Blue Stinger

It's hard to believe a game that looks this good could be this disappointing, but trust me--Blue Stinger is riddled with flaws. For a survival-horror game, this thing sure is dull and tedious. The story is a mess of confusing plot points, awkward cutscenes and mundane busy-work puzzles. I could barely follow the plot, and half the time I didn't know why I was supposed to find such-and-such card key or throw a particular switch. Certain game events--such as when your character leaps off a towering, exploding gas tank, then walks away without a scratch--even defy logic. And while the swear-word-riddled voice acting isn't terrible, the lip syncing is laughably bad. At least the monsters play their roles convincingly. The game's mutant beasties are truly nightmarish. Just don't expect many sudden crap-your-pants scares like in the Resident Evil games. In fact. Blue Stinger's color palette is too bright and happy to cultivate any fear in the player. The only real terror here is the camera. To its credit, Activision fixed many of the Japanese original's camera problems, but awkward view angles still pop up frequently. Too many monsters got in too many cheap shots just 'cause the camera was pointing straight down. Above all, Blue Stinger lacks polish. The animation's bad. Control is stiff. Sit tight and wait for Code Veronica.

After a disappointing debut as an import, I looked forward to the U.S. rerelease of Blue Stinger with camera fixes and other tweaks. The new over-the-shouider camera works better but not nearly as well as it should. There's just no excuse for the camera to wander off when you're fighting a boss. Despite the changes, Blue Stinger remains a launch title that's more a technology showcase than a quality game. Can you survive the horror of this game?

Despite impressive visuals. Blue Stinger is a disappointment. The survival horror bar has been raised by games like Dino Crisis and Resident Evil 3, making Blue Stinger pale in comparison. Music ranges from overly dramatic to cheesy, your character is constantly slowly running (despite being an analog game), and monsters can kill you while you're drinking the soda that replenishes your life plus gameplay is drab. I'll pass on this one.

If you want a fix of survival horror, you're probably better off waiting for Veronica. Blue Stinger may look really nice (especially some of the bosses...the final monster looks incredible) but it's really spoiled by some things that just make you think "why did they do that?" It's almost like parts of it weren't thought through enough. I'm with Crispin on this one, although I'm surprised he didn't mention the music.Jt's the first thing you'll want to kill.