Nemesis Strike
Posted April 11, 2005
Budget priced titles are usually a mixed bag. Most offer nothing new to the gaming world, and follow a tried and true format of play.
Special Forces: Nemesis Strike, published by Hip Games, is a budget title, but does actually bring something new and fresh to the
third person shooter genre.
Following two elite members of the Special Forces team, Raptor and Stealth Owl, as they try to take down terrorists who are hell bent on taking over the world. Not terribly new or innovative on the surface, but some of the story line is actually quite well written, such as the predicting computer called Thesis, which can predict almost without fail, the exact level of resistance that each team member may find on thier particular missions.
The new feature that I found to be quite exciting with Nemesis Strike was levels that I played with Stealth Owl. The level would start with a Stealth bomber flying kilometers above a target, then the camera would zoom in on the cargo bay, and inside we see Owl typing on a laptop, then the bay doors open and out drops Owl. You see, Owl is a master at freefalling and taking out targets in mid-flight. From a height of 4 kilometers a freefall can net you speeds upwards of 430km/hr, and actually the sense of speed that the developers have added really does make it feel like you are freefalling. Owls body moves like one would expect when in a freefall with flips and rotation constantly happening. it makes for a disorienting experience, but after the first time through the level, you'll probably find yourself wanting to play the freefall levels over and over. And you can.
After a level is completed, you can select to play it at any time from the main menu. Saving your progress happens at the end of any level, so if you give up and turn off your console, you'll find yourself back at the beginning of the level again. However, there are checkpoints throughout the levels, so if you die during the levels, you won't always have to start over.
Gameplay:
Three major types of gameplay and a minor enhancement are here in Nemesis Strike, the exciting freefall mode, a sub-par stealth play, and a run and gun type, and on some small occasions the ability to pilot vehicles such as snowmobiles, Zodiac boats and hovercrafts.
The stealth gameplay involves Owl, and these levels generally follow the freefall levels. Even though the gameplay in the stealth levels is very close to the levels in which you play Raptor, the sneaky aspect basically boils down to a camouflage mode that you can enable, and other vision modes.
Both characters have a battery pack on their body, Owl uses his for his stealth mode and vision tricks. Three types of enhanced vision are available to help you through some levels, each with an obvious use and difference. The three types you get are Thermal Vision, Enhanced Vision, and Sonar Vision. The first two are an obvious mode so I won't bother with them, but what the Sonar mode does is lets you see through metal doors to see what's on the other side. I didn't really find myself using this often unless absolutely necessary like in the training mission.
when using Raptor, his battery is used as a shield, which is great because he is the firepower of the game. His levels generally consist of running around the levels, blowing the crap out of the terrorists and even the odd escort missing is thrown in for good measure.
The game is played from a third person perspective, that zooms into first person mode when the zoom feature of the weapon you're using is activated. The control are actually quite intuitive, although the level of sensitivity when aiming for the headshot is a little off with the cursor sometimes lagging, causing you to have to re-aim before getting the good shot off.
The game starts out being quite fun and fresh, but then gets awfully repetitive throughout the 25+ levels, and it seems that some cheap techniques are here to help make the game a little longer than it really is. The main issue I had was on some of levels snipers would be situated outside of your normal field of vision (in the fog and far away) and visible clearly in sniper mode. Yet they'd be taking shots at you and shooting quite accurately, even when you are completely camouflaged and standing still behind a crate. This brought about some frustration as you'd have to learn exactly where each shot was coming from, while getting pinned down from a different angle. Trial and error gameplay is not fun, no matter the genre.
Graphics:
Graphically, Nemesis Strike isn't groundbreaking, but for a title that sells for under $20, it's not bad at all. Areas are wide open and fairly detailed, and the character models are detailed enough to know that their humans, and not blobs of triangles stuck together under a weatherproof suit.
Some of the effects were a little weak, such as rain and lightening during some levels, and the blood splatter when making the headshot was a little disappointing. During the in-game cut scenes, some of the animation was quite laughable, like the Howdy-Doody looking mouth work on the characters. But again, graphics don't make a game good or bad, it's the overall feel that counts.
Audio:
Sound was a mixed bag, the music was an electric dance sound that didn't quite fit the mood of the game. And as a result, I found some of it to be quite distracting. Voice acting was decent, and the dialog they had to work with was a step above what I expected for a game with the low price tag.
One big nitpick that I had with the sound was that the audio cues that the enemy voices took were simply location based. What I mean is, when you pass a certain spot in the level (physically) the sound bite plays...even when all the enemies are dead. This makes for the stealth aspect of the game to be a little tricky, because you might hear something from behind you, yet when you turn around to find the enemy there is nothing there...only to have you trip that same sound when you walk past the same spot again.
Conclusion:
I've said a few times throughout the review "for the price, it's not a bad game", and I stick to that. With the generic story line, and recycled gameplay modes (generally) this game blends into the pack of other third person shooters (Brute Force), but with the addition of the exciting freefall mode, extra points are scored for Nemesis Strike. Thankfully, those levels are spaced out quite nicely, so when you are just about ready to give up after a level, the stealth bomber flies by and drops Owl out for a fast paced flurry of entertainment. For this reason alone, I say that Nemesis Strike is worth a rental for most people, and for people who really enjoy third person shooters, and don't mind the monotony that this would be a good purchase, especially at the price.
