The PlayStation 2 is quickly becoming a home to some of the PC's biggest games. Tribes 2 is on the way, Half-Life will finally see its console debut on the PS2, and now Giants: Citizen Kabuto is going consoleside courtesy of Interplay. As seems to be the story with most PC games ported to consoles, Giants for the PlayStation 2 will undergo a wealth of changes before it sits on store shelves, suspended in its DVD case. After spending some time with the game, it's evident that Digital Mayhem, the game's developer, is simplifying things a bit for Giants' console debut. But this simplification will only make an already appealing game all the more inviting to console players.

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Citizen Kabuto follows the trials and tribulations of a handful of races that inhabit a tropical piece of geography perched on a planet that's plummeting headlong through space. There are three different character races that you play as during the game. The Meccaryns, or Meccs, is the first playable race and uses traditional gaming armaments, such as rocket launchers, laser pistols, and laser machine guns. Meccs can also use jetpacks to scale huge cliff faces, whose uses are limited by a boost meter that gradually recharges while the jetpacks aren't in use. The sea reaper named Delphi is a white-skinned female character who has the ability to cast elemental magic spells, hack away with a sword, launch a variety of projectiles with a bow and arrow, and teleport. The spells that Delphi casts are her race's most deadly ability--one spell slows down time, creating a sphere of influence that Delphi may jump into and slash away at helpless enemies. Another devastating spell sends a fireball hurling toward the enemy, which splinters into several secondary blasts upon impact. Delphi can traverse the sprawling terrain more quickly than the other playable characters, thanks to her point-and-click teleport interface. Kabuto, a towering blue giant, is the game's namesake for good reason. Easily the most intriguing and fun character to play as, Kabuto relies on melee attacks to stomp enemies, trees, and buildings. The giant can also perform cannonball attacks that ripple the terrain or grab objects and hurl them as a projectile attack. The most interesting aspect of playing Kabuto is that he grows a bit after eating several evil smarties. To complete a good number of Kabuto's levels, you must grow him to a size that will let him break down a wall that leads to the next area. The good smarties, designed to resemble the stereotypical alien with a big head and bulging insect eyes, guide you along your quest by providing you with objectives.

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As expected, Giants has undergone the biggest change from its PC version with its control system. Each of the three playable characters follows the same general control scheme with a few tweaks to suit their specific abilities. Like in most other first- or third- person shooters for the PlayStation 2, the left analog stick controls movement, and the right analog stick changes the direction your character is facing. The directional pad lets you zoom your projectile weapons from a great distance. Digital Mayhem stated that there are currently no plans to support a mouse and keyboard. To avert any sort of frustration, though, an auto lock feature has been instituted to make targeting much easier. Character-specific moves--such as the Meccs' jetpack and Delphi's spell abilities--are mapped to the shoulder buttons, while pressing down and clicking the left analog stick lets you get a frontal view of Kabuto choking down enemies. And while Giants for the PC has an extensive interface that lets you build special object-constructing factories and control sidekicks, all of these features are included in its PS2 incarnation, albeit in vastly simplified forms that require no separate menu screens.

Fifty different missions are stretched over 18 different tropical locales. You begin as a Mecc and play through a wealth of levels before switching over to Delphi. In a similar fashion, you must play all the way through Delphi's levels before taking control of the hulking Kabuto. Mission objectives throughout the three characters are varied but tend to repeat for each race. Some missions require you to kill sheep-cow hybrids called vimps and take their meat to a smartie. Other objectives ask you to rescue smarties and return them to their homes or simply make it from one side of the island to the other in one piece.