Project Snowblind is a rapidly developing and easy to develop a shooter with a responsive and fairly unique effect to entertain.
Project: Snowblind began its life as spin-off Deus Ex, in order to use rich fiction and a special style of this universe in combination with a more visceral gameplay. Despite the fact that Project: Snowblind does not have official binding to Deus EX, there is an almost identical atmosphere of the cyber thriller of a close future, right down to terrible blue glare on the skin of the hero. Crystal Dynamics has already released Snowblind for Xbox and PlayStation 2 almost a month before it appears on PC, and fans of shooters on the PC will be obvious that the game was created specifically for these consoles. This is not the most beautiful shooter on the PC, but it has a good style, and the action in the style of "Run and shoot" looks great independently of the platform.
Snowblind abundantly borrows from well-recognized sources, and this principle could be recorded in the design documents of the majority of modern first-person shooters. As already mentioned, the appearance of the game is largely obliged by Deus Ex, although the action takes place in the almost futuristic Hong Kong covered by the war, here is more explicit Asian influence, both ancient and modern. However, the game removes a lot of use of contrast between the old and new, creating a look that is a bit more steel and streamlined than the one that is characteristic of the gloomy cyberpunk aesthetics Blade Runner. Expect to see a lot of almost futuristic military equipment located in the dilapidated industrial complexes, destroyed urban centers and - in one of the most impressive visual moments of the game - in a massive dome-shaped opera theater, which was hastily converted to camp for prisoners of war.
The unshakable commitment to the game of this specific aesthetics significantly improves the overall atmosphere of Snowblind, as well as almost the fetish concentration of filtered light effects. Almost throughout the game, the effect of a soft glow is running, which skillfully smoothes hard faces and creates a tangible atmosphere. Each of your special abilities is associated with a unique effect, each of which can change the entire appearance of the game. The titled effect of "Snowy blindness" is taken particularly well, although, given what creepy situations, it usually arises, you will most likely be too scared to appreciate it.
Although the console versions of Snowblind were able to hide many of their sins using good lighting and filtering effects, some problems that were more excuses on Xbox and PlayStation 2, rush a little on the PC. Character models look a few closer and distinguish between face modeling, as well as some repetitive animation procedures.Textures in general look a little blurred, and levels, in general, rather modest in size. In terms of quality and scale of visual design, it is possible to understand that Snowblind was initially developed taking into account the possibilities of PlayStation 2. But if you drop these technical disadvantages, the pronounced artistic style of the game still sounds loud and distinctly, helping to move part of the load.
Around all this flashes, a banal prehistory was wrapped with a gloomy hero, invincible invasions, fuzzy defined military coalitions and all the favorite Deus Ex Machina - a ship of a day, which can work at any second. Some plot clenched on the backyards in the in-game scenes between the levels, and these scenes are abounding with abundant dialogues in the style of Hardcore. The game itself is quite fluently oversaturated by idle talking of the standing characters, A la Half-Life. This is an old trick, but it is effective in order to fill the world with reality in a relaxed manner. Moreover, the quality of voice acting helps to implement it.
Sound accompaniment is not so unique or specifically designed as in Project: Snowblind, but still it is a solid foundation of shots and explosions, stressed by a variety of electronic piping, chirping and hissing, the mechanisms published both inside and outside your cybernetically augmented head. Music appears when necessary, whether to create a voltage during a quiet stealth mission or to give an additional pulse by a shootout. Again, in music there is a distinct Asian atmosphere, so in some moments you can almost anticipate the drop of blooming cherries when music sounds.
In the game more attention is paid to satisfactory shootings and rapid pace than tactical complexity. Most of the main types of weapons are quite standard, although the electromagnetic pulse rifle is a kind of novelty, allowing you to shoot in one enemy, and the electrical impulse automatically connects to other enemies nearby. Grenades are of different species, there are more inventive devices that can be used in battle, for example, a friendly robot spider or stationary power field for instantaneous cover from enemy fire.
If you are not enough Cyberpunk, you will regularly encounter safety panels and mechanisms that can be hacked and then take control. Sometimes hacking is necessary to move forward, and sometimes it can just make your day less turmoil. In any case, everything seems too simple, because you just shoot the device you want to hack, with your special weapons "ice ax", and ready! You get full control over a small security network or perhaps above a heavy robot.
But any hero of the first-person shooter can click on the trigger, and what makes you really special, are your unique abilities. At the beginning of the game, you can switch your eyesight to "improved vision", which works as a cross between infrared, night and x-ray vision. Soon you can slow down the time, cover yourself with a impenetrable shield, to become completely invisible or fry enemies with a destructive electrical attack. These, of course, powerful abilities are constrained by the rapidly drying stock of the energy that you have to be replenished with the help of special items. This set of tricks is one of the most unique aspects of Project: Snowblind, and your special abilities can be terribly funny to use.
The gameplay is predominated by shootouts, although there are also hidden missions. Stealth here is rather advice than a tough rule, and it will be easier for you (read: more boring) to spend time if you wake up your ability to disguise. Given all the heavy, but poorly realized stealth mechanics that we have seen in the past, it is nice that you can completely abandon stealth without irresistible fines. In rare cases, you will even manage to control some vehicle, for example, a hagging tank or just a hevecombized machine. And despite the fact that sometimes these moments look awkward, like an afterword, they help to fill the world, making it more solid.
The single-user game flies imperceptibly and ends later than good 10 hours. In Project: Snowblind, in which you can play both on the Internet and on the local network with the participation of up to 16 players. You can customize your network experience in various ways. Selects several DeathMatch options and the capture of the flag, as well as the ability to choose different weapons for your character with every reincarnation. The game has other minor settings, although the game does not offer anything that would not have been done earlier in other first-person shooters for PC. The highest praise, which can be given here, is that all the details, from the servers browser before the balance of weapons seem to work as conceived.
So if you liked the appearance and sensations from the Deus Ex games, but you could not pass by the clumsy battle, or if you just don't like role-playing games, Project: Snowblind may be a good pastime. It is unlikely that Project: Snowblind will completely destroy you, because its parts are too common to cause the paradigm shift. But parts are well thought out, and they are effectively assembled in a rapidly developing and easy to develop a shooter, which is responsible and quite unique to entertain.
