Crow City of Angels

Although the version we saw is a very early one, Crow's dark graphics and creepy gameplay should make it a hit with fans of the comic book and the movies. The 26 types of rendered enemies, which move a lot like those in Resident Evil, come at you from all sides across five scenarios. The early footage featured 50 motion-captured hand-to-hand fighting moves that produced impressively smooth, quick action. Time Commando and Perfect Weapon may have a little birdie on their shoulder when the Crow caws.

Unfortunately, The Crow: City of Angels is another lackluster movie-based game. Although the 3D backgrounds are realistic and the character animations are smooth, poor gameplay and sounds prevent lasting appeal.

You control The Crow as he fights through levels laden with hidden objects and unending waves of enemies. All action is viewed from a disorienting third-person perspective that changes every few steps. The controls are adequate, but onscreen response is hampered by the dizzying camera views. Overall, the fighting quickly becomes monotonous, and the disorientation fosters frustration. Let this Crow fly away.

The gothic experience can be obtained not only through the movies nowadays. Now gamers who I fancy themselves "goth" can play Crow: City of Angels based on the big-screen version and enjoy every dark minute of it.

Players control Ashe, a supernatural hero, who's unjustly killed. He returns from the land of the dead to avenge his and his son's death.

Gamers shouldn't take this lightly, since there are a whole city full of bad guys waiting for them. The graphics are similar to Perfect Weapon but have a style all their own. A dark atmosphere, much like the movie, makes this title a little eerie. For example, in one level Ashe starts on the mast of a ship. The fog is in the background and the only illumination is from small hanging lamps above. Enemies come from several sides, firing rifles.

Besides rifles, players can pick up a whole array of different items. Some include pistols, bottles, pipes and rocket launchers, among others. These can help since some enemies can be pretty tough. (Check the sidebar on weapons for more info.)

All of the enemies in the game have been animated with Acclaim's own motion-capture technology. Some of the enemies feature over 15 moves. The main character that gamers control, Ashe, features close to 50 moves.

The game itself is a 3-D fighter, in the sense that it's like Final Fight or Streets of Rage. Couple one of these classic side-strollers with Alone in the Dark and you have Crow: City of Angels.

Cinemas provide background info and some disturbing imagery at the beginning of the game which continue throughout. In the intro Ashe and his son are shot in the head at close range. Of course, no one was hurt in the making of this intro since it was rendered. Unless the motion capture was that real!

While gamers make their way through each level, small crow icons will appear to guide Ashe through the level. These only appear after the proper amount of enemies have been killed.

Players start at the pier. As they make their way inside, some fairly easy enemies think they can get a piece of Ashe-they couldn't be more wrong. After playing through this one, gamers advance to the tomb. As the name might suggest this one is a little scary. From there the level gets more intricate and difficult.

In one level, gamers are warped back to the land of the dead where they must fight their way through and make it back to the land of the living to take out an extremely powerful henchman.

EGM doesn't want to give away the ending, but if gamers were able to see the movie, chances are they know what will hap-pen-that is, if they have enough skill.

This dark, moody game may appeal to certain gen Xers looking for a slow-paced violent game. The rest of us, however, are going to be turned off by the awkward, choppy movements of the sprites, asinine gameplay, and horrible graphics.

You move (very slowly) through a desolate 3D environment, knocking heads with incredibly lame enemies, including seminude women and clownish-looking tough guys, a la Perfect Weapon, which this game closely resembles. Controlling your character is so tough and unwieldy, however, that you'll soon give up in frustration.

The small range of voice effects and unintentionally funny cawing of the crow, along with the dim, poorly animated sprites and feeble sound effects turn this Crow into a turkey.