One

Developer - Visual Concepts
Publisher - ASC
Players - 1
Extras - Memory card, Analog

The bit on the box

"One man, One solution, One state of mind. Flip, climb, hang, slide, blast, and fight through five multi-level 3D worlds. Rage-up with unique RAGE meter. Powerful assault weapons. Vicious physical attack combos. Live or die by your State of Rage."

Graphics

If you like action movies with more special effects and explosions than actual storyline, then you are going to love One. All the graphics in the game are crisp and well detailed, and remind me more than a little of Crash Bandicoot, except with high tech craft and soldiers rather than cutesy animals. There are so many explosions in fact, that sometimes you will not be able to see what is happening around you, causing death a few times in what would be relatively safe places, and while this can be frustrating you soon learn tactics to get you out of these tight spots. The animation in the game, ranging from the main character to the helicopters and jets trying to blow him away, are quite simply excellent, although enemy soldiers seem more static most of the time than moving.

Sounds

One uses a superb orchestral score that blends extremely well with the "film" feel of the game, although sometimes the music can be lost in a large barrage of explosions (which of course happens frequently). Luckily this matters not, as the sound effects have been given the same attention to detail as the graphics, with some of the best explosion and gunfire sound effects I have heard in a shooting game to this date. There are also small voice overs from the enemy soldiers, who frequently communicate with each other via radio and chat about your status and whereabouts, which really creates a good feeling of being on the run.

Gameplay

At first the gameplay reminded me a little of Crash Bandicoot, as it is essentailly a platform game  that runs on "rails", with the camera angle changing on occasion to give a different perspective of the action. That's where the comparison ends however, as in One there is absolutely no time to hang around looking at the scenery! From the outset you are under heavy fire, and only by constant movement and fighting back can you increase your Rage meter (an excellent idea, the more Rage you have the more powerful you are) and keep you alive. Jumping can be a little haphazzard because of the sensitive controls, but a little practice can get you by with little trouble. One only has 6 levels, the first four of which are very easy to negotiate through, and only when you make it to the fifth and sixth levels do you really hit the hard gameplay. I would have preferred more levels, but what is there will have you playing for quite awhile as each level is very large.

I feel a verdict coming on

I can say that I enjoyed One more than I thought I would. I haven't played that many third person shooters and didn't know quite what to expect, but saying I was pleasantly surprised would be a huge understatement. Though it could be longer, what is there is extremely entertaining, and because of the ease of the first four levels, it is easy to get into even for those players not used to this amount of fast and intense action. The Rage meter is a brilliant idea, and as long as the meter is above green (the lowest amount of Rage) then your character is indestructible to enemy fire (but can still die if he falls from a height). If I was to say one thing against this fine game, it would be the weak storyline. Some nice CGI cutscenes to tell the story behind the character would have been nice, and really would have completed the polished look this game already has. All in all though, an extremely satisfying shooter.

Review by D.R.T.Barrett