This game made the best first impression that I've ever had from a game, beginning from the moment you click on the icon. The desktop "groovily" spins out and cues in some totally campy 60s music a la Austin Powers, and the main menu begins with Cate sassily sauntering in as an introduction. And let's just say that at the end of the first chapter I was totally confused and on the verge of being mad when I saw that the creators had me fooled all along. And that's how the whole game progresses: it has an awesome, ridiculous sense of humor underlying the whole thing that just elevates it to pure enjoyment. I was pleasantly surprised and amused by the way Cate will expertly flip out her mascara stun gun or her nail clipper lock pick and the fancy way she'll spin the pistol as she holsters and draws it - details like this are rare in games and just add that much more enjoyability. If you hide and eavesdrop on some common enemies you'll hear some hilarious conversations. And there's an absolute riot of a chapter that brings a whole new meaning to "rail shooter" (let's just say it involves a massive Scotsman, mimes, and a tricycle). Here's a game that is utterly and shamelessly poking fun at first person shooters, and it's incredibly refreshing.
That isn't to say that it's completely flawless, though, and it even has some setbacks that might be considered unforgivable. For one thing, I found it to be pretty buggy: more than once I encountered some of the rather brainless AI stuck in doorways or walls as they tried to run towards me. At one point I couldn't proceed because an ally NPC was stuck running into a wall. Sometimes the otherwise totally awesome music started layering on itself, creating a bunch of indistinguishable noise. And I never really understood why shooting an enemy with an AK didn't attract attention, while using the stun gun made them come running from all over.
But somehow, the rest of the experience is just so ridiculously fun that somehow I forgave these things. A lot of first person shooters these days are just the same old, same old, but by making fun of it this game creates something new.
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