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A Surprise Favorite

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: January 12, 2001
Author: Amazon User

I recently picked up Maken X, intrigued by the unique character art and generally good (though rarely great) reviews of the game. It has quickly become one of my favorite "First-Person Shooters", right next to Half-Life and the old Doom.

Maken X melds a relatively deep (if sometimes badly translated) storyline and unique emphasis on close-range attacks with Dreamcast-caliber graphics and impressively "whacked" artwork and characters.

Even experienced players will be challenged on later levels. Better yet, even when finished, you're not really so...the game has multiple branching paths which sometimes make a huge difference. I've finished it once and immediately started a fresh game--not only have some storyline elements been modified, but two new brainjack characters have shown up.

"Brainjack"? Yes, you "brainjack" characters to take over their bodies and weapons (sometimes one and the same). A different way of aquiring more weapons, but much more interesting than "shotgun <> railgun". And if only using close-range swords and such sounds limited, it is not. You can actually charge up weapons for different long-range (limited use) attacks ranging from puppets laden with explosive, to stomach parasites (!), to quad flying discs, all depending on what character you have. Heck, just seeing a new whacked-out sword design waving in your hand is interesting enough.

Highly recommended, especially to those like me annoyed by the lack of story elements and single-player fun in Quake III and other new FPS's.

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.

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.

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 moderately fun game.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: September 19, 2001
Author: Amazon User

This game is fun to play...at first and then after awhile it gets very boring and frustrating. I did like the close up action and having to fight off an enemy thats right in your face. I bought this game after reading reviews saying how good it was,I perhaps was a little hasty. The brainjacking feature makes this game truly unique. Rent this game first,you will be glad you did.

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.

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.

Great Music!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: March 03, 2001
Author: Amazon User

I am not a big fan of corridor shooters. In fact, I kinda can't stand them! No matter the system, the frame rate is always lousy; anything but smooth! Thank the powers that be for ATLUS, the wonderful people who brought us the 'Persona' games, for Maken X! Unconventional, unusual, exotic, eerie, creepy, haunting, and yet strangely intriguing are just a few words and phrases one can attach to this prime specimen of Dreamcast graphics. The characters designs and costuming are relatively typical of ATLUS, the human characters looking like death-metal roadies, and the villains looking like a Chinese interpretive dance troop (especially those dragon-guys, who wouldn't want a get-up like that?). The Music is also splendid, combining techno, rock, drum&bass, and east-Indian chanting. (see my reviews of the soundtrack!) The soundtrack can be bought separately on imported CD (a pretty penny but worth every pretty penny).

Try before you buy

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: October 20, 2002
Author: Amazon User

... Maken X truly is is a mixed bag. There are some intriguing gameplay elements (first person shooter with a sword, and the ability to Brainjack), and the game is fun at first, but eventually Maken X gets boring, repetitive, and undeniably frustrating (not to mention the horrendous voice acting). However, Maken X is not a bad game whatsoever, it's just more of an aquired taste. It's not a bad pickup at a cheap price, but try it before you lay down your hard earned cash for it.

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