This should be a very entertaining "first episode" for those who enjoy plenty of action and cool characters.
I am not going to go into the story, because it is such a short game, but I would like to say that the voice acting and is very well done. The characters expressions are overblown, but it works for the style this game is going for. Radek’s voice in particular, just clicked with me.
I can’t remember the last time I played an FPS where enemy’s heads explode into chunks as if they were watermelons when I shot them, or even zip around and explode when I shoot their jetpacks (go Tribes!). This game does not skimp on the gore, f-bombs, and sexual themes, but does not overdo any of them to be outright offensive. In fact, I found theses elements refreshing because so many other games just don’t have them.
There are three weapons that are accurate (thank god) and “feel right” when firing. They all have alternate firing modes, each of which I find useful in the harder sections of the game. I don’t believe this is too few, when one considers the length of the game. As long as more guns are provided in future episodes, I can forgive the scarcity in this one.
The AI is fun to fight against. It can hit you hard and fast and always find ways to trick you. They also have quite a few sayings, so you wont hear the same two phrases over and over. You are not strafing to dodge bullets in this game. The most you can do is duck behind a corner. The enemies will shoot you immediately, so it is a test of who can pull the trigger first and not whether you can sneak up on them.
Difficulty wise, I found this game hard. In several sections, you will find yourself flanked by the enemy and it very difficult to win the fights if you don’t throw grenades in the right spots and go for headshots to take care of the leftovers. There are different methods of dispatching your foes, so you are never stuck using the same trick over and over. If you do, you will run out of ammo and have to adapt by using the other guns anyway. Expect to die a lot on the harder settings.
This game is basically a corridor shooter and it looks great on the Source engine. There are very few moments where you won’t be in a hallway of some sorts. However, the way the designers loop you around the locations is very interesting and well put together. It feels like you are actually going through them rather than running through random hallways with no purpose.
This should be a very entertaining "first episode" for those who enjoy plenty of action and cool characters.