Introduction

Publisher: Infogrames
Official Slave Zero Site: http://www.slavezero.com/

A Pure Shooter

We've actually followed the progress of Slave Zero for a while now, having seen it as far back as March when Accolade showed it off at the launch party for Redline. We got a glimpse of it at E3 and then again when the demo was released over the summer. A lot of things have changed around the game since then - Accolade was bought out by Euro-giant Infogrames, the planned multiplayer element was axed out of the final release, and a first person mode was abruptly added in as well. What hasn't changed is the game's pure and simple premise; Slave Zero is a classic action shooter, like the Contra series from the original Nintendo. You're a one man army with big guns, blasting away at waves upon waves of enemy vehicles and mecha style robots. The goal is to liberate an oppressed city from the evil clutches of a powerful dictator, the Sovkhan, and bring the land back into the control of the benevolent "Guardians." Sounds like pretty standard fare.

Two on one action

Take that!

So What's different?

There are a couple of things that are supposed to make Slave Zero unique from other games - first and foremost is the sense of scale. The player pilots a 60 foot robot mech through a futuristic megalopolis. You'll be dodging and running in between towering skyscrapers, climbing and running along freeways, and descending into the gigantic sewer systems of the city. Cars and people mill around like ants underneath you as do tanks and other vehicles sent to stop you. Infogrames also brags about the level of interactivity in Slave Zero. Many of the buildings you see can be shot up and destroyed. Pick up one of the cars on the freeway and hurl them at your enemies. Destroy a building and you can pick up a girder for use as a club when you run out of ammo. Cars and people can be stepped on and shot up as well; you're a futuristic Godzilla, and nothing's going to get in your way. Finally, there is a technology draw to the game as well. Slave Zero supports environmental bump mapping out of the box - lucky for you, we tested it on a Matrox G400Max to show this feature off.

Eat plasma	He just fired a rocket at me
Blammo!	Hang in there