A unique and creative game that has something for everyone. Highly recommended for anyone who appreciates a good game.
The game mostly takes place in a relatively confined area of your homeworld which you immediately begin to defend at the start of the game with the attack from an alien enemy on the lighthouse where you live. Players of The Prince of Persia: Sands of Time might feel at home with the combat in this game. To fight, you move your character in the direction of an enemy and press the mouse button. Your character will attack. You can reverse direction and do a back-flip to get out of the way of a retaliation or to attack a creature on the other side of you. Your combat moves are limited to attacking with your main weapon and a single special move that you can use at any time.
Much of the time in the game is spent traveling around your hometown on a hovercraft, engaging in various battles and seeking the answers to the quests you are set upon. You will often find yourself having to puzzle your way through various areas as you look for the hidden door to open, button to press or passageway to crawl through. Occassionally, you will have to use stealth and sneak your way past guards who you could not otherwise take on in combat. You occasionally find yourself in battle against a mini-boss which usually requires some amount of combat skills to tackle. However, there is an adventure component to these battles since each boss has some weakness that once you figure out (and sometimes that can be challenging) makes finishing the job fairly easy.
There are two forms of currency throughout the game. You have a bank account of credits which you can obtain from a wide range of sources and with which you can purchase food for healing, repair tools, power-ups, upgrades and a few other items. The second form of currency is pearls which you use to purchase special items necessary to progress through the game. There are a fixed number of pearls in the game and your inventory keeps track of the ones you have found.
One of the first tasks you are given is to begin taking pictures of the local fauna. Every picture of a unique species can be sent to a friend who will pay for for the picture and give you an item after you finish each roll of film.
After that, you become wrapped up in the war that has engaged your planet and you seek answers to the conflict as well as participate in a number of unrelated adventures which generally result in the finding of additional pearls. You can explore the local caves, or put to the test your hovercraft skills in the local races. You can also play some games at the local bar in order to obtain a couple of pearls or win some cash.
The graphics in the game are good and often quite majestic. There's a variety of different plants and animals in the various caves that offer a beautiful and sometimes haunting experience. Much of the time is spent speeding around town on the water whose effects are quite good. Watching a huge whale jump out of the water and splash back in is one of those amazing gaming moments.
The soundtrack is fantastic and very original. It adds a great ambiance to the game and is very enjoyable.
My greatest complaint with the game is that it is too easy. The combat is never very difficult and solving the puzzles never takes very long. Early in the game, you can purchase an animal and a pearl detector that show you on your map exactly where these items are which makes it easy to find every one of them. If these detectors didn't exist, the game would be a lot more challenging in trying to get a full set and also add replay value since there's no way you'd find everything on the first try.
As many other reviewers have noted, the game is also not very long. You can expect 15-20 hours of good gameplay, perhaps more if you decided to play all of the mini-games and set new records for all of the races. The game also has a small feeling to it since you are confined to the local area for most of the game. That all aside, the game is certainly satisfying and worth the play by anyone who appreciates a good game. I found a brand new copy for $7 at my local used-book store so I suggest looking there for a copy.