More Gameplay

It gets worse

As if the repetitive gameplay wasn't bad enough, the interface manages to get in the way of the game. As you'll find out, interface issues are a recurring theme with console ports of any type. One of the most annoying things we found is that Slave Zero's gameplay doesn't seem to pause when it goes into a cutscene or when you attempt to save a game. Nothing's more annoying than entering a room full of bad guys, inadvertently setting off a short cut scene, and finding that a quarter of your health has been sapped away while you were watching the movie. The movies aren't even that good either, so it's not like it was worth it. Oh, and before you try to save a game, be sure and hide in a safe spot - we'd often get shot up while waiting to save a game.

Eat shaft

Peppering the tank

An unbeatable boss

So after suffering through 8 or 9 hours of Nintendo style shoot-shoot-shoot gameplay, we finally meet up with the SovKhan for the final showdown. And we found out that we couldn't beat him. Well, it wasn't because he outwitted us with great cunning - he's rather robotic and predictable. It wasn't because he had super powerful weapons that could melt us in a single shot. No, I never died to him. And it wasn't because I suck - I was nailing his vulnerable weak point with about a 70% accuracy. The simple reason we couldn't beat the end boss was because there wasn't enough ammo in the level. Yes. Simple as that, we ran out of ammo. We tried re-doing the level, and hitting him carefully with every single shot, but no dice. Unless you cheat, it's impossible to beat the SovKhan on medium/hard. You'd think that in a game where there's more ammo lying around on every level than you could use, that they'd include ample ammunition in the last level, but sadly, that wasn't the case.

You're always outnumbered

A narrow escape

Repetitive gameplay can be excusable. We used to like this kind of game back in the Nintendo days - Contra, Gradius, Life Force, Ikari Warriors. Those were great games for us when we were more into consoles, so some people might see the value in that kind of action in Slave Zero. And having a short game MIGHT be excusable as well - just create an expansion pack or wait for the multiplayer patch that's been promised for weeks now (multi didn't make it into the box). But shipping a game where it's not even possible to beat it … that's sheer carelessness. That's a complete disregard for the customer.

Siege cannon packs a punch

Gotta love the splash on that