Dreamcast: Blue Stinger

Activision is marketing the title as giving you the chance to live a movie, and there are many elements of the final product which agree with this. The game starts off with an opening pre-rendered CG movie, in fact, and it starts off just as dramatically as you'd expect of a summer blockbuster. We witness an asteroid of some sort tumbling towards Earth some sixty five million years ago; upon contact, the massive destruction that follows lays waste to that popular breed of now-extinct species, the dinosaurs (why is it that I'm always intrigued by even the mention of these behemoths?). Jump forward to the 21st century. At the place where the asteroid hit so long ago, an island has formed, and has been given the appropriate name of Dinosaur Island. The movie then jumps to a view of outer space, as we witness another asteroid, also set for collision with the Earth. Will humanity suffer a fate similar to that of the dinosaurs?

If this doesn't sound dramatic-enough for you, just wait until you see it; I guarantee you'll be drawn into it. And then, the characters will speak, and all sense of drama will come to an end. I've heard of bad dialogue and voice acting in a game, but Blue Stinger takes it to new, previously unexplored heights. I have come to reluctantly accept the bad dialogue of some games (House of the Dead II, for instance), but it's completely unforgivable with Blue Stinger, as the first minute-or-so of the introduction is plain brilliant, only to be completely ruined once the characters speak. This is the norm throughout the whole game, alas. Activision can't be blamed fully for this, as the voices are actually the same as in the Japanese version of the game (the Japanese version had English subtitles), and I eventually managed to enjoy making fun of the stupid dialogue, but I think the Blue Stinger experience would have been a lot better had Activision re-recording everything for the American release.

What manages to save the movie-like feel of the game as a whole is the phenomenal soundtrack you hear throughout. It's fully orchestrated, and totally over the top, but it adds some amount of drama to the gameplay experience (especially the intense piece that's played during the awesome boss encounters). The music can get somewhat repetitive, but you'll overall find yourself drawn into the game by the music, rather than noticing that you're hearing the same song a little bit too much.

In its attempt to make a playable movie, Climax went a little too far with the Japanese version of the game, filling the title with dramatic camera angles while you were playing. These angles provide for dramatic still shots; in fact, when making my strategy guide for the game, I used the Japanese version for the screen shots simply because the resulting images were quite stunning. As mentioned, though, there were some major problems with this camera system. In particular, being as the camera was locked into certain angles that changed only when you reached certain hot-spot locations, and that there was no means of actually controlling the camera for yourself, you were often left moving the character in a given direction without being able to see what was in front of you. That proved to be okay sometimes, but it was, more often, very frustrating. Even more frustrating was how you'd try and move your character in a particular direction, and the camera would try and follow you, but the movement would be very, very jerky, as if the camera was trying to fight against you. I believe the term used by many to describe this experience is nausea inducing; I wouldn't go that far, but it was bloody annoying, as your falling off a platform could often be attributed to the camera's inexplicable movement.

Activision's solution to this was to completely revamp the camera system. Gone is the pre-planned camera; it's been replaced by an algorithmic, behind the back, Tomb Raider-style view, as well as a limited first person view cam. The view cam allows you to survey your surroundings, without movement, and is an unquestionably welcome feature, as it's implemented well, and allows you to see much more of your environment than the Japanese version ever did. The success of the behind-the-back camera is a bit more complicated, though. It sometimes works, but it just as often doesn't. The camera seems to perform well when you're in an open area or room, away from a wall. When you're in the confines of a small room, or when you get your back against a wall, though, the camera fails miserably, as it ends up moving into a top-down view in order to compensate for the lack of space behind your character. Okay, so just make sure you stay away from the walls . . .. Nope, that's no good, as much of the game is spent navigating tight corridors. It seems that, with some extra work, the behind-the-back camera could have been implemented a lot better.

That's not to say that a behind-the-back camera is appropriate for the game as a whole. There are certainly some parts where the new camera is infinitely better than the Japanese one, both in terms of establishing drama, and in terms of making the game accessible. However, there are just as many moments where a pre-planned camera would have done a lot better. In fact, there are a couple of moments in the American version where a pre-planned camera was used, and it managed to work a lot better. I'll choose one particular example, involving an important enemy encounter from later on in the game. In this part, you're fighting a massive slime boss. You've just entered the boss's room, and you're standing in a hallway at the entrance, firing your bazooka in order to get a few quick hits before the boss manages to come at you (the boss is very slow, but so too is the bazooka weapon). The camera is seemingly locked into the door behind you, giving you the optimal (as well as a very dramatic) viewing position for you to take out your target. As soon as the boss approaches and attempts to leap onto you, you dash forward, out of its reach. The camera is ingenious here, as it suddenly switches to the other side of the room, again providing you with the perfect viewing angle for you to position yourself, and take a couple of extra blasts with your bazooka. Facing off against this boss using this pre-planned camera makes things more dramatic, and more enjoyable - in stark contrast to many of the other boss and enemy encounters, where the third person camera can be frustrating as you attempt to take position and fire on the boss.

