Slave Zero: Zero Fun

Author's Rating:

Pros: Hm...none, really.

Cons: Read the review.

The Bottom Line: 
In a word: ugh. This game could have been something special, but instead it's one of the least impressive DC games. Avoid unless you're a masochist.

Author's Review
I’m certain that Infogrames’ Slave Zero must have looked great on paper. Here’s a game that attempts to incorporate all the elements of the extremely popular MechWarrior series—giant, well-armed robots, hordes of enemies, and a plethora of missions to complete—plus, it has the distinction of being the first game of its kind for Sega’s new Dreamcast system. Unfortunately, something got lost between paper and the final product—and that something was playability, a feature that Slave Zero is sorely lacking.

The game’s set 500 years in the future, in a world where the evil SovKhan are poisoning the nearby lands. You’re Chen, one of the Guardians who’s stolen a giant, mech-like robot called a Slave. You must guide the Slave through a huge metropolis called S1-9—a city that reaches over seven miles into the sky. Once at the top, you’ll battle SovKhan and attempt to save the surrounding area.

And that’s Slave Zero’s first problem. The game’s story line is neither inventive, nor interesting. It’s little more than a rehashing of the story lines of countless other games—most of them several years old. To make matters worse, there’s really very little in the way of in-story plot progression. The cut scenes are short, and largely unimpressive, and the in-game dialogue adds nothing to the overall plot. Your character, Chen, is so uninvolved in the game that you never develop any kind of attachment to him—it’s easier to identify with the giant robot you’re tooling around town in than it is the main character—and the effect isn’t a good one as the gamer ultimately comes to feel distanced and uninterested in the Slave Zero’s story.

But, that’s not the only problem. If I had to describe Slave Zero’s gameplay in one word, that word would be “repetitive”. With thirteen missions to complete during the course of the game, you’d think that Slave Zero would give you the opportunity to do a lot of different things—and you’d be wrong. Slave Zero’s missions are largely uninvolving affairs that rarely rise above the level of “blow up everything”. While the idea of cruising around a giant metropolis crushing cars, smashing buildings, and fighting other mechs seems interesting at first, it quickly becomes old as each new mission requires the same thing to meet the objective. The game relies entirely on your ability to crunch buttons—logic and thought never play into any of the scenarios.

Equally unimpressive (and incredibly annoying) is the game’s control scheme. Slave Zero is a fast-paced shooter, yet it requires you to use every button on the Dreamcast controller, as well as several combinations—all but guaranteeing countless deaths as you push the wrong button repeatedly in the heat of battle. Also bothersome is the game’s lack of a lock-on targeting system. To aim your weapons, you must move a tiny sight over the enemy using the Dreamcast’s analog stick—which is highly sensitive even when you adjust the setting in the game’s option menu. Once you do finally line up your shot, you have to stay in that same position—otherwise you’ll lose your target and have to sight him again. Needless to say, this makes the act of strafing your enemy virtually useless. And if all that weren’t enough, the enemy AI is terrible. You can encounter an enemy, duck out of sight, and they go back to wandering around aimlessly because they’ve forgotten you were ever there.

The game’s graphics are fairly impressive. S1-9 has a decidedly futuristic look, sort of like Blade Runner. There’s not much in the way of color, though, which makes everything sort of drab over the course of the entire game.

Slave Zero runs at a crisp thirty frames-per-second—most of the time. There are several instances in various missions where the game suffers some massive slowdown…something that’s unforgivable on a system with the Dreamcast’s specs.

I’d comment on the game’s background music, but there is none. Seriously, I can’t recall ever playing a console game without background music. It makes playing Slave Zero an even more boring and repetitive experience as the only sounds you hear are the stomping of your metal feet. On the other hand, the game’s sound effects are good. Rockets, lasers, and machine guns all sound great.

Ultimately, Slave Zero comes across as a half-completed prototype of a game. While I think there was a good game buried in there somewhere, I can’t understand why it was released in its current state. If you’re really into the whole Mech/shooter genre of games, Slave Zero might be worth a rental—otherwise, I’d skip it entirely.