Anne McCaffrey’s Freedom: First Resistance (Red Storm)

By PETER ELEY

(Herald rating: * * * )

It won't win game of the year, but it might well be a contender for longest title. Hot on the heels of Clive Barker's Undying comes Anne McCaffrey's Freedom: First Resistance.

The fad of using authors' names to beef up a title is a marketing ploy designed to trade on their reputations. And McCaffrey's name as one of the world's top fantasy writers is unquestionable.

The game is based on her Freedom trilogy, which chronicles the invasion and colonisation of Earth by an alien race, the Catteni, and mankind's subsequent struggle to free itself.

The books are beautifully crafted and have sold millions — so how does the game stack up?

While it won't be a classic, it comes across as a reasonably decent action/adventure game.

You play Angel Sanchez, one of the few humans who have escaped being sent to Catteni labour camps. She leads a resistance cell and, being hopelessly outnumbered, takes on the Catteni and their minions using stealth techniques.

The gameplay and graphics have a deja vu-ish feel of Rainbow Six (Tom Clancy's of course). That's not surprising as it's based on a refined version of that game's software engine Freedom differs in having more puzzles and conversations in the mix but sooner or later, shooting bad guys (aliens here rather than terrorists) becomes the main focus of the game.

You can do it with a variety of weapons and, in this respect, Freedom is quite ho-hum.

The controls are easy enough but a stealth game really needs more realism in the weapons department.

The graphics are Freedom's best feature. The levels are well designed, and excellent lighting and textures, especially of outdoor scenes, add a convincing touch of realism.

Red Storm used 700 motion captured images of real people to create the characters, and the result is fluid, believable motion although closeups are disappointing.

But anything less than a top-end Pentium 3 with powerful graphics acceleration may see the frame rate slow down at times.

And some of the cut scenes, which tie the game together, look a bit clunky.

$129.95

*peter_eley@nzherald.co.nz