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Great Doom-a-like with twists

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: April 29, 2000
Author: Amazon User

I rented this game and now am going to buy it. The cut scenes are a bit wordy and long (and you can only abort them one phrase at a time which really interrupts game play and is tesious which is why -1 star) but the concepts are cool, gameplay is fun, graphics are good, and contol is well done (although it took a a coule of minutes to get use to it works great). Maken X is basically a first person Doom style game (except so far I only have swords) with a rich story, and the ability to 'brainjack' (take over and control) other characters. The levels are balanced well with an occasional 'don't just kill the enemy' puzzle, where you have to manipulate the enemies to do something for you (like open a door). Each level is in a different city and looks completely different. I'm not sure how far though the game I am but I get the impression it has a lot of levels and depth left.

No Quake 3, but...

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: May 01, 2000
Author: Amazon User

First person shooters are few and far between on dreamcast right now, so when i saw this game, i figured i'd give it a go. While it is no Quake 3, it is not a bad game either. Gameplay is straightforward, using the analog pad to move and the action buttons to jump, slash, and lock-on. The lock-on system is very intuitive, helping one on one combat with an enemy greatly. The graphics are some of the best on the system, although sound is not up to par with what the dreamcast can do. Voice acting also leaves something to be desired. Overall, while not a superior game, it will give you quite a few hours of hack-n-slash fun, if not a laugh or two at the voice work.

Really, Really, original.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 1
Date: May 02, 2000
Author: Amazon User

This is by far one od the better games on dreamcast right now (5/2/00). it's your standard Doom-like game but all you have are short-range weapons. This makes for extremely cool combat. The few problems with the game are a sharp increase in difficulty after a few levels and the plot, since it branches depending on what you do, makes very little sense. A very good, original game.

The best, unique 3D game out there today

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 1
Date: May 08, 2000
Author: Amazon User

This is the best 3D Game I've played in years. It is so differet and unique in that this game is so much more than just a shoot, shoot, kill game. It is amazing to think that a Japanese company could make such a good 3D shooter game.

Maken X is an enjoyable ride through the apocalypse

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: May 10, 2000
Author: Amazon User

Having more in common with hack and slash classic such as Ninja Gaiden and Strider than the more stealth oriented first person shooters of today, Maken X weaves an intriguing game world with hints of an impending apocalypse, machine gods that are trying to seize power, and the excuse to simply get down to business & slash through an army of mutated brainwashed ninjas. With its decidingly old school play mechanics, Maken X excels in the actual combat system that is employed - a lock on feature (much like Z targetting in Zelda V) allows for manueverability in a 3D environment, blocking, jumping, and strategy involved in the battles. While most first person games tend to stick with gun fighting thus being far range fighter, Maken X is all about close in fighting with a blade, thus making the game so much more than a simple mindless shooter - strategy must be used to survive the latter levels where enemies are incredibly powerful and skill is of the upmost importance. The graphics are the usual Dreamcast quality, unbelievable with the occasional slow down - the entire design of the game is incredibly good save for some questionable character designs (some of them can only be desribed as wacky, but it is a Japanese game). The sound track and effects are all top notch, the presentation of the game from in game cinemas to the level selection screen all are very well done. The only stumble in the presentation is that the voice acting is incredibly weak, drawing the player out of the storyline (which is a dark, deep matter) with its bland lines, horrendous vocal pacing, and just bad acting. The voice acting is so bad that it lowers an otherwise excellent game into the mere realm of good. I recommend Maken X though, its presentation is top notch, the action is fierce and extremely smooth as well as harkening the genre back to the days of Strider and Ninja Gaiden, so it can't be all that bad, can it?

hmmm beautiful woman or commercial airplane pilot........

