A hot goth chick + big guns = a sure win? No not necessarily. On the right track though.
Anyways, the story goes like this: You're Alicia, you have magic powers, some demon guy is in your head, demons are coming from hell, you have to stop them, and be aloof and cocky, but really care about humanity because you have daddy issues and some toolbag named Maxwell Cougar (yes, that's his name) is trying to hit on you. I dunno, I left out the major spoiler in case you decide to try this game.
Anyways, lemme break it down for you.
Gameplay : You get 4 guns. A machine gun type deal, a shotgun, a sniper rifle and a gatling gun. They have specific abilities like doing more damage to organic monsters, vs. robots... ugh... robots and demons and, let's just say this is a C movie version of a video game. You can reload as much as you want, assuming you have enough willpower (I will get to that in a second). The weapons can be upgraded at the end of each level with any bonus points you acquired based on time, number of enemies killed and damage taken, also other secret events like "Not blowing up a dam" or "Don't destroy the bridge in a cool explosion to squash the demon army, so the citizens can get out of the city". To be honest, I just like blowing them up because the explosions are really cool.
Where was I? Willpower. Yes. Willpower. You have life (which regenerates) and willpower (which doesn't regenerate automatically). You have to kill the numerous baddies to get willpower back. Correction. Maximum willpower can get drained by certain weapons being reloaded when your gauge isn't full, or if you use a powerful magic. Willpower does regenerate, but only to the point where your maximum is set to. Killing increases the maximum value it can recharge to.
Willpower also is used for Alicia's other abilities. Certain abilities are very handy. She has a force-like push that can shove cars, debris, enemies etc away and squash them. Very handy for clearing barricades. Also you can adjust your combat tactics by pushing a burnt out car closer to the enemy barricade for a more tactical position. Too bad Gears didn't have that ability outside of a few scripted cars. Other handy spells are Ancient Wall which puts up a mystical wall in front of you to block enemy fire with length depending on your magic level.
The ancient magics like Lightning are used to do heavy damage on tanks and other baddies (In fact you fight on top of a plane one time where a giant demon is flying after you, and the only way to beat him is call lighting down on it and then shoot it when it is weak. A very hard, but epic fight, one of the cooler moments in the game). Tornado is used to destroy enemy helicopters and also wreak havoc. Meteor destroys everything. And I mean everything. Giant skyscrapers = a mere pittance for Meteor.
Other abilities are "sacrifice" where the emo/goth Alicia "magically" bleeds out her wrist in a shower of blood. This is handy for keeping your soldier allies alive against a certain boss. Other abilities are kind of useless or not as powerful as they should be.
The game itself is a shooter with a few elements of "Kill the walnut head of a certain color to disable the colored barrier". Yea, there are rainbow colored barriers that giant brain things control. So instead of a colored key, you have to pop oversized zit brain things to get along. It's too bad that this gameplay element is repetetive and extremely retro... and not in a good way. More like a too lazy to make every facet of the game fit together way.
Alicia can hop and do some sweet backflips to get out of the way, but the jumping is a little bit slow and takes a while to recharge. Don't think Unreal Tournament type speed, think a more graceful and hot goth chick version of Halo 3... except the aiming reticle is so small and innacurate sometimes it's infuriating that you can't air out some zombie demon's chest with your shotty at point blank.
The enemies you see are mostly zombie demons (generic footsoldiers), the walnut heads who can use telekinesis to chuck cars at you, tanks, giant zombie things that look like Astaroth from Soul Calibur, a few bosses here and there, some weird infected humans and ghosts that annoy the crap of you.
The gameplay is ok, has some good moments, but is quite repetetive and has horrendous aiming. Some abilities are kind of useless.
Gameplay = 6 out of 10
Graphics : Pretty crappy in terms of textures and environments. The models (including Alicia) are PS2 quality or worse. Oftentimes models clip and are generally not what you expect on an HD system.
The city/forest/army base and other areas are quite sparse and barren, although the mountain range area is quite spacious and well made.
If this game earns any good points in graphics, it's the destruction. Buildings, cars, walls, giant wood scaffoldings and dams, everything explodes and does damage and looks pretty while doing it and causing death upon your foes.
There are a few cutscenes which are in stark contrast, very well done. Maybe not Squeenix good, but nonetheless better than the gameplay engine by far.
Nothing besides Alicia being a hot goth chick with 7 free costumes stands out graphically. That and the explosions.
Ok so it has a hot goth chick (I said that already right?) and explosions and guns? It can't be all bad?
Graphics = 6 out of 10
Sound : There is no good quality surround sound here, and the sound effects are pretty generic. The gunshots are passable, the explosions loud and the enemy battle cries annoying.
The few cutscenes have acceptable voice overs, and Maxwell Cougar isn't a a big of a tool in terms of his voice as he is in terms of his way with the ladies. Alicia has the aloof goth chick covered pretty well. You know, I hate life and I'm sooo emo, but I begrudgingly am willing to save the world type attitude?
There are some cool rock/metal tracks every so often (when the music doesn't just randomly stop because the gerbil spinning the disc gets tired), but those aren't things that make it worth searching out the soundtrack and ordering it.
Sound = 6 out of 10
Value : If you paid 50$ for this you got ripped off.
If you paid 9.99$, you got to look at a hot goth chick who is scantily clad, carries big guns and causes lots of explosions. Congratulations, you have a Spike TV movie!
Value = 7 out of 10 (as I paid 9.99$ it mind you).
Tilt : Here is where I have to give love to this game.
1.) I know, I know. I said it before I'll say it again. Alicia is a hot goth chick. Say it with me once more so I'm sure you are listening.
This is the biggest selling point. Don't kid yourself. I'm not.
2.) Explosions are cool. There are lots. Stuff goes boom then falls down, usually killing baddies. This game understands that.
3.) There are SOME good gameplay elements. Like using certain magics stategically, using the proper weaponry, like sniping from a distance vs. using a shotgun against enemies up close, using collapsable environments, pushing cars and enemy barricades, a few cool boss fights, which more like it could have been included.
4.) I paid 9.99$ for it.
5.) There are free achievement points.
6.) Alicia is a hot goth chick.
Tilt = 8 out of 10
Recap :
Gameplay : 6 out of 10
Graphics : 6 out of 10
Sound : 6 out of 10
Value : 7 out of 10
Tilt : 8 out of 10
Old Gamespot Score : 5.9
Final New Score = 6.0 (be glad that 5.9 is closer to 6.0 than 5.5, Bullet Witch).
Pros :
+ Alicia is a hot goth chick
+ Lots of explosions
+ Some decent boss fights
+ Some decent combat mechanics
Cons :
- Atrocious graphics, PS2 level at best
- Sound is utterly forgettable
- Aiming is pretty bad
- Enemies are very very repetitive as a the missions and overall game structure, only lightly dotted with interesting events.