Slave Zero

I was unaware of Slave Zero’s existence until the announcement of Slave Zero X – a game that caught my attention by its PSX-styled graphics, and the gameplay reminded me of Devil May Cry, I grabbed that one as well as this upon learning it’s part of a franchise, and I can wholeheartedly say that I truly enjoyed this forgotten Y2K mecha gem! It’s a very short game that can be completed within 3-4 hours. Each level is divided into 3 parts that take about 10 minutes to complete, and the only thing you do is keep blasting the enemies as you get more weapons on your journey to take down the tyrant SovKhan. You also face several bosses along the way. The story is simple. You are part of a resistance group called The Guardians, and you’re trying to take down SovKhan by stealing his very first Slave Unit called Zero. Our protagonist Ch’an is permanently merging with Slave Zero to unleash hell upon his enemies while getting reports from the Guardian base. The problems with the game are that the port is horrible, you may occasionally experience crashes and game-breaking bugs, and you may want to follow a guide on how to run it properly on a modern system. I didn’t have many problems with it, except for a few game-breaking bugs I encountered that forced me to go back to an older save file. I didn’t even have to apply a fix to run it on Windows 11, but I can safely say that it’s not the best experience. You’d be better off playing it on a Dreamcast emulator instead, since this port also comes with a memory leak issue that occurs after roughly 30 minutes of playtime. The Steam overlay also doesn’t work with the game. You literally cannot use it, but you still see what people are playing. Another major problem with the game is that a specific enemy crashes the game whenever encountered, and it only appears in the very last level. You are forced to run past it if you want to proceed further. And some weapons are much better despite the game recognizing them as downgrades. If you’re willing to deal with the problems of a horrendous port of an amazing game, go for it. It’s worth it for the soundtrack alone! [h1]TL;DR[/h1] A short, forgotten Y2K mecha gem that lets you blast your enemies to the sky! The port is not the best and requires some modifications if you want to play it without crashes, etc., but the game’s soundtrack makes it worthwhile. The story is there, but Slave Zero is not a game that one plays for an amazing story.

This is the Steam version of the 1999 PC classic (?). If you play a lot of older games, you'll know modern developers often change mechanics, polish issues, or make changes to controls, to make them more intuitive for a modern audience. This can create issues in the framerate or the gameplay, making these games unfun even for retro gaming. Ignore all of that; this is a good port! The frame rate does struggle sometimes when loading surprise enemies, but otherwise it's a decent - warts and all - steam release. If you like older games, you'll enjoy this shooter. The plot is wonderfully late 90s; you're a freedom fighter for The Guardians, the last organization trying to overthrow the Empire. You managed to get your hands on an advanced mech, Slave Zero, and must fuse with it and complete all objectives to become the hero the world needs. The good: This has a surprising amount of plot for a game with like 11-12 stages, and very few cutscenes. You're given no personality, but the amount of stuff you have to take care of is obscene; assault missions, rescue missions, escort missions, and boss fights galore. The controls are from that weird gaming era where it resembles modern games and controls enough that you don't have to relearn basic skills but some of it still seems arcane. If the control scheme bothers you, the settings will allow you to change defaults easily. The weapon variety is certainly there, with genuine changes between weapon options and types (you have 3: Ammo weapon, Energy weapon, Cannon weapon). Enemies also do scale very well; near the end of the game you will have to actively manage resources and play very strategically to get through stages. The save and load feature is also helpful for those struggling, or to make sure you can stop at any point; even in the middle of a fight. The bad: The game is buggy; for all that the port achieved, I cannot stress how important it is to save at minimum once a stage. Weapon aiming is slightly off too, with the crosshairs at range needing you to take distance into account to hit. The game's model and graphics are clearly outdated, which is something you should accept when going into a vintage game like this, but this also means slipping through gaps and falling into oblivion. Several boss fights are comically cheesable, two of the last three specifically are more aiming tests than fights to the death. A sad end of the game, when you're waiting for the final boss to stop moving so you can ensure you don't miss... Verdict: This is a very fun game, which shouldn't take all too long for modern gamers to play through. I think there's plenty to enjoy here, with a fun shooter full of enemies to take down, and a good pace that allows you to go through the whole thing in a single day. With its cheap price, this is a very good option for retro gaming. Heartily recommended.

Absolute goated banger, i do vividly remembered seeing the game's cover art on GOG, i didn't even knew what type of game it was, the art cover gives me vibes of Beast Wars: Transformers, when i played this game, it gives off vibes to Neon Genesis Evangelion and other mech media, pure Y2K-ish energy, if you're a fan of mech media then this is the game for you. 8.0/10

Horrid horrid port that made a game that was probably already jank even jankier, other than random bugs, the two main things are, the crosshair is not where you shoot, it's about a centimeter right and down of where it should be, and there was a point late in the game where it would crash every single time until i messed with the graphics settinggs, i can recommend the game but this version of it is broken

adquiri o jogo pq fiquei interessado na franquia pelo slave zero x. gostei do jogo slave zero, esse o qual avalio. mas por um defeito de arquivo, sei lá o que seja. quando estou na ultima missão do game para enfrentar o boss final, o jogo fecha. então isso foi muito frustrante, talvez quando a steam resolver esse problema, eu possa mudar essa avaliação. é um problema que pode ser solucionado

Este juego lo jugue por primera vez a los 4 años y tardaba dias en terminarlo, era lo único que tenia para jugar en la Pc, MUY adelantado a la época este titulo, como me gusta reventar a tiros a los enemigos, 10/10.

150/10 blew the nostalgia straight off my body after kicking my ass up one side of the street and down the other. This game is a classic banger DESPERATE FOR A REMASTER! Biomechs blasting each other through a neon drenched city to an ass kicking amazing soundtrack. If you have not played this game, rectify that immediately.

A moderately fun game, but the crosshair being off and the missile lock system not working make it hard to recommend, even on sale. I had problems with the game stuttering randomly, mostly during boss fights. Gameplay itself is decent, but the final boss is just really annoying with his only damageable part being a small part of his head. I liked running around in the city levels and being able to see cars swerve to avoid me and watching pedestrians run around panicked. The music is nice. I can't really pick out any tracks, but it overall suits the game. An overall decent retro-game with a poor port.

Perfect! Runs with no issues with dgVoodoo2 / Glide option at 1440p!

slave zero es de los juegos mas hijos de perra de su epoca que he llegado a jugar, la dificultad es muy insana y vas a estar guardando la partida muy contantemente, lo bueno que tiene es la banda sonora, lo malo es que el juego empieza a dar lageos muy feo debido a que es un juego de windows 95/98 no debe de dar ese tipo de problemas pero no, y es algo que sufri ya que en momentos muy freneticos tuve que sufrir, el precio de este no me parecio nada malo.