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Apart from the clever concept and excellent area design, Project Eden excels at the little things that matter so much. For one, it's clearly been designed and well tested so that it's impossible to "break". You can't shoot civilians, you can't shoot your team mates, and I found it impossible to break the game by doing things in the wrong order. They've also removed a possible frustration by adding regeneration terminals to the game. These mean it doesn't matter if a character dies as they just take a few seconds to regenerate at the last Regen Pod you passed. In fact, at times they're even useful if you want to get to somewhere near the Regen Pod quickly - just chuck the relevant character off a great height and voila, you're back at the Regen Pod! There's also a handy feature that lets you have nearby squad members follow the one you're currently controlling. For once there aren't any nasty problems with the game resulting from its console roots. In fact, only good things came from its console roots. The save files are minuscule at around 10k each, and quick saving and quick-loading is instantaneous. I only have two minor complaints. Controlling things with the mouse can be a touch odd. You can switch between third and first person, but you'll want to hit buttons in first person mode because in third person mode the crosshair isn't necessarily centred on exactly what you think it is, which can be frustrating if you need to do something quickly. The otherwise surprisingly good voice acting is also ruined by Carter. Whoever voiced him single-handedly redefined the term "overacting" by NEEDlessly overEMPHAsising HALF of his LINES.
I'll let them off for these minor flaws though, because the rest of the game is such an enjoyable and unique challenge with an interesting and original story. They've even included a surprising amount of multiplayer content. There are numerous deathmatch levels which prove interesting if short lived diversions thanks to unique weapons like the beam gun that slows down whatever it targets, leaving them open to attack by another beam weapon that sucks the life out of them and increases your weapon energy at the same time! There's even a cute race-course with the rover which is good for a brief bit of multiplayer silliness. Of course, you can do the entire game co-op, which is great to see as I'm a huge fan of co-op games, though you'll want all co-op players to have completed the game before so no player has to wait too long for another to complete a puzzle. There aren't many games that offer so much in a single package - action, creative yet logical puzzle solving, and even a multiplayer aspect. Core Design have in one fell swoop shaken off their reputation as a one trick pony, and from now on I'll take more interest in their future titles. I might even give the next Tomb Raider title the benefit of the doubt...
The Verdict: Project Eden is a very good game that somehow falls just short of being an instant classic. But who cares. If the concept takes your fancy, buy it, you'll thank me.
By Pete Closs
Editor
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