Project Number 3 (P.N.03) arrives at a time when the Gamecube is stifled with cross platform releases. The game is the first of the much publicised Capcom projects to be released in Japan, and as such has received a great deal of attention on the Gamestyle front page.
Throw in the fact that Shinji Mikami and Hiroyuki Kobayashi are both heavily involved, and you should have a recipe for success but does the finished product live up to expectations?
You take the role of Vanessa Z. Schneider, who without question is the sexiest and coolest video game character Ive ever controlled. There is no single reason for this, but Vanessa remains an enigma throughout P.N.03, maintaining an air of mystery, enforced by her lack of speech. You cannot categorise her easily because she is fully clad in her skin-tight suit and displays few emotions, but after the opening sequence you become transfixed. The uninitiated may think this sounds clinical and boring, but as she's permanently grooving, twisting and shaking her thing to the beat; Vanessa certainly isnt easily dismissed. P.N.03 is set in the future where planetary defences rely totally on the CAMS (Computer Arms Management System) however as in Terminator, the machines have decided to take control, killing all the planetary population in the process. The military decide that the best option is to send down one soldier to infiltrate the system. The logical candidate is Vanessa Z Schneider who wants revenge for the murder of her parents.
Unsurprisingly P.N.03 relies on futuristic indoor environments that have been influenced by computer architecture. The rooms that you pass through are extremely bare, as if they were designed for maintenance access and drenched in bleach to keep them spotless. Picture a whitewashed Deathstar interior with a hint of Tron, but outside a desert wasteland, complete with swirling sandstorms, and you have the template for both environments in P.N.03 Admittedly neither is extremely memorable or offers a wide range of variables, but P.N.03 does not rely on scenic beauty; here the action takes precedence. Many of the rooms are repeated throughout the overall structure and combined with the pulses of light on certain floors, enforce the feeling that you are within the machine.
The lack of variety is disappointing especially for a game, which played on the easiest setting will only take a couple of hours to complete, however corridors and shooting are two elements which have featured in some of the greatest video games. Level 6 is an exception as the environment takes on a Metropolis feel as you navigate bridges with a city backdrop. Only then do you realise that you are within a city -even if it is devoid of human life. First impressions may suggest a heavy dosage of Phantasy Star Online or Konamis forthcoming Cy Girls with the emphasis on action. Yet in fact P.N.03 has gone back to the old values of 2D shooters and brought these kicking and screaming into the 128bit era, with a funky beat and a style more akin to the dance floor.
There is nothing more to P.N.03 except the fundamentals of shooting and moving. The game provides an arcade buzz, which I haven't felt in ages, and if this was the developers aim, then they have succeeded. The action does indeed come thick and fast as CAMS dispatches a contingent of robotic enemies for you to destroy. Each of the machines delivers a basic or special attack, and can either be ground, air or turret based. Since the special attacks can be quite devastating these are obviously best avoided or the source killed quickly. The machines have a habit of suddenly materialising in front of you or forming small groups within rooms; the action and speed can be exhilarating. The robotic foes are not especially blessed with complex AI but their sheer number and firepower makes up for this deficiency.
Unfortunately the bosses at the end of each level are ultimately disappointing as the first few are original, but later bosses are more complex versions of these. Initially youll be lulled into thinking havent I faced you before? before it unleashes a new attack or evolves into a new form. The final boss however is an entirely different matter. P.N.03 is broken down into a series of levels, which total 11 overall, and these are broken down again into a series of rooms. A level may offer 20 rooms for you to negotiate or even only 10, but you are judged on each room. After exiting you are awarded points on your performance, which includes the number of enemies killed, time taken and combos. Also available is a no damage bonus and an applicable ranking (professional, regular, rookie, amateur) with bonus. The concept behind the points system is that between levels or at certain special globes you can purchase a variety of items. These include continues or more importantly individual suits and the ability to power up.
Each suit is graded on certain abilities (barrier, palm shot, automatic, energy) and offers two distinctive special attacks (called Energy Drives) that deplete the power meter. When first purchased each suit is at its minimum capability and only by spending can you increase its effectiveness. There are three classifications of suits and three types within this plus bonus outfits such as the Blackbird (available after completing the game), which offer you the ultimate all in one suit of destruction. Visually, each is wonderfully designed and if you find yourself struggling on a level, you might want to consider powering up or changing suit.If you judge P.N.03 on the basis of the easiest difficulty setting then you are quite simply missing out on the challenge offered by the Normal or Hard settings both of which are formidable.
Vanessa has the ability to lock onto her targets from a great distance without any input from yourself. This leaves you free to concentrate on avoiding incoming fire, collecting orbs and basically showing off. The action soon becomes a John Woo inspired ballet, with Vanessa spinning and cart wheeling to perfection. Unlike Rez there is no relation to the music, as it only maintains the tempo, but it is original and effective. The combo system relies on you finding targets before the timer reaches zero in order to increase the combo score. The advantage of this is that you find yourself upping the action, hunting targets to increase your score and not avoiding them.
Capcom have a history of producing unresponsive and uncontrollable main characters however Vanessa is a step in the right direction. She is beautifully animated and presented, but more than this the controller is ideally suited. Vanessa is unable to fire and move at the same time but what critics fail to take into account is that many of Vanessas movements involve 360-degree rotations, and this would break up the flow of the action and quite possibly prevent players from using such moves. Personally I dislike the fact that one press of the shoulder button results in a spin in that direction, but to use the cartwheel you must wait until that move is almost finished before pressing the shoulder button once more. Its not possible to press the shoulder button twice and receive the cartwheel from the off strange but true.
Ignoring the excellent lighting effects and cut sequences, P.N.03 fails to push the hardware to new limits as the detail and textures are average, with the anti-aliasing also worthy of criticism. The level structure is linear, repetitive and at times fairly predictable. Some may even complain about length of the game, but this is no epic release and probably wont appeal to the masses as such. The enjoyment comes from rising to the challenge, defeating the enemy and savouring the adrenaline rush. Overall P.N.03 may not offer anything new, but the combination of old values, futuristic looks and game play has made this one of the most satisfying Gamecube releases of late.For this review I used the Freeloader product from Datel and encountered no problems whatsoever. The menus are in English and only the CODEC inspired snippets, which drive the story are in Japanese making P.N.03 ideal for import.
