Video Game / Project: Snowblind

Project: Snowblind is a First-Person Shooter game for the PlayStation 2, Xbox and PC, developed by Crystal Dynamics and published by Eidos Interactive in 2004. It was originally going to be the third game in the Deus Ex series, Deus Ex: Clan Wars, but when Invisible War didn't fare well with its release, it was decided that Clan Wars should be a Spiritual Successor to Deus Ex instead of a regular sequel, set in its own universe. The game shares Deus Ex's First-Person Shooter gameplay and 20 Minutes into the Future setting, but lacks the Stealth-Based Game and RPG Elements.

In 2065, Hong Kong is attacked by a force known as The Republic led by Yan Lo, a rogue Chinese general. The Liberty Coalition, an international peacekeeping force, respond to this, and 2nd Lieutenant Nathan Frost is injured in battle. To save his life, the Coalition use experimental nanotechnology, making him a 'Scarecrow', granting him nanotech-based abilities, Augmentations. With his new powers, it's up to Frost and his force to stop Yan Lo before he can launch his operation, Project: Snowblind.

This game provides examples of:

• A.K.A.-47: The generically-named "Carbine" used by both sides highly resembles the Chinese QBZ-95 and its ilk. Given that the game takes place in Hong Kong, it makes sense to see Chinese guns.
• Auto-Revive: Manually triggered, but if you're downed when you're carrying a specific boost, you get back up at full health.
• Badass Normal: You, as Nathan Frost, in the short prologue section of the game.
  • Empowered Badass Normal: You, as Nathan Frost, after Frost barely survived getting bombarded and becoming augmented to continue the mission.
• Bag of Spilling: Averted from the second level afterwards. The weapons you receive throughout the game will stick with you to the end, and the ammunition at the start of each level will be the same as it was at the end of the previous level.
• Bullet Time: One of the earliest augmentations slows things down, being called a reflex boost.
• Collapsing Lair: Overloading the final reactor will start the detonation sequence. In the final level that follows, Frost needs to escape from the building before it explodes..
• Cutscene Power to the Max: Several cutscenes have Nathan Frost casually gunning down Republic soldiers like it's nobody's business, to illustrate the fact he's now a Super-Soldier.
• Cybernetics Eat Your Soul:
  General Yan Lo: 'Enhancements', they called it. 'Improvements.' But they don't tell you about the constant pain. Or the buzz in your skull that won't let you sleep. Or the nightmares that come when you finally do. They just take your humanity.
• Diegetic Interface: After Frost is augmented, the HUD changed.
• Disc-One Final Boss: You fight and kill General Yan Lo, the Big Bad and the game's only boss fight, only about 60% of the way through the game, with the remaining levels being spent attempting to stop Yan Lo's plot from succeeding.
• The Dung Ages: The aim of Project: Snowblind - Yan Lo wants to detonate electromagnetic pulses in New York, Tokyo, and Paris in order to plunge the world back into these. Dr. Liaw, the former head designer of the EMP bombs central to the project, describes Yan Lo's plan as a belief that anyone who couldn't live through those ages doesn't deserve to live now.
• Elite Mooks:
  • The Republic Elites, which are not only a lot tougher than regular troops but have nano-augmented powers such as cloaking, shields, or super-speed (though unlike you, they're limited to one power per soldier, with most of them seeming to focus on cloaking). They also often wield Fletchette rifles, which drain your health much faster than the Carbine does.
  • To a lesser extent, in the last couple of levels there are some regular Republic soldiers with energy shields, often wielding shotguns.
• Enemy Chatter: Quite a few missions allow you to overhear conversations between Republic soldiers, and they're often quite comical.
• Faceless Goons: The Republic all wear helmets that completely conceal their faces. Some Coalition troops wear balaclavas and gas masks on their heads.
• Highly-Conspicuous Uniform: The Coalition all wear bright blue-and-purple uniforms. Mostly averted for the Republic, which wear urban camo armor (although they have bright red visors on their helmets to make up for it).
• Humongous Mecha: The Ogre walkers.
• Interface Screw: Occurs whenever Frost is hit with EMP or a Flashbang Grenade. In the former, his HUD is filled with static and is rendered "snowblind" for a few seconds, and in the latter, his vision is temporarily blurred by a white light.
• Killed Offscreen: General Cho Lao.
• Made of Iron:
  • In the second level, the other Coalition soldiers you meet and interact with throughout the level have a ridiculously high HP level. Unlike every other killable NPC (hostile or friendly) that normally only take one or two punches to kill, it takes twenty to thirty punches to kill one of them, and firearms barely phase them (and since A: they're on your side, and B: you're only given enough ammunition to fill one mag for each gun in that level, shooting them isn't recommended, anyway).
  • The Ballistic Shield augmentation makes Frost himself like this for a while.
• Mook–Face Turn: The secondary function of the sniper rifle fires a bullet containing mind-altering drugs that cause any Republic soldier hit with one of them to attack any other Republic soldier in sight, before killing the soldier itself a few seconds later. Also, the Icepick allows Frost to hack into computer terminals and override the AI of any bots and turrets whose control system is connected to them and reprogram them to attack the Republic.
• Red and Black and Evil All Over: The military hardware of the Republic has a black color scheme outlined with red lights. Oddly averted for their infantry's military uniforms, which are urban camo.
• Shock and Awe: The Electric Storm augmentation.
• Shout-Out: In the very first level, one of the Coalition soldiers that assists you against the Republic will always be named "SPC. Charlie Brown".
• The Dead Have Names: Every allied NPC soldier is given a unique name; at the end of the game the player is treated to a memorial wall listing the name of every soldier that died under your command during the game's missions.
• Video Game Cruelty Potential: Go ahead and shoot, punch, and/or blow up your comrades. There are no penalties for friendly fire and there will always be more to take their place when they die.
• We Can Rebuild Him: Soldier Nathan Frost was badly injured in the opening and rebuilt using the latest in cybernetic technology, gaining the ability to use "Augmentations."
• With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: The result of earlier nano-technology being applied to Yan Lo twenty years ago, causing him to see technology as something that weakens mankind, hence Project: Snowblind.