Trying to fill in the first game's shoes just made this title fall flat on its face...
Well, you play again as Gex, a couch potato gecko that already saved the media dimension from Rez, but soon enough, you'll learn that you didn't get the job done and strike a deal with the government to go in there after him.
Now first of all, the graphics in this game are ok at least, the characters seem to be a little too blocky for a PS1 title, and the same thing goes for the environments and bosses, but they are pleasing enough to get a passing grade. The textures are nicely laid out, but sometimes can look a little chopped up and blocky as well as some of the textures seem to have been sliced into pieces and then rearranged into this strange mosaic of surfaces.
The gameply for this game is easily the most dissapointing part of the title. The camera seems to be in possesion of a few zoo monkey as it will zoom in and out wildly, causing confusion and frustration and building it all to the point where you decide to take matters into your own hands as you switch the camera to manual. Although this seems to work from time to time, it somehow manages to slip up even though your (for the most part) in control of the camera. Attacking and targeting enemies can be a daunting task as you need to run around and get just in front of the enemy in order to kill them dead. Some power-ups are present, such as the fire and ice abilities, to help you dispose of all thos troublesome baddies, but they all seem to just add frustration as they require you to hold down the attack button and run a circle around them in order to blast them to kingdom come. The cheesy one-liners are back from the original and seem to pop in at the right moment sometimes, but they can just be a bore as they have little variation depending on your location, and sooner or later, you'll just want to turn them off. Oh, and remember what I said about the controls being frustrating? Well, the boss battles have nice controls and the camera doesn't get in the way as often so you can dispose of these big baddies. The gameplay sure does need improvement and can be evident in almost every part of the game.
Overall, this game isn't very good and fans of the first game won't be missing anything big this time around, but if you absolutely, positively need to play a new Gex game, don't buy it, rent it. For the rest of you out there, just get the original if you haven't played it.