As I survival horror fan, it was only natural that I try out this game... I rented at a local video rental place... It was worth the rental, but not $50 in my opinion....

Control/Gameplay:
The controls are somewhat easy to learn, the aiming is similar to that of Resident Evil 4. The gameplay is not too fast paced(However, there is an intense gunfight later on in the game!), simliar to those of previous Resident Evil games. The main setting of this game takes place at night during a raging storm on a whaling vessel and then an oil rig. The concept is brilliant as you can see it during the rocking on the ship's deck. This alters your aim and can even prove fatal (You fall off, duh!). So you have to hang on to whatever you can by using the triangle button. The environments are excellent, in providing a sense of fear as you fight of hordes of human and nonhuman enemies. The enemies are fast, annoying,(some are even invisible)and numerous in amount. The available arsenal is small and muntions are scarce which also significatly adds to the overall feeling of hopelessness of your current situation. However, to counteract this, the game has many traps to assist the player in conserving valuable ammunition, like steam pipes, oil barrels, electrical boxes, and even fire estinguishers, and armories and downed enemies will replenish your ammo. Healing is not done with herbs, First-Aid sprays or health drinks, but with med packs located in certain rooms and on downed enemies.

Graphics:
The cutscenes aren't amazing, the rain and the dark, naval environment are depicted nicely with its graphics. The lightning is an added bonus as well.

Storyline:
The game starts out with a scene where a team of Killzone-looking soldiers fast-rope from a chopper onto a whaling rig. They go by 2's to investigate the ship, all is calm but then you see through the leader of the team, soon you hear screams of other team members soon you see members in front of you die off by an unidentified enemy, soon a slash across the sceen and panicked last words, then it is all over. Then the person monitoring the teams activity calls for any available to investigate the whaler. That's when Jack Hansen and his Coast Guard team(Unit 22) gets the call. You board the ship, you investigate one side while the rest of Hansen's team investigate's the other side, after some time, you hear the rest of your team is attacked and soon all communication is silent... This is where the story begins, at first enemies are simple Russian mercenaries who's sole duty is to protect the ship, but why? As you progress you soon face mutated human and not-so-human beings... !The reason why, I'lll leave that to you...

Other Factors:
The voice acting is great as well is the music, however the replay value is poor, once you beat the game, you pretty much unlock everything (except, Extreme Mode, only can be unlocked by beating hard mode).

Conclusion:
This game's concept is brilliant, but the storyline and gameplay
contains numerous cliches (Even the ending), Ubisoft has done well in creating a solid survival horror title, but not much more. However if you are a survival horror enthusiast, this game might be worth your time.

Rating:

7.75 out of 10(A decent survival horror title...)

 

-Matthew Raposas (Seventh_Force)