Review of Project Eden (though I am not far in the game)

[wip3outguy7]

I picked this up for $3 at the BS Circuit City closing sale yesterday. From the back of the box it looked like an early 3rd person shooter with 4 player capabilities. I was itching for a game along the lines of Ghost in the Shell: SAC and thought, "what the hell?" and plunked down $3 and took it home.

Wow... what a game! The graphics haven't aged well and the game play is a little rough around the edges. But for a game that was released this early in the PS2's life span, it plays surprisingly well. In a time where most 3rd person adventure games treated the right analog stick as a lifeless appendage, this game makes full use of freelook and movement. And it does it well. Very well.

The game is squad based and gives you control of a team of 4 police officers in a Blade Runnerisque backdrop. You can switch between characters on the fly and the menus are simple and void of over-complicated commands. Tell characters to follow you or to stay put, that's it. Just take control of them if you want them to do something more complex. Each character has a special trait which fits into the game's many, elaborate puzzles. You have the repairman, the hacker, the leader and the... uh.. Robocop. The cyborg can traverse hazardous areas other characters can't, the hacker can hack things, the repair guy is needed to fix the many electronic switches and do-dads you come across and the leader is the only one who can properly interrogate suspects. He also has access to areas that require a high level of security clearance.

For an adventure game, Project Eden has a surprisingly quick and intuitive control scheme. Shooting sequences [up to the point I have played] are few and far between. But when you do get into a gun fight, the game play is stunningly good for a console game released in the early 2ks. Even better - you can switch from first to 3rd person views on the fly. Even the enemy AI is tricky. They will hunt you down and even regroup if you give them time. Gain some distance on them and they will lob grenades.

Someone must have realized how excellent the gun play sections in the game were during development because the game has a full blown death match/team match/capture-the-flag mode. These levels are excellent and perfectly sized for the game's 2 to 4 multiplayer capabilities. Weapons and support items from story mode are all available in multiplayer. Want to use the hover drone to spy on people or distract them? Fine. Want to drop a sentry turret to watch your back while you man the security cameras? Go for it. Time distortion gun? Oh yes.

As I stated before, the graphics are a little rough and the game design wears its age on its sleeve. Backtracking rears its ugly head in ways that would have developers fired today. Structures and locations have odd areas that you should not be able to see or reach. Everything has a very basic, blocky make up that most early gen PS2 games are known for. Environments are missing that "lived in" detail we have come to expect from later gen games on the PS2/Xbox/NGC.

Another glaring issue (for some) is the difficulty. The game is OLDSKOOL with a capital D for difficult. The game drops no hints. You simply receive vague orders from HQ and have to figure the rest out on your own. It affects pacing and can almost break the game. There were several times where I missed a required terminal, event or switch several times over the course of 20 mins. I would be racking my brain and finally stumble across a requirement by chance. This can be very frustrating for gamers who are used to tutorials and radio chatter hints from later PS2 and now PS3/Xbox360 titles.

...but there is one addition that makes this one of the most innovative 3rd person adventure/shooters I have ever seen on the PS2. You can play the entire story mode with 4 other people via multitap. Each player assumes the role of one squad member and instead of switching between characters to complete various tasks, you rely on your friends to do their jobs. So you start a multiplayer game and you make it through a few levels with friends but then you want to play the same game session alone? You can! Multiplayer seamlessly flows in and out of story mode. It does lead to a few boring moments while you wait for one player to run across the level to unlock something. But being able to play through a survival horror style adventure game with up to 3 of your friends is awesome - something rarely seen even now in this internet required generation of consoles.

Project Eden is full of design flaws and pacing issues. It is a difficult game and could easily fall into the "one of those games you may never finish" catagory for some. But if you can find the game for a decent price, I highly recommend it. Even if just for the novelty of playing through story mode in coop.

[DaGamingMonkey]

I had owned this game at some point. We all sat down to play through and for the most part enjoyed the multiplayer and how we each had our own strengths to add to the team. Unfortunately we played through for a few hours and forgot to save the whole time. Thennnn the game froze.....
We never took the time to play it again.