Overblood

Developer - Electronic Arts
Publisher - Electronic Arts
Players - 1
Extras - Memory card

The bit on the box

"Evil is in your blood. You wake from a cryogenic sleep with no memory. Stumbling through an underground base, you discover that an evil virus courses through your veins. You must find an antidote...and soon. With help from a friendly robot and a mysterious woman, you must battle infected clones and uncover the secrets of the base. Survival is only half the battle - to prevail, you must defeat the mysterious scientist who controls your destiny. Control 3 characters with unique abilities to complete your quest. Full camera movement in a 3D environment, including 1st person mode. Gather clues, manage resources, and use your intuition to stay alive."

Graphics

Overblood is unique from other games in that it has three selectable views to use. The player can choose one with various changing camera angles (Alone in the Dark), a behind the character view (Tomb Raider), and a first person view (Doom). None of them are breathtaking or use good enough camera angles to use for the whole game though, and you will find you may have to use all of them at some stage. The animation is also disappointing with the main character looking like he really needs to get to a restroom when he walks and runs, and a weird animation that when the camera shows a close up of someone they tend to rock back and forth as if they really have to go to the lavatory. The graphics themselves are good, but the backdrops are a little sparse and empty.

Sounds

Unfortunately this is one of the weaker points of the game. Sound effects are few and far between, and don't sound that great when they do pop up. The droid in the game has an annoying peeping noise that makes you want to kill him, although I will admit that the voice acting of all the other characters is well done. This is just as well too, because speech pretty much makes up the only interesting sound effect in the game, and the music isn't much better. The music sounds a little bit like the spooky music used in the shark tank area in Resident Evil, and while it is suitably spooky, this isn't really a spooky game in the first place, so it doesn't fit the game very well.

Gameplay

Overblood certainly isn't an original game by any means. It seems to have combined a few different games into one, ranging from Tomb Raider, Resident Evil and Alone in the Dark, and a storyline that wouldn't be out of place as an episode of the Outer Limits. The control system likewise emulates all of these games, so most people will be familiar with it's type already. The one key thing that stops this game being completely average is the great story. It contains twists, turns, and events that will keep you wondering what will happen next. Unfortunately it's all over far too quickly, as I finished the game in 3 hours, which is easily accomplishable even with no previous knowledge of how to complete it. The puzzles that are there aren't very hard, and combat (which breaks up the endless wandering about) isn't very difficult to master. Better use could also have been made of the different characters, which can be switched between and used at virtually anytime by the player.

I feel a verdict coming on

This is one of those "if only" games that could have been so good, but turn out decidedly average. The storyline will have you so emmersed that you will feel disappointed when it all ends, which is far too soon in my opinion. Even if more combat had been thrown in I doubt the challenge level of this game would have been much different from what it is now. I get the feeling that the designers were trying to cash in on the success of Resident Evil, and sell a few copies to those who were eagerly awaiting a sequel. Unfortunately this title is nowhere near the calibre of Capcom's classic horror story, but if you can find it somewhere on sale (really cheap) and if you like the TV show the Outer Limits, you might want to grab a copy for some short-lived enjoyment.

Review by D.R.T.Barrett