AV_Gamer

One is an intense action/shooter game for the PSX by Visual Concepts. The game begins with the protagonist  waking up in his apartment building and realizing he has a huge bionic weapon for a right arm. Before the main character can abjust to his situation he suddenly finds himself  being attacked by an army trying to kill him. Lucky he soon finds that his weapon is very useful, and decides to search for answers while trying to survive.

GAMEPLAY

One features a gameplay mechanic that is original as far as I know. Instead of a health meter, you have a rage meter. The more enemies you take out, the more your rage meter builds making your weapon more powerful. When the meter reaches max, a massive explosion happens that kills every one on screen. If you get injured however, your rage meter decreases, your weapon becomes weaker, and when you meter runs out, you die.

You also have the ability to pick up other weapons, instead of just relying on your arm weapon. These weapons range from rocket launchers to shell cannons. These weapons do a lot of damage and gives you a satisfying sense of destruction. The game features great boss battles that require some kind of method to beat them, and the enemy AI is surprisingly smart.

There is one bad thing about the gameplay, There are some levels that have platform jumping. You can easy tell this game wasn't meant for it. It's pretty easy to miss judge jumps and kill yourself.  In fact, one later level in the game features nothing but platform jumping, and the level can become quite frustrating.

GRAPHICS

The epic action movie was what the developers were going for in this game, and they mostly nail it. Huge explosions look great and will really get the blood pumping. The scenery is really well done for a PSX game, and has an epic feel to them. You fight in a futuristic city filled with traffic hover cars, a secret mountain army base. An undeground base, and even in an advance security type level.  The characters skins are well done. The main hero moves fluid without any jerky animation. The enemies also move very fluidly. Overall the 3D graphics are some of the best on the PSX.

MUSIC & SOUND

For me the highlight of this game was the sound design. From the beginning, you'll notice chatter going on between the military trying to kill you over their radios. They update attack teams on your current position. They setup traps and ambushes. They call in reinforcements. They even show frustration when having a hard time killing you, and give congrats to their teams if they do succeed in killing you. The fact that the enemy AI acts according to the chatter is also a big plus in giving this game an epic feel. If you heard them setting up an ambush, best believe the ambush will be there when you arrive.

The music sounds like it came right out of Hollywood. The epic soundtrack will remain people of the action movies Terminator and Total Recall. The music matches the on-screen action very well and will give you the feeling of playing a Blockbuster film rather than a videogame.

OVERALL

Overall ONE is a great action/shooter game that got completely over looked by most people and it's a shame.  This game would definitely qualify as a buried treasure, and if you can get you hands on a copy, then do so. It's not perfect. The platform jumping parts kept me from giving it five stars. But the platform jumping is hardly enough to take the enjoyment out of the whole game.

4/5

Red Zone is a chopper simulation action game made by Zyrix. The studio is out of business now, but would be known for having one of gamings best talents. The music composer Jesper Kyd who got his start making soundtracks for Zyrix games. The game is about a Russian Dictator coming to power and threatening to launch nuclear missiles at his enemies if the demands aren't met. Of course, you don't give into terrorist, so the United Nations decides to send a special elite chopper team to stop him before it's too late.

GAMEPLAY

Anyone  who played the Strike games by EA on the genesis will be in familiar territory  with this game. You play from a top down view of your helicopter and the field. You fly from objective to objective completing each mission while still keeping you copter in one piece.  The simulation really comes into the gameplay of this game. If your copter is hit a certain way, it effects the way you can control it. For example, if it gets hit on the left tail you won't be able to turn a certain way real well. Another example is if the Copter is hit from the front, then your radar goes out and you can't see the highlighted marking of the map that guild you to the next objective. Stuff like this is a good idea on paper, but makes the game very difficult as you only have one life. Once your copter goes down, it's game over.  The game forces you to use strategy while playing by attacking from flank positions and not go ballsy into the red zones. In the later levels, however, it doesn't matter. You will still die quite often.

The game also features ground missions, where you can pick three of the team members to attack an enemy base. You have the balanced solider. The big, slow, heavy weapons guy. And the fast and agile female solider, who take more damage then the other two. The ground mission are also top down in view, and are pretty clunky overall. Still it's not too bad.

GRAPHICS

Zyrix takes the Genesis to the limit by attempting to create a top down 3D game. The game uses graphic effects that almost mimic SNES's Mode 7 Graphics. The helicopter moves in a 3D like rotational map and it mostly looks pretty good. The Chopper as well as the enemy tanks and soldiers are still in 2D however. The game even has a full motion video opening of the Dictator calling for war. The whole thing is done in red and black, but still for a Genesis game, pretty impressive. The ground mission graphics mirror that of games like Soldier of Fortune on the Genesis. Big detailed sprites with fluid movement by the three team members. Overall, the graphics are pretty well done for a genesis game.

MUSIC & SOUND

The sound effects use generic shots and explosives, but the music is pretty damn good. As you may know, the Genesis wasn't known for it's great music, but when a talented composer made music for the system, it really stood out. Jesper Kyd at an early stage in his career was already showing how talented he could be. Not only is the music really well composed and fitting to the gameplay, the music tracks are also pretty lengthy like a movie score.


OVERALL

Red Zone could've been a great chopper game, but because of the steep difficulty of the levels, many people who played it, soon gave up on it.  That's why I give Red Zone a 3.5/5. In the end, the best Helicopter experience for the genesis is still in the Strike games.