Open-ended First-Person Shooter developed by the Ukrainian game studio Deep Shadows. It was perhaps the
first of its genre,
predating both
Stalker: Shadow of Chernobyl and
Far Cry 2.
Extremely polarizing game, mostly because the game was released with
literally hundreds of bugs, though almost all of them were eventually fixed by patches.
The game plays like
Deus Ex as a
Wide Open Sandbox, having a
skill system, a
stealth system, and a lot of time spent talking to people.
The plot follows one Saul Myers (whose
character model is based on
Arnold Vosloo, though the resemblance in actual game graphics is...
somewhat questionable), a
veteran of the French Foreign Legion living abroad in Paris. Myers' daughter,
Lisa, is a
globetrotting journalist. Lisa runs afoul of and is kidnapped by persons unknown while working in the
fictional, troubled South American nation of Realia. News of this is quickly relayed to Myers, who hastily departs for Realia, where he must tangle with local politics and the criminal underworld while trying to track down his missing daughter.
The game has two
spiritual successors (
White Gold: War in Paradise and
The Precursors which were
only released in Russia and Ukraine, though there are
fan translations available.
This game provides examples of:
- Awesome yet Practical: Gunship helicopters, get everywhere in style, kill everyone in style.
- Banana Republic: Realia. The game is a pretty good walkthrough of this trope.
- Chekhov's Gunman / The Dog Was the Mastermind: In the bar near the very beginning of the game, you can have an extended conversation with a wealthy philosopher. He has unique dialogue and more lines than the usual NPC, but there's otherwise nothing to suggest he's related to the main plot. it turns out he's the Big Bad. Indeed, it's very easy to miss speaking to him entirely since he's surrounded by non-imporant signpost-dialogue NPCs, which makes The Reveal much less dramatic.
- The Don: Don Pedro, and all the mission givers for the Mafia faction.
- Dude, Where's My Respect?: Completely averted, your reputation with each of the factions may affect you positively or negatively.
- Gatling Good : The only gatling guns in this game are static AA guns and the front cannons of gunships. A hand held model would have been nice though.
- Genre Shift: Most of the game is set in a Troperiffic Wide Open Sandbox Banana Republic. You deal with the drug lords, the rebels, the army and the CIA. The final act: Stop the Big Bad in his volcano lair from using his giant mind control device.
- Grey and Grey Morality: There are no good guys in this game, although the Mafia and Bandit factions are somewhat more dickish then the Well-Intentioned Extremist Government or Rebel factions. The Native American faction is interesting in that while it's considered a single faction, the faction missions are provided by three different groups: two are fairly peaceful "we just want to be left alone" groups whose missions are either peaceful or self-defensive in nature, while the other is led by a crazed, murderous "kill the White Man" cannibal who sends you out to massacre pretty much anyone he doesn't like (including tourists and fruit merchants).
- Intrepid Reporter: Lisa, though it doesn't prevent her from being kidnapped.
- Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: The native (indian) questline starts by helping them to kill a jaguar, then some bandits, then some armed rebels, then a busload of tourists.
- Granted, the "massacre the tourists" mission is given to you by a different, noticeably crazier chieftain than the previous missions.
- Karma Meter: Your "Reputation with Civilians" stat is basically this.
- Killer Rabbit: Those helpless old Grannies sitting by the side of the road will often pull out frag grenades and start tossing them at you if you start mowing down civilians in the middle of town.
- Market-Based Title: On its' motherland, the prequel is known as Xenus: The Boiling Point. Does this situation remind you of Fahrenheit or should it be said as The Indigo Prophecy?
- Obvious Beta: Don't play this without Patch 2.0.
- To give you an idea, one of the fixes reported in the patch changelog is 'NPCs now avoid obstacles when moving'.
- One-Man Army: the player, an army with tanks, an air force, and a navy.
- One True Sequence: Averted, you always have a bunch of different options to continue the main quest.
- Professional Killer: Alberto Banco.
- Relationship Values: For seven factions, all of which may like or dislike The Hero for his actions in-game.
- Retired Badass: Saul Myers.
- RPG Elements
- Scenery Porn
- Sliding Scale of Silliness Versus Seriousness: Silliness, the game would be quite depressing and grim otherwise.
- Spiritual Successor: It isn't clear if White Gold is this or actually a Prequel to this game.
- Stat Grinding
- Stealth-Based Game: Alternative to doing missions guns-blazing.
- Super Persistent Predator: The jaguars and snakes seem to go out of their way to try and kill you. The bees won't but they'll still try to kill you.
- Take Over the World: The goal of the Big Bad, using Mind Control.
- Universal Driver's License : Averted you have to take lessons to fly or use a boat.
- What the Hell, Hero? : If you're really evil your reputation with the civilians will drop, they will be upset, they will show you, little old ladies will start throwing hand grenades at you.
- Wide Open Sandbox: A completely seamless, big world (625 square kilometers).
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