It’s always a shame when great games are hidden underneath the splendor of the bigger names. With games like Halo 3 and Grand Theft Auto 4 coming out at about the same time, this more original game had no chance to get the recognition it deserves.
On an ice covered planet, humanity is working to create a new colony. Their first attempt failed, and for over a hundred and fifty years, the government had abandoned those on the planet, leaving them to vicious monsters call Akrid. Yet the colonists survived, and the population grew, for they had found a potent power source..the thermal inners of the Akrid were more effective than any other known energy. Of course, the inter-planetary government learned of this and wanted their colony back to research a way to create that source of energy. As one of the people who has lived on the planet his entire life, a young man named Wayne finds himself in danger at every turn. The government wants all of the ‘snow-pirates’, the people who still call the planet home, swept from the planet, and the Akrid are constantly multiplying. Half the time, you think our hero and his small band are trying to improve life on the world, and other times you see that they’re just trying to find a way to survive the hostile environment.
The gameplay is fantastic, more engrossing than anything I’ve played in years. Each challenge has various ways to go around. Will you go into the large mech and blast through legions of enemies? Are you going on foot, making yourself a smaller, more difficult to target opponent? Either way, you don’t have much time to breath. The longer you take, the less energy is in your suit, and the less energy in your suit the quicker you die to either the cold or enemy fire. Only by killing your enemies and absorbing their thermal energies before the snow makes it dissipate can buy you time, tempting you to go after larger targets because of the sheer amount of energy they hold.
This is my longest review yet, and this game has earned it. It’s too bad I didn’t get this game sooner..it was hidden in the shadow of the big names, when it has the right to its own light.