Following two elite members of the Special Forces team, Raptor and Stealth Owl, as they try to take down terrorists who are hell bent on taking over the world. Not terribly new or innovative on the surface, but some of the story line is actually quite well written, such as the predicting computer called Thesis, which can predict almost without fail, the exact level of resistance that each team member may find on thier particular missions.
The new feature that I found to be quite exciting with Nemesis Strike was levels that I played with Stealth Owl. The level would start with a Stealth bomber flying kilometers above a target, then the camera would zoom in on the cargo bay, and inside we see Owl typing on a laptop, then the bay doors open and out drops Owl. You see, Owl is a master at freefalling and taking out targets in mid-flight. From a height of 4 kilometers a freefall can net you speeds upwards of 430km/hr, and actually the sense of speed that the developers have added really does make it feel like you are freefalling. Owls body moves like one would expect when in a freefall with flips and rotation constantly happening. it makes for a disorienting experience, but after the first time through the level, you'll probably find yourself wanting to play the freefall levels over and over. And you can.
After a level is completed, you can select to play it at any time from the main menu. Saving your progress happens at the end of any level, so if you give up and turn off your console, you'll find yourself back at the beginning of the level again. However, there are checkpoints throughout the levels, so if you die during the levels, you won't always have to start over.
Gameplay:
Three major types of gameplay and a minor enhancement are here in Nemesis Strike, the exciting freefall mode, a sub-par stealth play, and a run and gun type, and on some small occasions the ability to pilot vehicles such as snowmobiles, Zodiac boats and hovercrafts.
The stealth gameplay involves Owl, and these levels generally follow the freefall levels. Even though the gameplay in the stealth levels is very close to the levels in which you play Raptor, the sneaky aspect basically boils down to a camouflage mode that you can enable, and other vision modes.
Both characters have a battery pack on their body, Owl uses his for his stealth mode and vision tricks. Three types of enhanced vision are available to help you through some levels, each with an obvious use and difference. The three types you get are Thermal Vision, Enhanced Vision, and Sonar Vision. The first two are an obvious mode so I won't bother with them, but what the Sonar mode does is lets you see through metal doors to see what's on the other side. I didn't really find myself using this often unless absolutely necessary like in the training mission.
when using Raptor, his battery is used as a shield, which is great because he is the firepower of the game. His levels generally consist of running around the levels, blowing the crap out of the terrorists and even the odd escort missing is thrown in for good measure.
The game is played from a third person perspective, that zooms into first person mode when the zoom feature of the weapon you're using is activated. The control are actually quite intuitive, although the level of sensitivity when aiming for the headshot is a little off with the cursor sometimes lagging, causing you to have to re-aim before getting the good shot off.
The game starts out being quite fun and fresh, but then gets awfully repetitive throughout the 25+ levels, and it seems that some cheap techniques are here to help make the game a little longer than it really is. The main issue I had was on some of levels snipers would be situated outside of your normal field of vision (in the fog and far away) and visible clearly in sniper mode. Yet they'd be taking shots at you and shooting quite accurately, even when you are completely camouflaged and standing still behind a crate. This brought about some frustration as you'd have to learn exactly where each shot was coming from, while getting pinned down from a different angle. Trial and error gameplay is not fun, no matter the genre.
Graphics:
Graphically, Nemesis Strike isn't groundbreaking, but for a title that sells for under $20, it's not bad at all. Areas are wide open and fairly detailed, and the character models are detailed enough to know that their humans, and not blobs of triangles stuck together under a weatherproof suit.
Some of the effects were a little weak, such as rain and lightening during some levels, and the blood splatter when making the headshot was a little disappointing. During the in-game cut scenes, some of the animation was quite laughable, like the Howdy-Doody looking mouth work on the characters. But again, graphics don't make a game good or bad, it's the overall feel that counts.
Audio:
Sound was a mixed bag, the music was an electric dance sound that didn't quite fit the mood of the game. And as a result, I found some of it to be quite distracting. Voice acting was decent, and the dialog they had to work with was a step above what I expected for a game with the low price tag.
One big nitpick that I had with the sound was that the audio cues that the enemy voices took were simply location based. What I mean is, when you pass a certain spot in the level (physically) the sound bite plays...even when all the enemies are dead. This makes for the stealth aspect of the game to be a little tricky, because you might hear something from behind you, yet when you turn around to find the enemy there is nothing there...only to have you trip that same sound when you walk past the same spot again.
Conclusion:
I've said a few times throughout the review "for the price, it's not a bad game", and I stick to that. With the generic story line, and recycled gameplay modes (generally) this game blends into the pack of other third person shooters (Brute Force), but with the addition of the exciting freefall mode, extra points are scored for Nemesis Strike. Thankfully, those levels are spaced out quite nicely, so when you are just about ready to give up after a level, the stealth bomber flies by and drops Owl out for a fast paced flurry of entertainment. For this reason alone, I say that Nemesis Strike is worth a rental for most people, and for people who really enjoy third person shooters, and don't mind the monotony that this would be a good purchase, especially at the price.