As of late, the market for First Person Shooters has been flooded with mundane, watered-down games that have left me wondering how a good and just God could allow these games to reach the market. Ever since the ground breaking release of Half-Life 2, there has not been an FPS that I would glean 50 dollars worth of fun from. As every new FPS came out, my spirits were crushed again and bit by bit I began to lose faith in the human race. This downward spiral continued until I stumbled upon Project: Snowblind. I installed the game on my PC and braced myself for yet another game which deserves the same fate as the Atari version of E.T. Overall, Project: Snowblind does not revolutionize first person shooters, but it does deliver solid game play, a decent plot, and an overall gaming experience that was well worth the ten or so hours it took me to complete the game.
Project: Snowblind takes place in the year 2065 and follows the life of 2nd Lt. Nathan Frost. The game begins with a standard Science Fiction plot. In other words, an overly powerful government faction has taken over a peaceful country and is threatening the world with a weapon of mass devastation. Nathan Frost is sent to China to stave off the destruction that the Republic is wreaking on the defenseless city of Hong Kong. The first 15 minutes act nicely as a tutorial mission that prepares the player for the dangers ahead. Towards the end of the mission Frost is shredded up by incoming mortar fire and taken to the base’s medical facilities. What happens next is nothing short of Inspector Gadget meets the Terminator.
After hours of surgery Nathan wakes up with millions of USD worth of technology imbedded in him. With his newly received augmentation powers Nathan sets out to destroy everything evil in Hong Kong. While the story is not the most original one to be featured in an FPS, the way that the plot is carried out says something about the design of the game. One of the things that grabbed my attention right out of the box, was that the cut scenes added a real flavor which breathed life into an otherwise uninspired plot. The cut scenes flesh out characters and fill in plot elements all while looking very sexy. Even though this is a port from the Xbox and the textures aren’t top notch, there is a certain artistic flair that makes up for the low grade textures.
From a gameplay standpoint, Snowblind has a very Deus Ex feel to it, yet it boasts a surprisingly good engine for a hybrid FPS. Whenever an FPS adventure style game, such as Deus Ex, is released to market, it typically supports a weaker FPS engine than its non hybrid competitors. Yet Project: Snowblind does not fall into the trap of sacrificing a solid shooting system for mind powers.
From top to bottom Snowblind is a first person shooter that does not disappoint despite a few key disappointments; the biggest of these being painfully weak AI. Both the AI for enemies and allies alike are as glaring as they are weak. One would think that sniping enemies out of a group would disturb bystanders, but this is not the case. In the same way shooting an enemy in a non lethal area rarely elicited a reaction and he would just proceed on with what he was doing.
Even though one of Project: Snowblind’s coolest features were the augmentations, I rarely found myself using them, seeing as the controls were rough at best. I always just found it easier to run and gun instead finding a place to duck and cover. The incredible arsenal of weapons boasts many nice guns, ranging from a laser rail gun which has the ability to punch trough walls, to one of the coolest pistols that has been featured in any game. Even later in the game I would find myself returning to use the pistol. The level design in Snowblind is nothing short of delicious. The levels are planned out in a very streamline and simplistic way, yet they still offer many ways of completing any given task.
This game is yet another example of how a solid under-marketed title will get overshadowed by other games that suck. All in all, this is a good buy and well worth the shelf price of $40. If you do not feel comfortable spending $40 on a ten hour game, don’t worry, because the price should drop pretty fast. No doubt that this game is a complete steal at 20 bones.
