Seablade

Once in a blue moon a game that's so groundbreaking and fabulous comes along that everyone, even those who don't play games, know about it and have probably even played it. Some of these include Pac-Man, Tetris, or even Doom. One game that is sure to never even see, much less touch this list is Seablade.

When I first opened the game, I took some time to read the manual and I got pretty excited. Here was this game that has a fairly decent storyline and a cool concept. In the 24th century, the earth's ice caps have melted and vastly altered the earth. The north has become an outlaw-ridden society and is threatening the peaceful south. It's up to you and a group of others to fly numerous missions in your air/sea vehicle called Seablade to do reconnaissance, rescue, or battle and hopefully save the south.

Unfortunately, the fun stops there because this game is so incredibly difficult, even on easy, that it's simply no fun. From about 4 seconds into the first mission, relentless and seemingly invisible enemies from all directions pummel you with weapons powerful enough to take you out after only a few hits. Meanwhile you're given a weapon about as powerful as a spitball (even a peashooter is more powerful than what you're given). You may be lucky enough to find alternate and more powerful weapons, but you'll lose most of your life bar doing it. Even if you do manage to attain a decent weapon and destroy some enemies, they just keep coming in an endless stream. Meanwhile, you're supposed to pass through numerous navigation markers within a time limit to actually finish the level. All in all, I played the game for a good long time and was never able to beat the first level.

The graphics and sounds are nice, but average for an Xbox game. I didn't notice anything especially spectacular but I did notice the entirely appalling cut scenes that consist of animation not quite unlike a Nintendo Game and Watch (or similar) electronic game from years ago. It seems obvious this was an intentional effect but it also seems like they simply didn't want to take the time to animate what could have been a series of pretty cool cut scenes.

All in all this game is a decent idea gone horribly wrong. The excessively high frustration level and poor quality cut scenes make this game about as fun as reading Moby Dick during your Christmas vacation. If Seablade is representative of Simon and Schuster's other games, then they should just stick to publishing books.