C-12: Final Resistance

Can Lt. Vaughan save the human race? More importantly, can the PlayStation support one more full-price action game?

Something strange is happening to the PlayStation in America?instead of brand-new titles, companies are re-releasing old Japanese and European games at breakneck pace. c-12, the latest Euro retread, is a perfectly playable action game that suffers from a few problems.

The Misadventures of Lt. Vaughan
The story should sound familiar to gamers. As Lt. Vaughan, a Special Forces hardbody with a crude cybernetic implant in his eye, you must single-handedly save humanity from an army of violent cyborg aliens. You do this via the judicious use of rifles, rockets, alien plasma guns, and a large blade that makes neato-keen knife-sharpening sounds.

All six missions involve Vaughan mowing down armies of aliens and tanks, solving the usual assortment of action-game puzzles along the way. These puzzles can be surprisingly devious, ranging from tricky door-and-key mazes to crevices requiring pinpoint crate placement to surmount. Vaughan may have missed his calling?he?d be a great warehouse worker with his gift for crate-pushing.

The Incredible Disappearing Wall
It?s obvious what game inspired the designers at Sony. c-12 takes almost every opportunity it can to copy Syphon Filter, from the behind-the-player view to the first-person targeting mode. The game interface, however, is easier to deal with, and everything moves at a much quicker pace. Shame about the camera, though?it?s always swooping this way and that, going through walls and thoroughly disorienting you in cramped quarters.

c-12 puts on a decent show. Sony has taken great care with the graphics, which push the poor PlayStation to the limit. The environments are dark, foreboding, and downright spooky, which fits the tone of the plot perfectly. The way walls and buildings warp and disappear when you approach them from the wrong angle regrettably mars the effect, but that?s hardly a problem exclusive to this PlayStation title. Less forgivable is the music, which fades in and out at all the wrong times and is more ear-numbing than heart-pumping.

A Brave New World of Crates
If a PlayStation is all you have and three Syphon Filters just isn?t enough, then c-12 is worthy of your attention. It may be dated and a bit on the difficult side, but there?s no denying that it delivers what it promises. Besides, everyone loves crate puzzles, right? Right?

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teh2Dgamer

I've been playing this game and it's very solid. It's got some camera issues, and occasional slowdown, but overall, it's a pretty good game.

Better than some PS2 games that were hitting at the time.

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