The Creed is one of the first "game noir" titles to hit the
shelves so far, with titles like Slave Zero and Kingpin set to follow.
For those of you who are unfamiliar as to what "game noir"
actually means, here is a recap. During the early forties to the late
fifties, a film style was used called film noir. Film noir basically
had dark lighting, wretched city locations, and of course violence.
Game designers are creating new games based on this style, and
The Creed definitely has aspects of film noir.
Game Features:
Play as Guy Wolfe or Gene Matrix
150+ missions
15 multiplayer missions
Over 420 pre-rendered backgrounds
Living, breathing city environment
Over 35 usable weapons, cars, and mechs
3D Acceleration support
The story begins with either Guy or Gene crash landing
on the planet Outpost IV. Unfortunately, you end up in the most
violent city in the galaxy, Cerberus. Guy Wolfe is a bounty hunter
after Gene’s head, and Gene is a smart ass criminal trying to
evade Guy. The two have a confrontation together and the local
cops break it up. After beating up the police, you head to the
nearest hologram machine in order to work on a mission. Missions
are a form of reward and payment, idealistically Guy and Gene
wish to get enough kreds to leave this forsaken planet. For the
most part the characters Guy and Gene are the same, as well as
the missions, it just depends on your personal preference as to
which character you play. Once you find the hologram machines
and probably witness a few shootings, you are introduced to the
three local powers; The Government, The Brotherhood, and The
Order. The government is the future’s form of Nazis, they wish to
control everyone and are a sinister force. The Brotherhood on the
other hand are religious, righteous crusaders. Last but not least,
The Order, the nastiest guys on the planet, murder and robbery are
an every day activity for this group. Missions vary from simple
assassination missions to locating a pimp and his "bitch" to be a
part of a psychic mind controlling experiment.
In The Creed you are placed in a city without any set
path to take, simply what you feel like doing. If you feel like
picking a fight with a cop, by all means go ahead. If you want to
talk to a hooker on the street, feel free too. Yet be prepared for
harassment and death threats by police for simply doing nothing.
Wandering street gangs also will try to stick you up, but if you have
a shotgun they won’t be much of a nuisance. The environment is
setup much like syndicate wars, cars drive past you on the city
streets and citizens stroll about. Interactivity is limited however,
you can’t permanently damage buildings, but you can blow up
cars. Weaponry will help you make your point in this world, so you
need lots of it. Weapons include pistols, knifes, shotgun, minigun,
flame-thrower, uzi, rocket launcher, laser blaster, and more.
Initially I became very disappointed with the graphics
engine. However, once I moved on to more decorative
environments, I appreciated the pre-rendered backgrounds. The
game is meant dark and bleak, and for the most part this creepy
atmosphere is pulled off very well. Many of the pre-rendered
backgrounds have bits of animation in them. For example, barrels
with fire in them glow wildly in the night as smoke rises from
them, which is a piece of eye-candy. Other scenes include steps
leading to buildings are illuminated by lights, streets are lit by
eerie street lamps, etc. If you have ever played Syndicate Wars,
you will be right at home with the viewpoint. The viewpoint is
done via overhead camera located in preset locations, one might
suggest this isn’t to creative, however, it works perfectly with the
game. My only complaint is character rendering, most of the
characters have the rough jagged edges on them that plague so
many 3d accelerated games. Weapon effects also seem to have
some problems with them. For example, explosion effects would
stay on the screen to long and overlap current explosions, creating
psychedelic experience. Please keep in mind this could be driver
related and not all gamers will experience this. For the most part,
The Creed creates a great apocalyptic city environment and sets
the grim mood flawlessly.
Control could possibly be The Creeds only fault, due to
its inconsistencies and failure to access the remaking of all
actions. Gamers are given the option to use either a game pad or
a mouse and keyboard combo. I opted to use the keyboard,
because you would need a huge amount of buttons on your game
pad to accurately control Guy or Gene. Control consists of walking
around and talking to people or killing them. Aiming is horribly
done, I could never hit a target on my first try and was forced to
shoot in a sweeping motion. If you can overcome the obstacles of
control, the game becomes rather enjoyable. After a few hours of
gameplay I began to adapt, but be prepared for some frustration
and adapting time.
Blood curdling screams, the blast of a shotgun and the
scurry of rats devouring flesh are just some of the sounds you
come across in The Creed. The voice acting in The Creed is very
enjoyable, but if your easily offended, don’t bother playing the
game. Guy and Gene frequently use words like fuck and shit,
however, if you picked up the censored version, you won’t be
hearing any of this sweet language. Its been quite some time since
I have played a game that actually had some real bad words in it.
Some of you might be saying this is a bit mindless and stupid,
however, it only adds to the atmosphere. The musical score is
average, and suits the game well. Generally, I was impressed with
the sound effects and the voice acting.
Multiplayer is another one of The Creed’s few faults, it
supports up to 8 players via every connection out there. With a T3
host the lag made the game unplayable on my 56k modem. If
you’re blessed to have a fast connection, I imagine multiplayer
won’t be lagged for you. One fault I did find was the ability to
cheat in mulitplayer with a trainer.
