Galerians (PlayStation) review "Overview: "

Overview:

Scare factor: 6
Fun factor: 6
Replay value: 4
Graphics: 8
Sound: 7
Overall: 7

Well, this game is very interesting. It is like no other game out there. The storyline is completely different from anything I've ever seen, and for that, I give it a lot of credit.

The story is very in-depth. The game is set in the future and you control a boy named Rion. He wakes up in a hospital bed and has no idea what's going on. The only thing he remembers is his name. He then notices that he has strange psychic powers that he can use to kill baddies or to unlock things. He also has a power called 'sense' and you can use it on certain items to use them or to find a clue about how to use them, it works good with puzzles and unlocking things. It turns out that there's a computer named Dorothy that was created by Rion's father and a Dr. Pascalle. The computer was programmed to think for itself and it began to ask questions about the relationship between people and computers. Dorothy began to think of herself as superior to humans and wondered why she couldn't kill them. She began to control the computer systems at the hospital and experiment on the human genetics. She created a race of humans with psychic powers known as the Galerians, so that she could be their god. Rion has a virus activator programmed into his head which can eliminate Dorothy when used with the virus program which is in the head of Pascalle's daughter, Lilia. Rion has the power to stop Dorothy and the power to bring down the other Galerians, since he, too, has the psychic abilities. Normal humans would be no match for the Galerians, so Rion must put a stop to them in order to save humankind. Rion uses a beeject gun to inject himself with chemicals that help stimulate his psychic powers and he takes medicine to either decrease his AP or increase his HP. When his AP gauge fills up he ''shorts out'', which means that his psychic abilities have reached their peak, so basically almost all of the enemies around Rion will explode when they come near him because there's a sort of force-field of energy around him. The bad thing about shorting out is that it will gradually take away Rion's HP.

The graphics in this game, especially the cinematics, are pretty good for being a PSX game. Sometimes, though, rooms and areas in the game can look a bit bland and boring. They could have put a bit more effort into adding some color and detail to spice things up a bit. Also, the monsters from the different areas of the game are repeated a bit, so fighting them can seem tedious and boring at times. Even though there are a few things that could have used improving, the sound is also pretty good. The game has ambient sounds that fill the background and give it a bit of a creepy space-age atmosphere. Also, the voice acting wasn't too bad either. You can tell they actually put some effort into showing emotions with the characters, some games don't even go that far.

This game has some pretty confusing maps sometimes though, which is probably one of the major weaknesses of the game in my point of view. Sometimes the hallways start to look the same and you might get lost. There's a map in the corner of the screen which would seem like a good idea, except that the map doesn't show your location or the direction that you're facing. Instead, it highlights the room or hallway that you're in. So that can be a bit confusing and aggravating to try to figure that out all the time.

Overall, I'd say this game is good, but not exactly 'the best' game I've ever played. It was a first step into a different feel for survival horror though, so it deserves some credit. It took a completely different idea and put it out on the market. Kind of a sleeper title, but worth a look if you are up for something different than shooting zombies, (even though that never gets old), and you don't want to pay more for the sequel on the PS2.

Community review by jill (July 31, 2003) A bio for this contributor is currently unavailable, but check back soon to see if that changes. If you are the author of this review, you can update your bio from the Settings page.