Bondage and zeros have nothing whatsoever to do with this game. Review

Bondage and zeros have nothing whatsoever to do with this game.

The megalopolis S1-9 is a massive city, stretching 5 miles into the sky and

producing enough toxic waste to ruin all of Asia. You are a member of the rebel

Guardians. You are joined with a Slave armor (Slave Zero), basically

a massive robot you control with your mind, as though it was your body (read:

feels and moves just like a first-person shooter). With this 12-story robot,

you stomp around the city, ascending higher and higher into its reaches, smashing

your robotic opponents and wreaking mayhem. Your objective: Remove the evil

Sovkahn from power in S1-9 by any means necessary. Even if half the city is

destroyed while you do it.

That is

Slave Zero in a nutshell. Its design is simple, its action is repetitive

but satisfying, and its experience is quasi-original and invigorating. First-person

shooters are a dime-a-dozen, but Slave Zero is a little different. Doom,

Shogo: MAD,

and almost any arcade shooter you can think of may come to mind, but in the

end the only thing that actually makes you think you’ve already played Slave

Zero are old Transformer and Macross cartoons.

Slave Zero is essentially a pure action romp. Not a moment goes by when

you are not shooting something. To keep this from getting dull, the level design

offers a constant stream of new challenges and a parade of arcade-style bosses

to vary things as much as possible.

The gameplay does have a few twists. For instance, you can only carry one

energy weapon, one machine gun, and one missile launcher at a time, which tailors

the action to whatever stage you are currently playing. Furthermore, the environment

is highly interactive. Cars driving down the streets may be picked up and thrown

like makeshift rockets. Pedestrians can be grabbed and used as "paint"

bombs. Even buildings can be smashed and their support beams used to whack things.

It may not be particularly involved, but it does keep things interesting enough

to hold your attention.

Slave

Zero uses the proprietary Ecstasy engine to create some extremely appealing

visuals. S1-9 is convincingly portrayed as an endless world of towering skyscrapers,

toxic rivers, industrial plants, sewer systems, stratospheric highways, Anime

inspired architecture, and near gridlock traffic. All the usual accoutrements

(colored lighting, over-the-top special effects, adept texturing) create a palpable

environment that, thanks especially to the interactivity, feels solidly real.

The animation and modeling of the enemy units (also distinctly Japanese) is

impressive, though Slave Zero himself really takes the prize. Although

a first-person perspective is offered, players will be spending all their time

in third-person simply because of how good Slave Zero looks. Whether

leaping down from above while showering a barrage of bullets and missiles, swinging

himself onto a ledge, or deftly outmaneuvering a boss’ attacks, Slave Zero

moves with a grace and power unusual in a computer game. Naturally, it takes

a powerful machine to run it all, but this is one fine looking game.

The sound is sufficiently hard hitting for the style of gameplay, and the

sound of Slave Zero‘s battle cry is a particularly good reason to splurge

on a subwoofer. The music fits the bill admirably, serving up some energetic

and non-cookie-cutter techno that complements the graphical atmosphere nicely.

One serious problem does exist, though. In the retail version, there isn’t

any multiplayer, and although a patch was later released, it’s limited to deathmatch

with a measly 4 players. A straight-up action title like Slave Zero lends

itself intuitively to multiplayer madness and it is a great pity that such an

important part of the game was so utterly ignored. The multiplayer maps were

all completed and included with the game, but the actual multiplayer mode was

left out, possibly in the rush to release the product.

All of this, along with a good, solid feel to the control, makes for a truly

satisfying action experience, even without multiplayer. Slave Zero, while

not really like any other game you’ve played, feels like an old friend, and

it’s remarkably easy to get into, casual and relaxing to play – like any good

low-maintenance action game should be.