It's time to shake some ass and blow shit up!
10/15/03 by Dan Chubaty
The Game: One of Capcom’s exclusive (so far) GameCube titles that were all announced some time ago. Featuring Vanessa Z. Schneider as she tries to get to the bottom of a robot takeover.
Gameplay: I’ve read my fair share of reviews, which have bashed this game quite badly. I think I know why. In the beginning, we were lead to believe that PN03 was going to be a vast action adventure game, with story line twists and awesome character development. It isn’t. Somewhere along the line, that all became untrue. PN03 is a shooter, straight up. There are no complex objectives or huge worlds to explore. And for this, I love it.
If you know what to expect, and give the game a chance, one will find a very cool shooter that exudes style in every aspect, like shooter games of past and present, such as Contra or Ikaruga, the main point of the game is to shoot and kill. To create as much carnage as possible in a room full of enemies. In this vein, PN03 succeeds phenomenally.
There is a sort of story and objective before each mission. But it means next to nothing. Every mission is a set of rooms. All one has to do is clear enemies and proceed to the next room. Repeat this a few times.
What happens in these rooms is where the fun awaits. Vanessa is equipped with Aegis suit, which allows her to shoot blasts of energy from her palms. A typical enemy encounter could be as follows: run and hide behind wall, wait until enemies stop firing and then sidestepping out and mashing on the fire button as quick as possible (old school at it’s best) and then stepping back in for cover. This creates some hectic moments and good firefights. However, enemies usually follow the same very predictable pattern of fire and movement.
PN03 features an Auto-aim lock on that actually works quite well. When there are multiple enemies surrounding you, it can be a bit disorienting, but overall it gets the job done.
As you progress through the game you will acquire points from destroying enemies and racking up combo points. The points can be used to purchase upgrades and new suits from the shop. Each suit has it’s own specs and unique attacks. These attacks are called energy drives and are vastly more powerful and spectacular to watch than the default fire. And are the only ways to blast multiple enemies at once.
Vanessa has some sleek moves, when using an energy drive she will perform a beautifully choreographed move, such as a spin or raising a leg before she blasts the baddies. It’s a feature like this that gives the game its style and charm. Watching Vanessa gyrate or shake her ass as you watch robots explode all around you is something pretty damned cool to see.
Visuals: Vanessa has some sleek moves, when using an energy drive she will perform a beautifully choreographed move, such as a spin or raising a leg before she blasts the baddies. It’s a feature like this that gives the game its style and charm. Watching Vanessa gyrate or shake her ass as you watch robots explode all around you is something pretty damned cool to see.
Character models are a mixed bag. Most of the enemies are very uninspired looking hunks of metal, however the large transformer type boss characters look pretty cool, and feature nice looking geometry.
And then there is Vanessa herself, rendered with stunning detail, every curve of her skintight suit is done with great attention to detail (hell yes) and composed of what looks to be a very generous amount of polygons. And it shows, she’s an absolute babe. Easily providing most of the eye candy thus game has to offer.
Audio: PN03 is about straight up action, so the music seems to suit the game well. Its all techno/dance inspired and actually has some pretty nice moments. Nothing truly spectacular, but it’s cool to watch Vanessa tap her foot to the beat.
Sound effects are decent, but again, nothing special. I do love the way the palm shot sounds, though. It’s satisfying to hear it as you wail on the button. Well done. PN03 features very little in the way of voice acting, but Vanessa does have a few lines later on. It’s pretty well done.
Control: This is the one aspect where you’ll realize you love the game or hate it. There is no in between.
It’s got a very strange type of control. The Camera is always fixed right behind Vanessa, as if glued there, sort of like the old Tomb Raider games, I suppose. For instance, pressing down on the analog stick would cause Vanessa to spin/walk backward, as opposed to quickly turning around, like most games.
It takes a while to get accustomed to, and I can imagine some players never truly would, but I stuck with it, and in the end, it makes you realize that any other style of control wouldn’t quite work as well as this.
one minor complaint is that Vanessa’s turning speed could be a tad bit faster. When you hear enemies behind you, it’s a pain in the ass to have to spin around slowly to see them (think Resident Evil). To remedy this, players can do a quick 180 turn by pressing the Z button.
Overall, it’s a scheme and style that has been much criticized, but tends to work beautifully if players spend some time with it.
Replay Value: Being a shooter, PN03 is over quite quickly, within 4 hours. There are, however, several trial missions that players can complete, these are not required, but can be used to acquire more points to purchase all the suits and their upgrades.
Players can also use previously saved files to start a new game on a higher difficulty, meaning you would keep all your upgrades/suits you earned. This adds great incentive to play through several times, which is required if players wish to unlock the special suits.
Overall, it’s over quickly, and some may get tired of it easily, but it does it’s best to appeal to players for multiple play through.
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