Project X2
 
 An R-Type-style 2D shoot'em up
 
 o Developer: Team 17
 o Publisher: Ocean
 
 
Review by Christopher Heck
 
 
INTRO
 
When I first saw screenshots of X2 a couple of months ago, I
got very excited about it. I loved (and still love) The
Raiden Project, probably the best _classic style_ shooter
ever created (for the arcade). And being an old Axelay
veteran (anyone remember this awesome SNES game?), I was
expecting something similar but with (even) better graphics
and sound.
 
Then I bought X2, without reading any reviews of it, thinking
I couldn't do wrong because the game had been hyped to death
in all those "nice" German game magazines. And then the game
was released before one single review... :(
 
 
STARTING UP
 
The game starts with a very good FMV sequence, technically
speaking (smooth framerate, thousends of colors). The
choreography is ok, yet the story told is completely boring,
basically the usual "we need a hero to save the world" crap,
and we see the hero's driving through a futuristic city at
night to his ships's hangar...
 
Then I get to the menu area. A techno tune starts up, but
nothing to get excited about. I've heard the guy responsible
for X2's music is Dr. Awesome, a former Amiga demo scene
musician. Unfortunately, I never liked any of his work back
then - and well, nor do I do now!
 
The overall presentation is very techno-like. The background
features a cool looking "plasma tunnel" (demo programmers may
correct me on this); the interface operates smoothly. I enter
the options section, and the first thing I notice are the
settings for the level of difficulty: There's only 'Normal'
or 'Hard' - yes, no 'Easy', just those two. Uh oh, I think...
 
Finally, I select 'Start' from the main menu. A new screen
appears, letting me select one of three different ships to
use. I make my selection and prepare for the ultimate 2D
shooting experience...
 
 
PLAYING THE GAME
 
Hey, I'm flying. Nice looking graph... Kaboom! Died. Flying
again... Kaboom! Dead again. This repeats again and again.
 
Well, I finally manage to finish the first level. My
impression so far: Is it just me, or is the level of
difficulty just plain ridiculous?!
 
No, after I have completed level 4 (!), I can say it is
definitely NOT me: Aaaaarrrrrggggghhhhh!!!! THIS IS A JOKE!!!
WHO ON EARTH SHALL PLAY THIS?!?! LEVELDESIGN?!?! GAMEPLAY?!?!
 
Oops, do I sound a bit too emotional?
 
Ok, now what excactly is my point of criticism: It starts
with the enemy shots. They are way too fast, are very
difficult to see (because they cycle through bright and dark
colors) and there are just too much of them. Ok, one hit of
them doesn't eliminate your ship in this game - there's an
energy bar, so this shouldn't be that much of a problem. But
unfortunately, there are virtually no extra energy items to
be found...
 
Next we have the enemy sprites: There are just too much of
them on the screen. Of course, even this shouldn't
automatically mean to be a problem - Raiden (II) plays like a
dream with dozens of visible sprites. But the problem is that
unlike Raiden, you just can't kill them all in X2 because of
the poor power of the weapons you start with. Yes, there are
better weapons - but you have to advance in the game to get
them - it's that infamous "the cat bites itself in the tail"
problem here. The situation is that bad that I find myself
more often avoiding enemy ships than actually shooting them
(which I must do to get power-ups).
 
Moreover, X2 is an R-Type style shooter, which means you have
to avoid colliding with the frontmost surroundings, where one
hit means instant death. X2's problem is that those
surroundings are very hard to see - there's just too much
going on on the screen, and they often do not differ that
much from the detailed parallax backgrounds.
 
 
GRAPHICS
 
Oh yes, graphically, X2 is a beauty. Supersmooth animations,
massive explosions, cool looking parallax backgrounds. No
slowdown at all.
 
The only major negative point in this area is that X2
features both rendered AND handpainted graphics, and
unfortunately, the difference is significant. The point is
that both for themselves look fantastic, but it just doesn't
fit when they are put together on the same screen. Well, this
is IMHO of course, so you may see things a bit different (I'm
a graphic artist, you know...).
 
 
SOUND / MUSIC
 
The music is techno, and it's plain boring IMHO. All songs
sound much the same, there are no catching tunes you might
get that kick from (at least not until level 5).
 
The sound effects are another downside of the game. While
their are plenty of them, they just don't match the action.
For example, if you hit certain enemy ships, it sounds just
like a snare drum! In general, there's virtually no acoustic
(and also not enough visual) feedback when you've hit an
enemy. Something that's absolutely vital to this type of
game.
 
 
SUMMARY
 
All in all, the gameplay of X2 is a nightmare, mostly due the
insane level of difficulty. You CAN save each level via
password, but only until you reach level 6 (there are ten
levels).
 
There are other things as well that detract from having fun
with this game: The levels are way too short (once you have
managed to finish them!) and poorly designed. The later means
that often sprites and level theme do not fit.
 
Oh, and btw, X2 doesn't save your highscores to memory card.
Turn your PSX off and they are gone...