Flam e on, dude!
Flam e on, dude!
Have you ever been stuck in line at the DMV for the better part of a century while the clerks perform their clerkly duties with all the expediency of dyslexic, arthritic, three-toed sloths with carpel-tunnel syndrome? Have you ever wished you could cause their flesh to ignite into a gleeful bonfire? No, of course you haven ' t, and you shouldn ' t, either. Yet somehow those mental excursions become a lot less threatening when you ' re pubescent and polygonal. Crave ' s hot new title, Galerians, places you in the role of Rion, a 14 year old amnesiac who enhances his psychic abilities by cultivating an unseemly familiarity with pharmaceuticals.
What sets Galerians apart from others like it is the generous amount of cinema sprinkled throughout the game. In fact, Galerians consumes three whole discs due to the impressive cinemas, which advance the grim story and are almost worth a watch on their own. However, for those who enjoy playing games rather than watching them, Galerians is a bit of a disappointment. The graphics are the appropriately dismal and gloomy pre-rendered environments we ' ve come to expect from Playstation offerings with horror or suspense themes. Although the backgrounds suffer from
lack of interactivity, they look very good.
Galerians is also flawed by poor control. Your default movement is a walk, a painfully slow, hesitant shuffle which makes Rion seem as if he ' s struggling to pass a whole pineapple through his digestive tract. In order to cause any significant damage you will have to charge your power for each attack. Although charging only takes a couple of seconds, that can be plenty of time for an enemy to run up and club you- definitely enough time for them to shoot you.
Rion ' s last defense is to allow himself to " short." This occurs when Rion ' s psychic anger exceeds manageable levels( it builds up every time you use a psionic attack). While shorting, you automatically implode the heads of those witless or luckless enough to be within a certain distance. It has no effect on boss characters, and anyone with a gun can still shoot you and remain at a safe distance.
Coupled with the bad control, redundant, back and forth gameplay will have you searching for your own drugs to take the edge off. Galerians is destined to be a One Trick Pony. Once you ' ve seen the cinemas, there ' s no reason to come back for more. Not the drug of choice.
SCORE