First I reviewed a game set during WWII for the celebration marking the 60th Anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany… now it’s Memorial Day this May 30th and I’m back to review more games of war.
Of course I WANTED to review a WWII game, again, but that got a little sidetracked by a not so cooperative game from Blockbusters that I BOUGHT and had to return for it being rather… defective.
Which is not to say I’m down on Blockbusters. A lot of the great games I own (both new and used) come from Blockbusters, so this one minor faux pas is nothing compared to the great many successful reviews I had done thanks to the help of Blockbusters. Anyway I plan to fill in the WWII reviewing slot with a review of Medal of Honor : Rising Sun so that’s covered. So, moving on now.

This particular game of war takes place NOT in the past, like WWII or Vietnam, but in the future… the year 2065 to be precise, as you find yourself drafted into the defense of Hong Kong from invasion.
Isn’t it strange however that this game was made post Hong Kong being turned over to the Chinese and yet China is nowhere to be found in this conflict… the invading country, however, seems to be North Korea from the flag seen at the start of the game… maybe. I’m pretty sure it’s North Korea.

Well one thing leads to another and while you are in a firefight you end up getting whacked about and laid down for dead… that’s when the science of war meets the science of Robocop.
You are brought back from the dead as a “super soldier”, a technological marvel set to win this war… if the scientists would get around to installing all the upgrades to your systems that is. And, damn, it’s not a pretty sight since it looks like they’re doing the Robocop “dead back to life” gig on everyone sent through this area… damn, that’s disturbing.

After you get the hang of your new implants and such you are sent on mission after mission, starting with a string of missions to help evacuate everyone from the Hong Kong city you were deployed to… eh? You just got there and already your in retreat? Go figure!
Anyway as you go along you’ll get first hand experience in the truth of the saying that war is hell…and while you’re at it you’ll learn why the game is called Project : Snowblind.

Apparently when you get your first taste of an EMP Grenade post

your transformation into “RoboSoldier” you get screwed up badly, and your “vision” goes all white and “snowy”… hence the name “Snowblind” which is told to you straight up by your Asian commanding officer who is animated to look like an action figure from the GI Joe Extreme line.

War may be hell, but the gameplay is most certainly NOT.
It’s fine, really really fine. Combat is smooth and beautiful, though not the best.
Yes, Halo 2, Killzone (and it’s upcoming PS3 sequel Killzone 2), Half Life 2 and Resident Evil 4 for the GameCube is just abit finer over Project : Snowblind but still this game kicks hard, and is quite interesting.
It’s a good shooter and has lots of merits for ownership if I do say so myself.

Once you’re in Robocop mode (ten minutes into the game) you have some interesting powers to use, which expands as you play further into the game. One power is this sight thing which allows you to see enemies through walls as well as visually keep track of where you need to go (markers). Then there’s the “shields” you get about a few levels into the game which protects you from enemy fire as long as you have the bio energy to fuel it (extra bio energy pods can be found in supply crates as well as ammo and grenades so be sure to break many supply boxes and check for those kinds of goodies).
Save points are abit weird. Instead of simply looking for a terminal to log into you’ll have to find a door marked with the save point icon and enter this “save room” where, yes, a terminal waits for you to log into.

As a good soldier in any good first person shooters, you know that you’ll have access to some hardedge weapons that give you a chance against the endless onslaught of enemies. You have your handgun, your carbine, your shotgun, your rocket launcher, your grenades, your kicker… kicker? Apparently you can get ahold of a device that picks up and levitates things for throwing, but I never found the time to try and use this on enemies so somebody needs to tinker with that to see if you can JedI “force throw” things into enemies to damage them. Also besides the weapons… weapons… everytime you think you’ve gotten ahold of every weapon you can hold you find yourself a NEW weapon… so you got quite abit of firepower to play with in this game, no questions asked… oh, after the weapons you’ll also have the occasion to grab

a vechile or two, but the driving doesn’t look easy… it’s not Grand Theft Auto driving to say the least, and getting the hang of driving is going to take a little while. Also it doesn’t look like you can run over your enemies since I’ve tried that with mixed results… sometimes I think I’ve run over them, sometimes they don’t seem affected by my vechile.

