-
Developer: Exortus
Publisher: Take2 Interactive
Genre: Adventure
Region: PAL
Format:
Release Date: 15 Dec 00
User Rating
3.7 (6 votes)- Preview
- Review
- Media
- Guide
- Secret
-
Overview
I'm not kidding - the storyline in this game makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. The brief intro appears to have no connection with the actual game - all you do is run about killing things and opening doors. There is NO speech, NO written dialogue either, in fact NO text of any kind to tell you what's going on. The ending makes no sense either. A total travesty...
Gameplay
Terrible. The game is very poorly designed (and short too) - the puzzles are nonsensical and obscure, and because there is no text, you often pick up items and have no idea what they are, or what they do. You just have to squint your eyes at the tiny icon and have a guess what it is, and end up trying most items in places where they might look useful...
The fight scenes aren't too bad, but you can defeat most monsters by repeating the same move.
The worst aspect is the horrible collision detection - there are many traps where you have to time your run to get past (haven't they thought of any new gameplay ideas in the past 15 years? This stuff was dated back in ZX Spectrum days...) but you invariably end up getting killed even if you were nowhere near the obstacle...
Graphics
The screenshots on the back cover are misleading - they're from the superior PC version (you can tell the difference, because the sprites cast shadows on the screenshots - they don't have shadows in the PS game.)
The backgrounds are quite good, but the headache-inducing scrolling is annoying, and the character graphics are awful. The main character shuffles about like an old C64 sprite, and some of the enemies are indistinct blobs. Not good.
Fun Factor
Fun? You must be kidding. I've had more fun watching Adam Sandler movies than playing this game. And once you complete it, the replay factor is a big fat zero. Enough said.
Overall
The reason I've reviewed this is that a lot of PSone games are now being sold cheaply in the UK as '3 for £20' deals. Tunguska seems to crop up regularly in these sales, and for a good reason - no one was prepared to shell out £30 for this monstrosity, and shops now have a surplus of games they can't shift.
I'm just writing this review as a warning to those who might be tempted by the cheap price, and the blurbs and screenshots on the back (which are extremely misleading). Don't make the same mistake I did - avoid it at all costs...
- Gameplay
3.0 - Graphics
4.0 - Fun Factor
2.0 - Overall
2.0
