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Philosoma--First-generation Playstation shooter

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: October 10, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Philosoma was one of the first games developed for Sony's Playstation videogame console. Though its age can be seen today, it still holds appeal for fans of the shooter genre.

In Philosoma, a brilliant game which combines futuristic spacecraft shooting action with exciting cinematics, you play the part of a fighter squadron pilot. Your squadron is dispatched to respond to an emergency call on a mining planet. The story unfolds around the game, seamlessly blending gameplay and cinematics.

During gameplay, you control your A-37 Strega fighter craft. You will be playing from many viewpoints in this game, predominantly traditional horizontal/vertical viewpoints, but also including front/rear views, and all-new kinds of views. You have four types of weapons, pretty standard shooter stuff there, and can carry bombs.

The story is well done in comparison to other titles brought to America from Japan. The dialogue is done very well. The plot is really creepy and keeps your interest held. It involves strange, hostile biological creatures taking control of the people and machinery on the planet.

Philosoma today looks a little old, especially to younger players, but if you like good old 2D shooters it's really a fun game.

Superb Classic!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: July 20, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I bought this game from a local video rental shop about, oh, ten years ago? This game is very appealing from the moment the game loads up. Even the main menu looks great!

What I really love about this game is that it never stops until it's beat. It may take about two hours or so, but that's two hours well spent. In between every stage, you might expect a score card or a mission briefing to load up. Instead, you get cinematic scenes that start seamlessly where the stage ends, straight up to more action.

As is a staple to shooter games, there are plenty of pick-up bonus to aid you. These bonuses can be used to power up one of your four different and unique weapons, or to add missiles, bombs and shields.

The AI is lacking, making much of their moves very predictable. Most enemies can be struck down in a split-second. Even so, you still have to watch for the random plasma bullet. Bosses are fun. Each has a variety of maneuvers and as you progress, they become much more creative in both design, and their methods used to destroy you.

The story is really sci-fi. Even though I've played through the entire game about five or six times, I cannot grasp the plot. I find the imagery by itself explains a lot, but overall, it seems too "out there" to me. I think the fact that I grew up playing games before I could read accounts to the fact that I don't pay too much attention the the stories in them.

Even though it's been two full generations, I will rate the graphics. Sure, they pale in comparison to PS3 and X-Box 360, but who's doesn't? Each enemy in the game looks different and good detail went into each of them. The movie intermissions, as I said earlier, are integrated right into the game play. If you are watching someone play the game, it may be like enjoying a movie.

My only gripe with the game is that saving is almost non-existent. In the main menu after you've beaten the game is the only time you can save the game. The only purpose of saving is so that you can watch all the cinematic scenes, from first to last, in the order they occurred. Good if you have the memory, but back in the PS1 days, when Gran Turismo took up five of your fifteen slots, it wasn't worth the money for a new memory card.

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