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> Results: Project: Snowblind
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I loved the original Deus Ex. In 2003 I had a lot of luck going into games blindﾗno demo, no forum discussions, and no previews right before release. Games like Jedi Academy and Knights of the Old Republic came to me fresh, and I loved them. I did the same with Deus Ex: Invisible War, sequel to the original I loved, and was gravely disappointed by that game. I learned that Project: Snowblind originally began life as a Deus Ex spin-off, but I didn't let that color my expectations, and I wasn't the least bit disappointed by the game.
The story is based on a future with a regional Asian conflict tied to a lunatic general bent on world domination and destruction. You are simply a soldier fresh from training and thrust into duty. You get basically blown to bits in the first mission. But that isn't the end, as you are a suitable candidate to take part in an experiment that implants augmentation systems into your body turning you into a super soldier with incredible abilities. It's then up to you to eliminate the destructive leader and his forces.  Project: Snowblind does an excellent job of integrating storytelling and gameplay. There are eighteen chapters where the story is told through occasional cut scenes and NPC dialogue. Everything is rendered by the game engine and looks excellent, especially since there is no jarring jumping out of the game to play a movie. The characters are well written and you care about them. For instance, when a soldier disappears and you get a side mission to find them, you consider it your duty to find them. The augmentation system works very well. You get ultra-vision (see enemies through walls), reflex boost (force speed), a defensive shield, invisibility and electrical storm. Each consumes a certain amount of energy, which you can replenish. You can also increase your maximum health and energy through power-ups. The weapons, levels and environments are all nicely rendered, well planned, varied and challenging. Every weapon is useful in some setting, although the combined ability of the rail laser and vision enhancement to shoot enemies through walls, along with frequent energy cell locations later in the game, made that a particular favorite. The single player game is, however, mostly linear and pretty short. Even with trying to take on as many secondary missions as possible, the game lasted me only about 6 hours. Worse, later in the game arrows began appearing on the floor, pointing the way to your objective. Since your vision enhancement already provides an ﾑobjective beacon' option, I simply assumed this was another enhancement, but later realized it was just lazy level design. Finally, the game features save panels in rooms you come across periodically. This is an antiquated practice for saving the game that does not belong on modern systems.  Project: Snowblind features a solid multiplayer game with a variety of deathmatch, team and objective based games. Unfortunately the games are virtually empty, and across a few days the only games I could find were Team Deathmatch with from two to five other players. It was a decent round, but other modesﾗsuch as the very cool sounding ﾑHunter' where one player is an invisible stalker and everyone else tries to kill himﾗwere never available. I was very impressed by Project: Snowblind. It is a solid and entertaining shooter with a number of cool features. It is hampered by very short length, the inflexible save point system, ordinary level design towards the end, and a practically nonexistent multiplayer mode. At the same time, it has already hit bargain bin status, so the price is right to give this solid shooter a try. 
Project: Snowblind is a great example of a T-rated shooter. There is no inappropriate language, no blood, no sexual situations or adult themes, just heavy and intense action. Think of it as a futuristic Call of Duty in terms of appropriateness for kids.
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