This line of thought has brought me to a conclusion. I think what Blue Stinger's camera system really needs is a combination of the Japanese version's pre-planned system (not necessarily the same camera angles, though), and the American version's new algorithmic camera. In other words, Activision made far too drastic a change. What they ought to have done is taken the idea behind the pre-programmed camera system of the Japanese version, fixed certain sections (well, most of them, actually) to provide a more optimal viewing angle, and switched to a third person behind-the-back camera in some specific situations alone. I have a feeling that this would have served two purposes: it would have provided the occasional dramatic angle of the Japanese version, and it would have eliminated most of the problems of both versions by making them work together towards a common good.

Whew . . . I've gone on and on about the camera, but that's because it's the game's most scrutinized feature, and it's the area where I have the most problems. If the camera had been better, Blue Stinger would be elevated into the upper echelon of gaming as one of the Dreamcast's classic launch titles. The reason I'm so willing to say such a thing is that all the various other elements of the game, from the presentation, to the gameplay, are unique, well-planned, and well-implemented.

Contributing to the title's presentation are, first and foremost, the graphics. The game moves at a solid thirty frames per second, and has some of the most impressive effects I've seen on the DC to date. You'll witness incredible, multi-colored lighting effects, massive explosions, animated textures, and smoothly modeled characters. There are a few problems in this area, though. First off (here comes that bloody camera again), the camera movement can be somewhat jerky at times, leading to the impression that the framerate is stuttering; it would be nice if the movement of the camera as it followed the characters could have been cleaned up just a bit. Also, the textures are inconsistent; you'll see a very high-res texture in one room (the pictures on Janine's desk, for instance), but, moments later, will cringe at the sight of a texture that's been blurred to the point that you'll think you need to visit the eye doctor. There is a tremendous variety to the textures, though, as you'll see so many different billboards, logs, and signs throughout the game. I suppose it's a tradeoff.

Also contributing to the game's overall presentation, are the creature designs. Climax Graphics actually hired a Hollywood film maker by the name of Robert Short for this aspect of the game, and it shows. Most of the creatures actually look like people that have monster parts growing out of them - a very nightmarish image, actually - but the game's most brilliant beasts are its bosses. My favorites would have to be the large hermit-crab-like creature that's decided to use a car as its shell, as well as the dinosaur-like creature in the theater; this guy is huge, loud, and he has billboards and posters stuck to his apparently sticky skin. It's just plain awesome.

But enough about presentation! Gameplay is what's important, and if you can get past the camera problems, you'll find Blue Stinger to be very satisfying gaming experience. First and foremost are the game's very, very deep puzzles. There are a total of eight main gameplay areas, and getting through each of these is a complicated process, primarily because nothing seems to work directly. If you need to get from the first floor down to the second floor, for instance, you'll have to pull a lever which will allow you access to a room which will allow you access to a crate which, when pushed into place, will allow you access to the elevator, only to find that in order to actually make the elevator move, you need to complete some far off task on the other side of the floor. These puzzles aren't tedious at all - they're quite fun, and full of variety, as you'll find yourself running through a freezer, your body temperature going down at every moment, swimming through a flooded hallway, your air level depleting with each stroke, and doing all sorts of other things. Admittedly, some of the puzzles are illogical (the whole frozen blood thing comes to mind), and the control throughout the various modes of play is somewhat unrefined (never mind the camera problems), but I have a feeling you'll appreciate these as one of the game's finest elements.

Beyond the puzzles, the gameplay is centered around using various weapons and items to fight and survive against the beautifully designed creatures. You play the game as two different characters, Eliot Ballade and Doggs Bowers, and can (usually) switch between the two whenever you feel like it. Each character has a wide assortment of weapons which enable both long and short range attack. You'll find that the bosses are best dealt with using the large, slow devices, such as Eliot's bazooka, but the normal enemies are best left to hand weapons, such as Eliot's stun rod (this weapon probably allows for the greatest graphical display in the game, as it lights the screen with sparks, and blue traces). Doggs is a little less useful than Elliot during these and all parts of the game, as he runs too slow, and most of his weapons suck, but you'll definitely find yourself using him from time to time. Again, there are some problems in this area, as the designers have made it so that after you get hit a couple of times, your characters will start to limp until you heal them by using a recovery item, but this problem disappears later on in the game, as you get more powerful.

Other notable elements include the silly plot twists, which actually contribute to the crappy, special-effects-laden summer blockbuster feel of the game, the occasional use of FMV during the game to provide for some dramatic cinemas, and the various new modes of play that are unlockable by rushing through the game a second time, as quickly as possible. These things, combined with the great visuals, great music, brilliant creature design, varied gameplay, incredible boss encounters, and deep puzzles, make the Blue Stinger experience enjoyable, to say the least. The camera may bother you, and the voice acting may confuse you, but once you've learned to overlook these (as I did after a few hours of play), you'll thank yourself for having added the game to your Dreamcast lineup.

-- Anoop "Barrrrruuuuu Steeeenga" Gantayat