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I Need My Pills Mr. Baz!!!
I must say that this is the single best shooter, and most definitely the most creative one, that I have seen since the invention of the genre. (Oh, ok, personally I like Voyager: Elite Force, but I'm a trekkie <g>.) The single player is a hilarious satire on just about everything, yet well constructed. The multiplayer is the most diverse, yet highly balanced, It seems rather strange to be reviewing a shooter and referring to "balance", "resources", and "bases". Heck, it felt weird playing it, though it felt rather addictive too. It's about time someone introduced another facet to the run&shoot FPS genre, and by needing to create and defend your base, it definitely keeps it more interesting, and meaningful. Now before you start thinking it sounds like Tribes because it has vehicles, vast maps, and base building, I'll stop you right there. Those things are similar, but Tribes didn't really have base building, only a few minor traits of the concept, nor did it have resource management. Having to protect your base, and leave your base for the specific, neutral, target of the Smartie villages and Vimp herds (which roam around), gives the game actual objectives beyond kill, yet make it different from Capture the Flag, as you needn't go into hostile territory for your target (Unless you're playing Capture the Smartie, that is.) Beyond that the game is incredibly beautiful, and when combined with the John Williams style soundtrack, I hardly want to put the game down!
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| Graphics
- Sound - Gameplay - Depth
- Multiplayer | Reviewed
by John Del Percio |
GRAPHICS
98 % |
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Simply stunning outdoor terrains, without sacrificing framerate really give the game the beautiful look it deserved, and by far surpasses Unreal. It looks somewhat cartoonish, though since that was the look they were going for, and it worked, there isn't much to complain about there. Still, I think the texturing could have been even better.
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SOUND
98 % |
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The in-game sound effects were appropriate, but not exceptional or over the top. The voice-overs were spectacular, though Delphi, the Sea Reaper protagonist could have been calmed down a bit, and the music, at times, sounded rather similar to John Williams (Star Wars (all), Jurassic Park (all)), and even when it didn't was still stunning. Too bad it's not in MP3 format, it would have been a repeat listener.
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GAMEPLAY
100 % |
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What can I say? It's the first First Person Shooter I've liked since Quake. Bored of the same-old, Giants provided a new angle, something that should have been tried long ago, and brings justice to both the FPS (First Person Shooter) and RTS (Real Time Strategy) genres.
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DEPTH
99 % |
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It's not about some doomsday apocalypse, but its storyline keeps you playing, the gameplay keeps you playing, and that's good enough for me. It's nice seeing some creative and humorous titles come out that become major attractions. Typically only the sadistic games receive much attention.
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MULTIPLAYER
100 % |
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Really, an extension of the gameplay rating. With the exception of the use of Mplayer (optional) for its multiplayer gaming, the multiplayer gaming seems to be pretty stable, doesn't create much unnecessary lag, and has the best multiplayer shooter gaming available.
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As I mentioned in the article, I have not been too happy with FPS games since Quake (and even that wore off on me.) It's nice to see some intelligence in FPS gaming beyond the intelligence needed to hunt prey. It is probably the most unique title to come out this year simply because of it's ability to transcend the stagnancy of two genres. One point of interest you may need is that I ran into a major problem having installed Mplayer from the CD. Interplay has written their own version of the Mplayer client program for Interplay Games. Unfortunately, it doesn't appear that the Mplayer servers are completely supporting it yet. If you install Mplayer from the Giants CD and have problems with the Inventory Control System, and can't join games, uninstall "Interplay Games", and install the real Mplayer client from the Mplayer website. Finally, Giants is a definite nomination for the 2000 GameVisions Top Pupil awards for the categories of Best Action and Best Game.
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this product from EBWorld - Fast - Secure - Reliable - Approved by GameVisions
Giants: Citizen Kabuto for $29.99
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