Game noir is cool, I want more of it. Wandering around
in a massive city with a huge mini gun can be rather enjoyable.
Anyone who enjoys a good romp through a futuristic city should
defiantly check The Creed out. The only faults I find with the game
are the lagged multiplayer and harsh control adaptation. But be
warned, those of you who are sensitive to violence should look
elsewhere.
-Goods: Great atmosphere, freedom to do what you want, good
graphics engine, interesting dialogue, and cool weapons
-Negatives: Lagged Multiplayer and stiff adaptation period
The Creed is Insomnia's Entertainment's newest game that
combines a little bit of a Cyberpunk story and an Ultima 6 or 7
game play. The game takes place in the town of Cerberus filled
with places like "27 Hour Entertainment Facilities", "Industrial &
Domestic Fusion Waste Disposals", cops that look like Robocop,
and all those sci-fi settings that define a Cyberpunkish atmosphere.
In a weird way, it's kind of like Final Fantasy 7. You play as Gene
Matrix (the chic) or Guy Wolfe (less chic), the heroes of the game.
Gene is the rebel that used to work for this world's government
military/assassin but has gone bad and now has sworn over to the
other side. Guy like Gene, has roots as a government-ish enforcer
but resigned is part of a "Bounty Hunting Corporation". They're
both now against the government's harsh iron fist way of life and
have to escape the city of Cerberus and Outpost IV before time
runs out and the planet dies and are ready to kick some ass in the
process.
Graphics:
The Creed supports software, Direct3D, Ramp Emulation, and RGB
Emulation. Right away I noticed that the character sprites looked a
little chunky. The backgrounds are actually done quite well. I
especially liked the cars and the way they made it out of polygons.
But other than that, The Creed was really missing something in
ways of visuals. I found the running animations for character
sprites really sad as they resembled Penguin, from the Batman
cartoon, running down a highway. The guns could have been
more detailed and blood looked very unbelievable.
Sound:
The sound was your basic run of the mill sound pack that you'd
hear from any game out there. Nothing big, nothing special. This
game provides a speech or text or both option as well as music
that sounds really great especially in a part near the middle of the
city. I should mention that the speech in The Creed consists of
several vulgar words that probably shouldn’t be heard by
impressionable youngsters.
Gameplay:
This game plays surprisingly, very similar to Final Fantasy 7 with a
touch of Ultima in there. You have complete freedom to basically
beat anybody you see in the street senseless. You can also talk to
anyone you bump into. However this really isn't too true as you'll
notice that many of the people you bump into say the exact same
thing as the guy you talked to 3 minutes ago with the more
important characters excluded of course. The AI was actually
impressive in this game. In many cases it fights and runs like
someone that was aware of it's own consciousness. I cornered this
enforcement agent in an alleyway and started giving him
blows to the head. When I thought he was about dead he suddenly
took off. I obviously chased after him but he I had to chase him all
over the city streets until we ended up somewhere in the suburbs
where I managed to land clothesline punches on the back of his
head. I was pleasantly impressed. The controls are customizable
with templates for if you're an ACTION player or an ADVENTURE
player, which is quite considerate. The controls take a little while
to get used to especially because of the screen scroll. You may be
holding up leaving the top of the screen but the next scene might
have you running diagonally down left and if you're still holding
up, you start running in the opposite direction. Awkward but
nothing too bad.
Multiplayer:
If you’re wondering what multiplayer is like via a modem
connection, read Prolix’s review above. Myself, I played
multiplayer on a lag-less LAN. This is what happens in multiplayer.
There are 2 teams: Team A and of course, Team B.
Team A has to:
"You and your companions must eliminate all resistance and
secure the Subway. You must enter the subway and move into
both entrances as far as you can go. At the far back wall of each
area, you must drop one science jar. You can pick up these
science jars from your contact in the park. You will know him
when you see him. Kill any and all opposition you encounter. They
are believed to be heavily armed so use caution."
and Team B has to:
"You are to stop members of the opposing team from entering the
subway at any cost. They must not be able to clear the area and
hold the two innermost areas. We have placed a number of men to
support you but ultimately it is up to your team. Good luck"
Each team starts at the opposing ends of the map. Weapons are
laid about the ground and you gather the weapons and go have a
brawl with the other team in the middle of the street. It wasn't
much fun with just 2 people but I think this would be great for 8 or
more guys. This game allows the host to be running and players
can just hop in and out in the middle of a game.
Fun Factor:
If you’re the type of gamer who likes the FF7 series then you really
should take a look at the game. I myself didn’t like the specific
genre of this game but I found multiplayer to be much more free
and fun. This game is more adventure than action with a wad of
plot stuck to it and if you’re the type of guy who digs this stuff, then
by all means, pick up this game.
Overal Impression:
This game was okay. Honestly, I’m just saying that for a lack of a
better word, it was honestly quite average. Mind you this game
won’t appeal to everyone, and I don’t think this game will sell
enough copies for the multiplayer to take off even though that’s
where I find the game is most fun. It’s not as good as FF7 but if
you’re like my friends who beat that game in a week, this should
tie you over until FF8 hits the shores of North America.
By: 