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.

讲了一个叫零号奴隶的机器奉组织命令叛逃消灭邪恶帝国Sov-Khan的流水故事。 场景语言非常强，有很浓厚的镭射朋克氛围，作曲是整部游戏很亮眼的地方，上世纪的工业重电子浪潮，鼓点踩得头皮发麻。都市中随处可见的Sov-Khan怒目海报非常像网络奇兵2的SHODAN，在林立的高楼与飞船中穿行感觉跨越了一个时代。 机动性非常强，也有着当时顶尖的物体交互，按Ctrl可以捡物体当武器投掷，操作没有太多不现代的设计。 但是游戏的难度设计异常不合理，困难难度连正常通关都无法做到，终章是在封闭地图中边绕圈逃亡边朝邪神机甲的头部开枪，场地上的所有类型弹药都打光了，甚至把投掷物体全捡了一遍，BOSS才掉了一半血，看着高大的邪神绕着弹匣打空的主角慢悠悠散步感觉很无力。哪怕之前的关底BOSS到后期也是狂轰滥炸十分钟才能结束，原速打BOSS感觉血条都没有在动，数值极其变态。很不喜欢这种难度加法。刨开数值的战点分布大量重复。 气笑了，后面查阅了才知道这个BUG是没经过工作室内部playtest的原生设计缺陷，在赛博尿坛子还挺有讨论度的，附帖[spoiler]https://www.gog.com/forum/slave_zero/can_this_actually_be_beaten_on_hard[/spoiler]解决办法是不进行最终升级来“削弱”您的武器，意思是第四关拿到的武器数值要远高于终章完全强化后的武器。除此之外，进终章之前再怎样节省弹药也无法通关困难难度，因为BOSS总血量远大于整个房间全部弹药加带进房间的全部弹药总和。 不过也因此，游戏原生自带控制台作弊码，按T切出文字频道输入/i win可以直接跳关看感谢名单，但是会缺失最后一段CG，即便这样也没有补充弹药的作弊码可以用。 兼容问题不少，从开幕到结尾都一直在闪退，死档了无数次，经常卡模型掉出地图，被迫十步杀一人，一步一保存。 感觉可以重制一下，不要白白浪费这么好的美术资源。

Crashes almost constantly deleting all your progress if not saved, but the game is so insanely rad, I still have to recommend it. Love the style and the controls don't feel anywhere near as dated as similar games from the time (Editing the review just to say the crashing is somehow getting worse after around 30 minutes of playing, can barely get the game launched. I've had over 7 crashes in 25 minutes of playtime. Giving a positive review because I'm enjoying the game, but it's extremely hard to even get it to operate properly.)

This game is in desperate need of a NightDive remake...

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.

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