Project Eden – PS2 – Review

Project Eden takes place on
a future earth plagued by overpopulation.  To deal with this problem mankind
builds skyward, creating huge multi-layered cities, and though Eden may
accurately describe the top levels, the lower levels are more like hell.  You
and your team are members of the UPA, a police organization charged with keeping
the peace.  Right now your chief concern is the Real Meat Plant.  There’s been a
disturbance; the plants gone haywire and the techs they sent in to fix it have
gone missing.  It’s your job to find out what happened.

Project Eden opens with a
beautiful FMV and continues the game with expansive 3d environments were the
smallest crack in a wall can be the key to victory.  The four controllable
characters are part of a team, each with unique abilities so that each one will
have to be used at different times.  In addition there are many areas where
multiple characters will have to be used to accomplish a joint goal.
Unfortunately the game offers little in clues when it comes to figuring out what
you have to do and the targeting system (needed not only for combat but to
interact with any object) can be extremely finicky.  This is definitely one
where a walkthrough comes in handy.  However this is also where it’s most
innovative and creative game feature comes into it’s best use.  With up to 4
player simultaneous cooperative play your friends are right by your side to
figure it out and laugh at you when you are stumped…  Of course you could
just leave them locked in a room full of toxic gas…   However even
with your friends taunting..err..I mean help, the story line moves exceptionally
slow.

Graphically, it performs
well except in certain circumstances, like when the sprinkler system is
activated.  Then you are treated to something that should never happen on a
console…lag.  However, instances such as this are rare and items like the
giant meat log make up for it.  The sound quality is decent but not memorable
unless you’re talking about the damn alarm that keeps blaring (you can turn it
off, have faith).

Conceptually the idea of
the underside civilization is nothing new.  Neither is the Idea of team based
gaming.  However, the one thing that makes this game leaps and bounds ahead of
the pack is the 4 player simultaneous play.   This is the first console
strategy/survival game to have such a feature, and it’s fantastic.  The only
problem is the screen splitting which often makes minute visual cues even harder
to pick up on.

Project Eden is a
monumental effort that incorporates new elements of gameplay into an accepted
genre.

Install: N/A

Gameplay: 7
Several lapses
(finicky target system, tiny visual cues) draw the steam out of what could be a
must faster paced game.  However the use of the characters varying abilities and
the multi player system make up for it’s other shortcomings.

Graphics: 8
Solid graphic

Sound: 6
Not bad but had
they paid more attention to it, the atmosphere of the game could have benefited
greatly.

Difficulty: 6
The puzzles are not
difficult once you realize how to access them.  However making sure to notice
every misplaced grate can be annoying.

Concept: 7
Innovative game
options.

Multiplayer: 9
Great cooperative
play.  Split screens make things difficult sometimes.

Overall: 7
It’s a massively
built game but it seems more time was spent on creating the city than creating a
driving story.