A purely average affair whose existence seems to be merely to prolong the lifespan of the PS1.
Playing as this third-person shooter''s protagonist, Lt. Vaughn, you face missions based on a planetary invasion by aliens, who kill your soldiers and convert them into cyborgs to use against you. It's mostly standard fare, with burned out malls, destroyed cityscapes, and military complexes being the setting for most levels. The game's 'hook' is a cybernetic eye implant you use when toggling a first-person view to give you information about your enemies and important environmental objects, such as threat level, how much damage they've taken, and in the case of ojects, what it might do for/to you. In normal play you can even see its red targeting laser shining off the walls; a neat touch. As you'd expect, eventually you find yourself on the alien homeworld, with the task of ending the threat for good.
The story isn't anything overly original, but it is the strong point of the game. It doesn't drag, doesn't end prematurely, and makes enough sense to keep your interest. There are a number of puzzles that you encounter along the way, and they're designed very well, though they are purely standard, often involving moving blocks to stand on and such. While some require a bit of thought, there's nothing that should send you screaming for a FAQ or hint book. The final boss is a very fair test; he's very tough, and you may take a dozen times to get past, but eventually you'll find the tactic you need. Basically it's all very standard, with little to show any thought to make the game positively stand out.
Conversely, there are a number of negatives that make you feel the designers share the Kruger Industrial Smoothing motto of "we don't care, and it shows." The camera is a constant struggle, with vantage points that change quickly and make it very tough to see what you need to. Similarly, the lock-on feature during combat doesn't work reliably. Too often you lock on to someone across the room rather than an enemy five feet from you, assuming you even know there's an enemy that close due to camera issues. Ledges were handled stupidly, with some allowing you to fall to your death, while others have 'magic walls' to stop you from going over, and there's no way to distinguish between the two varieties. Using items like keycards is a chore, as the game knows when you don't have the item you need, but when you do, it still makes you go to the trouble of retrieving it from inventory instead of just using it for you. Save points are spaced too inconsistently, with many when you don't really need them and too few—if any—when you desperately want one.
The badly functioning lock-on really makes firefights tougher than they needed to be, and all the wonkiness with the camera makes you struggle with the controls more than you should have to. The graphics are out-dated, with many immovable environmental objects horribly blocky and jaggy, and there's too much pop-up, clipping issues, and walls that vanish to let you see through from sharp angles. The sound is on about the same level, with plain-Jane sound effects, and the voice acting verges on the hammy end of the spectrum. There's not a ton to do other than the game, with no unlockable content and only one difficulty setting. Once you play the game, you're pretty much done with the disc. What you're left with is a game that would've been slammed by critics had their attention not been diverted to to the PS2 and its offerings months prior.