1stCav

A game worth playing for fans of the Strogg storyline. Similar to Doom 3 in mechanics as would be expected. Tons of those little computer screens like Doom. A lot of the weapons are pretty much rehashes of Doom 3 weapons, ie, Grenade Launcher, Machine Gun (which isn't even a machine gun, more of an assault rifle or SMG type thing, why does id always call them that?) "Blaster" which is basically the pistol with infinite ammo, Shotgun, etc. Characters you meet throughout the game will sometimes randomly offer to upgrade some of your weapons. Most of them get a kind of modification, some a lot more useful than others. The enemies are reasonably varied but some of the common foot soldiers are especially predictable and almost all enemies display fairly dimwitted AI. Mastering the art of strafing while scoring consistent hits is a must for those sudden close encounters. A significant part of the game is spent both going solo and fighting in small groups with your AI teammates, which are usually helpful enough if you do your part to stave off enemies so they are not butchered. The Medics and "Techs" are especially helpful to refill your life and armor respectively. But if you are more comfortable as a lone wolf then not to worry, you get plenty of time for that, particularly during the more creepy/horror section of the game. Personally I enjoy the parts where it is actually depicting the 'war' between humanity and the Strogg, and thus you have some small squad-based combat. The horror parts rely mostly on absurd amounts of gore and shock value, which to me after a while is more depressing than scary. These areas also (and the game in general) leave much to be desired for music and audio outside of sound effects of combat and groans/weird crap. Halo knows how to pump you up a bit with some music themes, id should maybe take a lesson for their less horror-driven areas. As far as plot, the story is interesting enough, but the ending seems kind of abrupt and the final fight was kind of easy once you figured out what to do. I played on the second hardest difficulty out of 4 choices for reference. Sometimes the 'leaders' of your squad make asinine decisions compared to real life, ie, hey, YOU, go on this dangerous solo mission while I apparently do nothing. Or if you secure something they love to leave a single guy behind to guard it, cause you know, he can handle dozens of enemies by himself. Future humanity **** at organizing for war. But I digress, it's obviously more for game play reasons than it is to make sense. Overall a decent campaign. Multiplayer is kind of weak and has no bots without installing mods. Worth a bargain price, which by the age of the game you should be able to get.