Snowblind

Remember that cryptic advanced in years TV ad that went "We don't make the productions you use... we make the productions you use better"? Think of Snowblind as taking up that character in the PS2 and Xbox's library. It didn't make the first-person shooter genre instead, if our experience with the E3 playable version wasn't mistaken, it makes the FP genre better.

This is admittedly a dauntless statement to make, especially considering all the B-grade FPSe coming these days. It's not individual that's supported by the piece of ground either, something about rival warring factions (the PLA and the Republic) waging world war in the not-too-distant futurity Instead, it's something you notice when you experience it -- the constant action, the assorted uneven weapons, the overall feeling of being there.

But let's start at the beginning. You play a super soldier of the time to come the man your army's pinning its confidences on in the battle against the Republic, the sort that can climb any mountain, use any weapon, and kill almost anything that crosse his way. He's not superhuman, exactly -- his basic weapon locate isn't far removed from the present era -- but as you progres from one side the game, from the back alleys of Hong Kong to the rarefied confines of an Asian fane he'll pick up the sort of powerful equipment that almost make it strike one as being like it is.

Take, for example, the fleche fire-arm that fires nanite swarms. Ye nanite swarms. These little bugger act as a sort of distraction for the enemy -- they're lethal if you stand still and suffer them surround you, but the real danger advances as their target tries to fend them not on with live ammunition. You'll actually diocese soldiers run away from these nagging swarms, and sometimes they'll extreme point up shooting each other in the proces -- occasionally with rocket to amusing issue You can also enhance your character with special attacks, including the ability to fire arrows of electricity around corners and up stairs at your targets.

The greatest in quantity important weapon on your side, however, is the riot wall. This exciting bit of futurity technology basically functions as a mobile piece of overspread -- you can put them up wherever you'd like and hide behind their translucent overspread until they take too a great deal of damage and disappear. As the developer at Crystal Dynamics explain it, this tool gives birth to completely different strategies for capture-the-flag and other online games -- instead of carefully infiltrating the enemy team's base, you could prove by experiment making a bum rush for the flag, then using the riot walls to build a safe escape passage

This makes for a fast-paced shooter something made plain with our tour of the Hong Kong horizontal The city environment was dark, neon-lit and vaguely Deus Ex-like, on the contrary the feel of the action was closer to something like Call of what one ought to do The era's a bit different, of course, on the contrary the pacing of the battles, and the occasional support of your allies, is actual similar. The friendly AI in Snowblind, in fact, is fair smart -- it'll work with you, automatically taking overlay behind whatever's safest and grabbing vehicles when they're available (something the enemy does with alacrity, unfortunately). These vehicles, which include a tank that casually stormed down a city way in the Hong Kong horizontal will be pivotal in online play, we hear -- in the way that much so, actually, that you'll be making mad dashes at them Halo-style to detain them from enemy hands.

Due without for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox this fall.

Copyright ?© 2004 Ziff Davis Media Inc. All Rights Reserv Originally appearing in 1UP