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Platform

PS2, Xbox

Genre

Action

Publisher

THQ

Developer

Outrage

ETA

Spring 2003

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Alter Echo

Alter Echo (AE) places you in the role of a character named Nevin who is a normal human in a world gone bizarre. AE is a story driven game, which takes place on a fictional planet called Proteus. The antagonist in the game is a character named Pavvo whose intent is to take over Proteus. As the protagonist, Nevin is called in to use force against Pavvo in order to prevent Pavvo’s sudden takeover of Proteus.

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There is more going on than Pavvo thinks and the game begins to strengthen its story line from there.

Judging from the few screenshots I have seen the game looks very impressive. To add icing on to the cake the game runs at a very solid 60 frames per second. The game features many innovative camera effects such as filtering as well as new screen distortions. The

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environments look very dark and the backgrounds resemble an apocalyptic planet.
Everything on Proteus is living including the surface which wants you dead as well. An idea used in the newly released game Shinobi has been incorporated into this game. Time dilation technology involves freezing the on screen action in order to make your right move and unleash a flurry of horrific attacks.

AE features three kinds of transforming systems, which include melee mode (default mode), gun mode (transforms players into huge cannons), and last but not least stealth mode. Stealth mode sounds like one of the coolest features in the game. Stealth mode allows your character to climb walls and assassinate your enemies when you are invisible. The good news is that while transforming there is no slowdown or hiccups during gameplay.

By most reports, the controls seem to be coming along nicely so far. For example on the PS2 veriosn, by pressing the L2 button on the controller your character can begin to do his combo. After the L2 button is pressed a screen that is grid based will appear. Your combo can be started by tapping the L2 button in the center or on the right side of the grid. As the L2 button is tapped the grid based screen moves faster which causes a quicker motion of button pressing. Also according to these reports, the controls are not as complicated as you might think.

Even though the game is still a while away from its release, its shaping up to be possibly THQ’s best game ever made. Alter Echo leads the way with an intriguing story line and innovative gameplay. We’ll be keeping our eye on this one for a while. Look for Alter Echo in Spring of 2003.

- Siddharth Massand
(November 16, 2002)