Background 'Zax-The Alien Hunter' is a futuristic explorer. He travels alone. His sole, solitary mission: the acquisition of wealth. Or at least it was. Because now Zax has crash-landed on an. MegaGames - founded in 1998, is a comprehensive hardcore gaming resource covering PC, Xbox One, PS4, Wii U, Mobile Games, News, Trainers, Mods, Videos, Fixes, Patches. Silent Hunter 4 Cd Key Serial Numbers. Convert Silent Hunter 4 Cd Key trail version to full software.
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Zax - The Alien Hunter is JoWood and Reflexive Entertainment's bust out take on the isometric scene, and while it can, at a glance be foolishly categorized as just another Diablo clone, it is in fact all about its own special implementation of action. But in doing this, it seems Zax may have forsaken a bit too much of the wisdom gathered from that of which it will be most compared to.
Graphically, the game is an artistic feast, an artistic, albeit static feast. Displaying up to an acceptable 800x600 resolution at up to 16-bit color, Zax features both stylish, lush backgrounds as well drawn and appropriately animated characters (at least as far as similarly designed RPG games go), but unlike most of our RPG aficionados here about the offices, I feel that the exceptional 3D capabilities of today's systems should not take a back seat to the ways of isometric art. I find the overly static backgrounds and fixed placement of pretty much everything to be somewhat debilitating and unbelievable, despite its lush, painted, outward appearance. Such is the case with Zax, the game is an excellent still frame painting, but the vast majority of the environment is purely decorative, statuesque, but pretty nonetheless.
Too often does the art of the game also blend. It's sometimes hard to distinguish areas of interest, from ones that are just there to be there. Throughout the course of the title there were several instances, where, despite the effective auto-map, I was unable to find my way simply because of awkward placement of stalactites or some crap like that. What? You didn't know you were supposed to straddle the overhang portion of the wall where things go unseen? The reoccurring placement of power-ups and stuff inside of these areas is also bogus. You'd never know they were there unless you accidentally walked over them, or, God forbid, were mentally unstable and obsessive-compulsive enough to explore every inch of these areas just in case you missed that one piece of ore (must wash hands, must wash hands).
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In terms of style, the game oozes it. The native, brontosaurus head, Korbos aliens are both loveable, familiar, and at the same time...well, alien. Zax himself is a little goofy and lowbrow cavemanish, but Zelon, his computer assistant is strangely attractive... It's gross because, while the body is certainly there, it looks as if her face was the unfortunate recipient of the impact from an orbital satellite falling to Earth (A VH-1 satellite no less). Even more disturbing in terms of her allure is the fact that she's a game character, or worse yet, an intangible artificial intelligence within a computer game. So, that means characters within the game itself would even find it wrong to be aroused by her.
Aurally the game is pretty fantastic, the acting is spot on; the brutish Zax is a bit laughable, but probably intentionally so, at least that's the way I took it. Zax, just after killing someone: 'I tried to warn you.' That's funny, I guess by, 'I tried to warn you' he probably meant, 'I emitted no noise prior to shooting you twenty times completely out of the blue except maybe me licking my gun.' The rest of them; Zelon, enemies, friendlies, wild pigs, are all well articulated and acted, and not just in videogame terms mind you, some of the stuff is real quality (it's no Digimon, but hey, nobody's perfect).
Sound effects are equally pleasing. Weapon discharges, explosive blasts, environmental quirks and chirps, and death shrieks are clear and well attuned; the standard light pistol and modified laser welder being some of my personal favorites. They have that cool, robust sound, and not the shrill zap associated with other energy weapons.
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It's in the gameplay where Zax differentiates itself from Diablo and the like. Unlike the classic point the cursor, click the button a gagillion times to cause your character to move, attack, and use, style of 'play,' Zax takes an altogether different approach, twisting the tried and true formula into a new beast. Instead of delegating all tasks to the click, Zax melds simplistic keyboard directional arrow control with a little mouse aim. The end result? An at first strange, but then immediately thereafter legitimately gratifying experience. Think of Smash TV, where movement and firing were completely independent of one another. Zax works on the same principle; similar to Abuse, only overhead, Zax aims his weapon via an on screen cursor that moves like any other mouse pointer, he walks in an eight by simple arrow key combinations. This makes for some pretty intense shootouts, running one way and blasting another, but for the most part, the game sadly devoid of any real advanced control. It would have been nice to see some extra movement options complimenting the standard walk/shoot stuff. If the action were slowed just a tad, they could have placed in some kind of dodging/rolling functionality that would have made for more lasting, memorable firefights (darting in and out of cover taking fire and laying it down. Zax is sadly more like Gauntlet: shoot a whole bunch of guys and where applicable destroy their spawning points to prevent reinforcements.
Perhaps better would be using polygonal characters atop the prerendered backdrops as opposed to the hand-drawn ones in place. This would have allowed for a potentially greater degree of fluidity and control, forgoing the incremental eight-way directional movement in favor of a consistent, smooth, flowing turning radius. The stepped eight-way control just seems a bit imprecise for what is trying to be accomplished here. Still, the play found in Zax, judged as a shooter alone, is fun and fresh.
The title could have elevated itself to the level of excellence had it only been developed with more the way of general, RPGish depth. It's control and artistic flair scream to be liberated from its decidedly straightforward, linear gameplay. Oh lordy, only, if only we could really get into upgrading our characters, acquire a whole bunch of the sci-fi equivalent of RPG items, and then engage in a multitude of choice-based conversations, this game would be an instant, timeless classic. What we have instead is a very action intensive linear progression of events and structure. Grab key, open door, proceed. Obviously not what they're exactly calling it (substitute key for ignition switch or ion flux capacitating rectal probe, or whatever), but the ideology, the principle, is the same.
The advancements of your character's arsenal (over twelve weapons) and items, pretty much the only things upgradeable, are brought about by spending ore found throughout the levels back at your crashed ship, which acts as a hub, sort of like the village in the first Diablo. You can get back to your ship through excessively long walks and a little teleportation gateway utilization, or you can also use direct teleporting pads scattered throughout the game world that, if stood next to for a second or two (to prevent accidental zappage) will take you instantly into the loving hull of Zelon, and even directly back to the pad you came from once you're ready. There'll still be a lot of walking, just not nearly as much as there could have been.
Zax also comes built with a multiplayer component that offers up deathmatch, CTF, and salvage king modes. These are fast and furious, but will probably usually amount to just a bunch of people getting right in front of each other's faces shooting like crazy, whilst running in circles. However users may choose to play it out, the fact that it's still in there is a definite bonus.
Zax's raw emphasis on action is its most severe and debilitating limitation, but the simplistic, refreshing, and enjoyable control scheme by which this action is delivered is at the same time its most redeeming and distinguishing quality. If only more emphasis were placed on questing and conversational RPG-like elements, the games raging repetition would have been alleviated enough to make it an astonishing. As a shooter, it excels, but not greatly. As the action RPG it just feels like it should have been (a little due to the engine, a lot due to the design), it falls short, but shows so much potential it literally hurts. I can only pray they make a proper sequel with the same style and design, more depth than Baldur's Gate, and a supped-up combat system. But whether or not that will happen is irrelevant, the fact is, if you want a quick shooter with a solid story than check out Zax, but deep it is not.
-- Ivan Sulic
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