TL;DR: What supposed to be a Deus Ex spin-offs, turned into something else. Very good game with technical issues on PC.
Technical TL;DR: It's buggy. Go to PCGamingWiki for more details.
Summary:
Previously played on PlayStation 2 back in the day. Project Snowblind developed by Crystal Dynamics, started off as a Deus Ex game, but turn into a new game, with Deus Ex DNA (Going from vents, skipping enemies in some chapter and Augmentation). Basically, the game is ALMOST an IMMERSIVE-SIM experience.
You play as soldier Nathan Frost, who after being injured in the line of duty, is treated with a cybernetic enhancement to fight a war against China, because of a RAM crisis. Which, really puts it into perspective.
Gameplay:
You'll be given a standard weapons from Assault Rifles, Sniper, Shotgun, Pistol, etc...and several gadgets you can use on your playthrough. From an EMP grenade that is useful against Droid enemies and Riot Grenade the display shield to protect you from hostile forces.
Further down the line, you're augmentation started to developed maturely from Wall-hacking, Armor Shield, Camouflage and many other essentials.
PROS:
When I say Immersive-Sim, this game is almost like this. I mean, there is one mission scenario, where you can just avoid enemies by using the Camo Aug and passing them through vents, Luring them to a live-turret or Mines and so many of those fun kills. It's a fun shooter with 18 mission tops to keep you occupied.
CONS:
A lot. Here's what's it is:
- The game lack widescreen supports. You can try the unofficial widescreen fix. But that has it's downs. So if you wanna stretch it out, go with dgVoodoo2 instead.
- The game lacks Native Controller support. "but RAZE, there is Steam Input!". THAT'S NOT THE F@#K!NG SAME, DIP$H!T! No! Why it's not? There is no button prompt icons. So it's not the same thing, you a$$h0le!
- The game crashes when you died. It happened when I got killed for stepping into a landmine. TWICE and accidentally stepping into a burning barrell, which probably my stupidity. I did the same sh!t back in my PS2 days. Setting the Compatibility options doesn't work (at least for me) and there is an error when I tried to launch the game, because Valve forgot to put Steam.dll into this game.'
- Graphically, it's buggy without dgVoodoo2. Like some environment can be too dark at times. Which is annoying.
- No achievements! Yea. sadly. no achievements for this game. So, you're gonna have to deal with it.
This version of the game is ported by Nixxes Software, before they became a very big deal they are today. It's their 4th time porting for Crystal Dynamics back then. Will either Nixxes of CD fixed this port? Very unlikely, given the game age is 21 years old. With Crystal having Tomb Raider up their a$$ and Nixxes being owned by PlayStation who recently dip-out of the PC market for a console they about to f@#k up, because of their physical media removal.
Will NIGHTDIVE do a remaster of this? Doubtful. But given how they are doing a Remastered version of the first Thief game, then we'll see. If not, then this game is forgotten.
VERDICT:
Would I recommend this game? At full price? Hard no. At sale, most definitely. It's buggy, but it's not so bad. I just wish for the game to be updated to modern standards. No remaster, just a simple fix. Will modders do an unofficial fix for this? Very unlikely. Given how the Widescreen author seemingly abandoned it. So, I don't think so.
It is an underrated gem from Crystal Dynamic and Eidos. If you really want this game, get it on sale instead. However, if you still have a physical Italian covermount disc release, you don't need to buy it again (Even though you wanted it to for your Steam Library), it's DRM-Free. Means that the Italian get to own the game (assuming they still have it. If not, then Steam it is).
Alternatively, Emulation for this game exist, if you really want to experience it.
In short, wait for sale.
6/10
