stick to 4 players. It can be fun though to set up traps with your body hidden somewhere and sniping people with the bow. But all in all there are better games on the system to be had on Live.
Without these setbacks, this game couldve been one that goes down in the books. Maybe in the sequel they will improve these things. Oh yeah, they definitely leave it for a sequel.