|
Cy Girls (Hands-On) Preview
 |
Developer |
Konami
|
| Publisher |
Konami
|
| Genre |
Action
|
| Release Date |
11/27/03
|
Although a Konami game starring secret agents who hug walls to get an advantage on their enemies sounds like it should be another Metal Gear title, Cy Girls, the company’s latest action game, has quite a bit up its sleeve to keep it from being more then just another generic stealth-action clone. Based on a line of Japanese action figures, the story follows two secret agents, Ice and Aska, in their quest against the FGC company. Once you pick your character at the beginning of the game, that’s who you play throughout the rest of it. Thankfully, Konami is dedicated to making the game a unique single-player experience, and one of the ways in which they’re doing this is by not going the cheap route – the storylines of Ice and Aska are completely separate, and it’s said that they’ll offer a basically different game to extend the longevity. Ice is a mercenary hacker and free agent, and she is recruited by the CG organization (it actually stands for Cardinal Garrison, not the obvious) to help combat the menace of the FGC corporation. Aska, on the other hand, is an existing member of the CG organization who sets her professional life aside to wage her own personal war against the FGC when she finds out that they are involved with her father’s death.
Control your Chaos
Having played the game hands on, we can tell you that the “Metal Gear-Lite” comment made by much of the gamesmedia about Cy Girls, is quite misapplied. While there are many places in which stealth is a necessity, in most places it is – like your weapons and your various acrobatic maneuvers – simply another tool that can be used to get the drop on your enemies. The version we played only allowed us to experience the game as Ice, whose specialty is firearms. (Aska is more focused on melee combat and attacks with her swords). The control setup is extremely fluid, and an excellent auto-targeting system works on overtime to give Ice an edge when firing at enemies. She’s also able to shoot from any position, and here’s where the control system gets the most interesting. The camera is controlled by the right analog stick, but so is the aiming cursor – this means that no matter which way Ice is facing, as long is the cursor can be positioned to hit an enemy, you can shoot at them. This makes for some cool trick shots, and when used in conjunction with the roll move, Ice can line herself up for a steady shot without much difficulty. It helps a bit to think of it as Soul Calibur’s 8-way-run, but in a third-person action title. (And with that thought in mind, we can only wonder what the same control system will allow us to do with Aska…)
Shades of Neuromancer!
The demo level showcases another main aspect of the game – the cyber world. In Cy-Girls, the premise behind it is at least somewhat unique; with the mounting problem of overpopulation, the FGC corporation begins construction begins for a digital replica of Earth so that a portion of the population can stay in front of their computers all the time and live in this digital world.
During the game’s timeframe, the cyber-world is never completed, but since both girls are expert hackers, they can use their abilities to use FGC portals as a means of entry into the digital world, whenever their quest calls for it. Since the cyber world is incomplete, you can only enter for 10 minutes at a time – not much of a limitation with the demo’s 2-objective cyber-world portion, but sure to create some intensity in harder missions. In the Cy-world, there are no weapons but plenty of hand-to-hand attacks that can be comboed together quite fluently. The girls will also jump higher, and a special interface can be accessed holding the R1 button that allows you to execute certain command programs that manipulate certain pieces of the environment, from slowing down an enemy’s attack to destroying specific objective-based items in the cyber-world. Although the test level only has three commands, we’re assured that there will be plenty more ways to tool around in the virtual world.
Cyber Beautiful
Note that this isn’t merely a comment on the game’s two extremely well-designed (read: foxy) heroines, but the game’s visual aspects are definitely a selling point. The game is based on the ever familiar, and still astounding, graphics engine for Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, and although the demo levels didn’t offer as full a range of environments and characters as one might in MGS2, the full game’s missions are supposed to span the globe – and Ice has a hang glider in her inventory that doesn’t come to any use in the demo. Even the characters and (admittedly bland) corporate scenery are well rendered, and the animations for the many, many dive maneuvers in particular are impressive in their fluidity. Like MGS2, Ice has fairly constant radio contact with Sancho, an operator for the CG organization who serves an Otacon-like purpose in the game, offering bits of advice with one of the most annoying voice actors in memory. The rest of the sound effects are quite good, however, from the dynamic score to the many, many sound effects – every shot sounded clean even when Ice was facing off against 5 enemy soldiers. This aspect of the game’s presentation has an extremely solid polish to it, although most of the best Konami games are worth a mention for either their graphics or their sound, if not both.
Into the Crystal Ball
Although the story vaguely reminds me of Sega’s PS2 and Dreamcast title, Headhunter, the cyberpunk-ish story bent of Cy Girls is definetly a source of intrigue, especially since the apparent development halt of Duality. The control system has a lot of polish to it, and even the demo version’s few flaws seem like they’ll end up fixed before the game goes gold. What the final version will bring remains to be seen, but it’s a fair prediction that this will be a worthwhile actioner amongst the year-end bunch.
Preview by Adam Matlock
|
