With UT2004 Far Cry and big market shooters such as Half Life 2 shortly to be released, Kreed needed to be special. It started well… big guns, tons of monsters and comical accents.
Sadly, silly mistakes have cost this game dear.
So the story? Set in the distant future, you play as Daniel Grock. Your ship is fired upon by an enemy ship. To escape, your man Daniel Grock and crew try to flee through the Kreed - a place no one has returned from….. A perfect reason to shoot some ugly aliens.
So you begin. Start to move and suddenly you realise, “what the heck! Why do I need to make 4 swoops on the mouse mat to make my man turn 360 degrees”? Perfect for gamers with 4 foot wide mouse mats but a little problem for me and my tiny desk. Sadly, one of the annoyances that stop the game being a top shooter.
Gameplay wise, there is nothing here that hasn’t been done before. Kill baddies, find a key card, open door, kill baddies, find a bigger gun, find a key card, open door. The game is repetitive. There are no vehicles and not enough diversity in enemies.
The levels are large but too many times will one run through to find dead ends and back tracking is a common occurrence. Too many times will one miss a vent or switch that allows them to continue into the next room.
There’s just nothing to distinguish Kreed from other quality FPS’s such as Halo, UT2004 or Half Life.
Graphically Kreed is very solid. There is some beautiful lighting and it produces some lovely eye candy at times. Cut scenes though, seem to have been scraped over. They look exceedingly tacky for a game with some very good in-game graphics.
Kreed is an average game in a tough market. There is very little in Kreed that you won’t have played before. There’s not enough to come back for more. It becomes repetitive after a while but saying that, Kreed is by no means bad. The graphics are lovely and there’s enough in the game to keep you entertained. Worth a stab if you can’t wait for Half Life 2 but don’t expect a Half Life beater.
Robert Wyse Jackson
