Project: Snowblind

The Good
Originally intended to be a Deus Ex spin-off, titled Deus Ex Clan Wars. The closing down of Ion Storm, and poor sales of Deus Ex 2, had developer, Crystal Dynamics, release the game as Project: Snowblind.

Anyone who has played a Deus Ex game will immediately recognize, the similarities. In Project: Snowblind, you play, the properly named, Nathan Frost. In the not to distant future Nathan is a 2nd Lieutenant in the Liberty Coalition Army. During a battle he is hit with a bomb in an attempt to save one of his fellow troops, falling in and out of coherence, he hears something about EMP, and the term scarecrow. What could this mean?

Upon awaking Frost learns he has been rebuilt. His near death experience made him a perfect candidate for a new procedure. His is the first prototype of a new bio-augmented super solider project. Now the evil Republic will have something to fear, a one man army if you will.

The war plot has been done in the genre of the FPS. Here however it is done very well. Which is even more interesting considering how awful most futuristic FPS are. The story never gets boring and has more plot twists than an RPG.

Speaking of which, Deus Ex die-hards need not fear this game. True it is not an RPG hybrid. But I is still a very well done game. With lots of interesting and well developed characters. That you may even come to care about, as to what happens to them.

During missions you have huge areas to explore. With main objectives as well as a few minor ones. There are lots of weapons to use, from assault guns to shotguns, and of course lots of grenades. Special tools like the Ice pick allow hacking of machines. And of course the star of the show the augmentations. These really add to the game and offer strategy to the mix.

You can also commandeer many vehicles, including mechs! And watch out for the Snowblind effect in which you systems will shut down, and leave you vulnerable. But with nano-boosts you can even cheat death, always nice.

The graphics are very good, it looks like a enhanced Deus Ex 2 engine. Great lighting and effects.

The sound is well done also. From the great voice-overs. The awesome sounds of war all around you. And the score. Oh did I mention that this game supports Dolby Digital? Nice.

The Bad
The save system sucks! I mean save points! Come on! Even Deus Ex which was an RPG did not have freaking save points. And seeing as the save points are often very far apart, there are times in which you will have to replay sections of the game.

The game is long by FPS standards. Not necessarily a bad thing. That all depends on your point of view.

The Bottom Line
Overall this is one of the better FPS of the Xbox. No easy task considering how abundant the genre is of the Xbox. And overall it is as good if not better than Deus Ex 2. And you can usually get this game for under $20 dollars. So give overrated Halo 1 and 2 a break a check this out.

The Good
This first-person-shooter from Eidos is the unofficial sequel to Deus Ex: Invisible War. That game had lots of multiple paths and gadgets. This game is very similar. Lots of gadgets, from impenitrable shields, bullet-time, and lighting (like Darth Sidius's) are just the start. There are so many ways to do stuff you can play the story mode again and again and... well, you get the idea. Let's not forget the graphics. While not PC-quality, they come pretty darn close. The neon lights, highly detailed objects, and gun effects make this pretty to look at. Speaking of guns, they go from the norm (carbines, shotguns) to the really futuristic (H.E.R.F., a gun that specializes in disabling electronic stuff, like droids) are a real blast to use.

The Bad
Ok, time for the bad. First, the story seems ripped from the the recent war in Iraq stories (the WMDs, you know), and is really predictable. Secondly, the AI isn't too inspiring; they don't really act smart to today's standards, and charge you when they can. Lastly, and it pains me to say this: the Xbox Live multiplay sucks. Dreadfully. When I logged on, usually only one server was on (playing deathmatch), noone really was using voice (an almost neccessary thing today), and the battles themselves were just giving me a worn out feeling. Trust me on this: if you want multiplay, grab some friends also owning this game and play system link. Period

The Bottom Line
So, I hope I rest my case on this review. If you were the impatient reader let me sum it up to you really quickly:

good in single-player, bad in multiplayer.