Experience the dramatic intensity of the frontlines of a war through the eyes of the first of a new breed of super soldiers in this gritty and epic first-person action game. An augmented super-soldier must stop a renegade regime from eradicating the civilized world. Hong Kong, 2065. 2nd Lt. Nathan Frost is just a regular grunt in an international army called the Liberty Coalition. When he takes massive injuries from an explosion on the battlefield, Frost undergoes an experimental procedure. The outcome of the surgery is something more than human; a transformation that makes him a unique weapons-grade warrior, with abilities that far surpass those of the average soldier. Empowered with these extra-normal abilities via implanted augmentations, Frost is immediately sent to the frontlines of a war as a secret weapon against the destructive regime. Stranded in hostile territory, cut off from command and far outnumbered, Frost and a handful of men must try and stop the entire renegade...
I've been positively surprised by this game. Usually I would think it's one of those titles would not hold up to my memories of it, but turns out it's a pretty good game.
Shooting feels properly dynamic and tense, I like to watch enemies fly when hit with the shotgun, and I kind of like this odd autoaim that makes the camera lock on targets while you circle strafe around them.
Weapons and equipment are fun to use but a lot of the time it feels like there's too many things that you have to constantly switch between, implants, grenades, guns, and each takes a bit too much time and attention for it to be effectively managed during shootouts with enemies, especially whit the two former types of equipment, since you can only switch between either in one way (if you switch from frag to EMP grenades, and then want to use frag again, you have to scroll through all the other grenade types, same with implants).
It also seems in some ways combat was designed with use of implants, and the addition of extra life in form of nano boosts activated on death, in mind, making death easy if you don't cycle between equipment *while* also shooting enemies with the right weapons.
Variety of enemies is appreciated though. Human enemies each have a different character model depending on what weapon they use, and each one is cooler than the last. There are also experimental units in the second half of the game whose design and abilities put some other sci-fi FPS enemies to shame. There are robots for good measure, too, which go down best with use of EMP weapons and rocket launcher.
Stealth is a vital option too, which is a welcome addition, singular enemies won't react if you sneak up on them from behind for an easy melee, vents serve a purpose of hiding and moving around patrols and finding secret areas, and alerting enemies makes them activate security, adding turrets, bots, and reinforcements to the battle.
Story is there, it's pretty standard and feels like a typical action flick airing on mondays, but at least it's nicely fleshed out and it has it's moments. And the main bad guy looks really cool.
Pretty good game, just a little short.
This game was once named Deus Ex: Clan Wars. As a huge DX fan, I wanted to test it out to see how DXish it is.
Pros:
- the action is quite intense
- some of DX special features are there, enhancing gameplay possibilities: augs, hacking, some alternative paths here and there
- lots of weapons, many different sorts
- ability to control some vehicles and mechs. Not a lot of them, sadly
Cons:
- the DX features that are included are much simplified
- linear
- one of the poorest scenario I've ever seen, you're a soldier, save the world
- quite short
- except one or two places, too easy
- some bugs (crashes to desktop)
- saving system: checkpoints. Not that much of a problem since it's so easy, but boring when bugs occur and you have to redo everything
- obvious console port - poor use of keyboard possibilities
- as in so many FPSs (eg: DX3), stupid radar showing where the enemies are
All in all, an acceptably good action FPS, but nothing more. Still some DX features that can please the fans. Probably better on consoles.