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: May 20, 2000
Author: Amazon User

This is one game I've wanted for some time. I bought it and now I must say it is great. What I really love about this game is it's style and design. What I love is it's bizzarre feal to everything. Everything feals quiet,clean,dark and futuristic. Your enemies are the best disgned enemies in a 3D corridor shooter ever. All of them have this twisted, demonic and ethreal style, that I just can't get enough of. The music is this nice amibient techno that really adds to the atmosphere. The sound FX are good but very tinny sounding, weither this is a concious effort on atmosphere, or just bad sound mastering is unknown. The voice acting however is so bad that is makes me cringe, and it NEVER get's better. So a mute button on your TV is a must. The gameplay takes about 10 min to learn and is very fun. The concept of hand to hand is great and is so cool once you get the hang of doge,block,parry and thrust and even batting back projectiles. One great feature is the "lock on" Idea. You can sigle out any target and it automatically keeps it targeted. The only downfall to combat is that when you facing a room full of cannon guys and you got a baton. The most special feature is the "brain-Jack" feature this allows you to posses key individuals and thus gain new powers and wepons. This idea is alot like the movie "Fallen" where a demon can move thru a touch. I recommend this game. It is alot of fun. Just I wish they would have kept the Japanese voice actors and just left it subtitled (currently it's in english and subtitled in english). hmmm beautiful woman or commercial airplane pilot ? Where do you want to go today ?

A TERRIBLE BORE!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: May 26, 2000
Author: Amazon User

This game is basically a boring, lamer version of DOOM. In the first person, you walk around with a sword and hack at enemies. Blah, blah, blah. I played this game for a whole 15 minutes, turned it off, and knew I would never play it again.

Games for the DreamCast need to strive for something better than mediocre. This one isn't even that.

DISSAPOINTMENT

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 1 / 3
Date: June 02, 2000
Author: Amazon User

This game was a huge letdown. When I heard about this game's "brainjacking" technology, I was ready for a futuristic romp similar to the extremely fun Messiah. What I got was a repetitive hack job with a convoluted plot and seriously screwed up dubbing. YAWN!

WEAK AND REPETITIVE

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 3 / 5
Date: June 09, 2000
Author: Amazon User

When I read and heard things about the campy, demented Maken X,I was tempted to buy it. Wisely I chose to rent instead. ThankGod. The game isn't the worst ever made, but buying Maken X is not a whole lot better than just flushing money down the toilet. You have only one move, and the game consists of madly hacking at anything that you see, while trying to dodge a plethora or projectile attacks, which is tough (and not in a good way) in the game's restricting 1st person viewpoint. And then there's the plot...Oh God...dont even ask. In between levels, you are greeted with long, mind numbing cutscenes (horrendous voice acting included) that have to do with Maken, a machine capable of destroying people's "psi" (don't ask me...maybe their souls or their brain cells?), leaving them as vegetables. This is where the heavily vaunted "brainjacking" feature, which allows you to possess different characters using Maken as a convoy. In reality, this amounts to coming across a character every 1 or 2 levels that you pretty much have to possess in order to survive. The only point of this is to gain a more powerful body, unfortunately there is no difference in gameplay except for the fact that your weapon changes slightly (one cahracter has a sword, the next character has a longer sword, the next character has two swords, the next charcter has a staff that looks like a sword, etc.) If anyone reading this review has played the game Messiah, maybe you can relate to the way i felt. Messiah succeded in giving you an environment of massive freedom where anything organic was fair game for possession. That made it all the more restricting to play a game with practically no freedom or diversity of gameplay (ONE move! ), a claustrophobic 1st person view (some weapons take up nearly half the screen, so it will probably be tough going for most),and a dumb plot. If you're lookin for possessive gameplay, give Messiah a go.

The best of the best of the best!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: July 01, 2000
Author: Amazon User

Tons of characters to find in the game. All sorts of weapons and special attacks. You have to fight against a hord of mutated ninjas and tons of bosses that are playable like Hakke Shaja, some mafia guy, U.S. president( the best ), a lightning fast girl,ect.

An unbelieveable game and its one of the best DC games out there.

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