Slave Zero (PC) Review

Slave Zero doesn't care much about its plot - and neither should you. Revolving around a warrior who has melded with a giant 'Guardian' robot in order to fight against an evil conglomerate of sorts, the story is nothing more than a backdrop for all the mindless shooting that will ensue. You should be thankful. In those few moments where the "narrative" rears its ugly head, you'll enjoy bad quality voice-acting, with the lame "wise Asian master" taking the biscuit. At least the villain, a Japanese warlord-looking, stereotypically evil dude, who goes by the name of... err, something, is lame and cool... as most villains usually are. The only thing one needs to know here is, #1: you are a giant robot, and #2: your mission is to shoot down other robots.

Even the gameplay can be pretty much summed up in a couple of sentences. The player's Guardian, the titular Slave, is moved around in typical WASD fashion, and empties its gun via left clicking on the mouse, or missiles with the right, with you being able to swap between a hit-scanning weapon and a projectile-throwing energy gun. You shoot, strafe around danger, gather up ammo and health, and, occasionally engage in some minor platforming. Also note that the Slave's journey towards the end is not a particularly long one - but it sure does feel so, because it's a boring trip.

For starters, nothing really ever changes from mission to mission. There are only a couple of enemies to fight against, and they aren't really that varied. In fact, apart from the bosses, and some hulking beasts that manage to stand out, the rest are so similar that it's easy to mistake one for another. As for the tools of the trade, the Slave will occasionally find an upgrade to its three firing modes, which alter the way weaponry works, like how the projectile-based energy cannon becomes a rail-gun or an ammo-eating laser, but the repetition on offer can't be defeated so easily.

Sure, there have definitely been simpler videogames, but many of those actually had something that made them fun. One such "something" is usually the quality of the level design. Sadly, Slave Zero's levels are as mediocre as possible; linear, uninspired stages, where all you do is walk from A to B, shooting at foes that are simply scattered around, with no specific reasoning behind their placement. The gameplay is literally about placing one foot in front of the other, aiming at things, killing them, and stepping away from their fire - rinse repeat for a couple of hours. Tedium aside, the combat chess offered here isn't even that enjoyable to begin with. Serious Sam is also simplistic and repetitive, but you feel every hit, blast, zap, and so on. There's no such feedback here.

Slave Zero's biggest failure, however, is how boring its world is. When it came out back in distant 1999, it sure made a few heads turn. It had a pretty neat graphic engine, and the gargantuan megacity of year 2500 A.C. looked quite cool, with its ridiculously high skyscrapers and all. As is the case with most old (and not only) videogames, however, graphics don't mean much - art style does, though. More specifically, this didn't pay homage to its anime influences as well as it could, with the end result being a bland array of levels, filled with same-y greys, greens, and browns.

Most importantly, Slave Zero doesn't manage to immerse you into the role of the giant robot that runs through a city, wreaking havoc wherever it goes. The subways you'll trample feel like simple, ordinary-sized roads, demolishing buildings feels like destroying cardboard boxes, and, generally, the game lacks the necessary "weight." Ugly? Not exactly. Infogrames North America's creation looks good, but, like with the gameplay, there's a general sense of laziness in its every facet, as if its developer had a great basic idea, but was too bored to implement it correctly.