Speaking of enemies, enemies are abit more varied and harder here than, say, Killzone.
Besides foot soldiers with a variety of weapons you also have tanks, helicopters and mech armors (that look like mini ATST Walkers from Star Wars -- for starters) to deal with. That isn’t a big variety but this is only the opening salvos of the “war” so I’m sure there’s more to find along the way.
Each mission also requires some thought to accomplish, and not just a quick hand with the firing switch. However this thought process is more along the lines of how to outflank and outgun your enemies as opposed to problem solving puzzles to figure out. Even when it looks like you’ll be doing some hacking you mostly are just given a clue to where a counter hacker is, then you have to go and kill that person to gain computer access. Maybe it’s just me but I might have wanted some puzzles to work over, but I guess it’s OK since Killzone didn’t feature any mind challenging puzzles to solve either and I liked that game.

I can’t think of any downers about this game… hmmm… maybe a few.
There are better shooters out there, but this still has it’s merits. Shooter fans will embrace this, though it’s only for the shooting since the story is not exactly the best. But when we look at this game just on the merits of it’s action alone it’s fairly solid and worth checking out. The gaming is good, and is one of the better shooters I’ve played in recent memory (though not the best of which several games holds that distinction).
A definite game for those of you who like shooters and can ignore the story.

Yeah, yeah, I’m down on the story of Project : Snowblind yet I think the game itself is worth checking out.
Somehow this so called “story” just doesn’t do it for me. If I think about it more and more about the story, I find that like the story less and less, somehow it’s just not that good.
Of course since you are here just for the shooting I think the story can somehow be

forgiven, or at least ignored in some respects except where they’re talking about things vital to the game. Otherwise it’s not a terribly interesting story so you won’t get too caught up in it. Let’s break this down.

Project : Snowblind Breakdown
What’s Hot?
It’s a solid enough game. The graphics, sound effects and gameplay is good.
This place is pretty, and the gaming is a blast. I had fun here and I think you’ll have fun too.
I’m pretty certain this supports online play as well which is another plus in my opinion.

What’s Not?
The story doesn’t do much and is one of the weaker stories for a shooter I’ve heard of late.
The enemies are not varied but what they lack in variety they make up for in numbers and interesting quirks like the ATST style mechs and the EMP grenades that really mess you up.

Moments to Remember?
The gameplay and all that pretty shooting is the most memorable. Sad since sometimes it’s the story AND the gameplay that (hand in hand) is the most memorable… except here.

What to Ignore?
Hmm… where did they come up with some of this dialogue in the game? What the heck!
“If you can’t survive the stone age you don’t deserve to live at all”… or some tripe like that… what the!!
Then there’s a few moments that are just… weird. The following is one of those moments.
Mission #5 has you infiltrating a parking garage to get to a building holding huge rail cannons that are keeping escape vessels from taking off. As you start the level you enter and come face to face with one of your masked enemies… who seems to want to do the heavy breathing Darth Vader impersonation… if he lived long enough to do it before your character blows him away. Weird.

Overall?
This time out I’m afraid you are just here for the shooter. Romping about 2065 Hong Kong killing what probably is North Korean troops is a fun thing and all, but somehow I wish the story behind the violence was abit better. Overall the game is good, and you‘ll find lots of merit in playing this.
And did I mention it has online multiplayer as well as the single player? If you love playing games like this online you should have lots of fun with this game in multiplayer option! Booyah!
While it’s not the Best of 2005, it will be one of the best of the PS2 & Xbox well worth giving a shot for your collection! And with online multiplayer you’ll have lots of fun with this one! Go get it!