The Scourge Project : Episode 1&2

Gamer On Tuesday, November 8, 2011

The Scourge Project : Episode 1&2 (PC/FullIso/Multi)

Game Platforme(s) : PC | Language : Multi (5) | Release Date : Apr 9, 2010
Publisher : BITBOX S.L. | Developer : Tragnarion Studios | Genre : Sci-Fi First-Person Shooter
Size : 4 Gb

Although billed as The Scourge Project: Episodes 1 & 2, there is no way to buy this game in separate installments. With no future episodes currently planned, it seems strangely pretentious to package this as two chapters when it is, for all intents and purposes, a single game. If you want The Scourge Project, prepare to drop twenty dollars on the full package. Take it from me, though -- you don't want this.

The story, what there is of it, involves an evil corporation doing terrible experiments, because that's what happens in 90% of all videogames ever made. You take on the role of Echo Squad, a band of four mercenaries hired by the Tarn Initiative to put a stop to the bad guys. It's never really explained who the bad guys are, who the good guys are, or why you should care about anything. All you ever get to know is that things happen and people say stuff. It'll be hard to concentrate anyway, since the FMV cutscenes are so badly compressed that you'll be busy shielding your eyes. The Scourge Project is basically Gears of War, but not as good. It's a cover-based third-person-shooter and it never deviates from the beaten path. From start to finish, the entire game is about running, hiding, and shooting. In a game with tight controls, interesting weapons, a semblance of plot or even great graphics, this might not be such a bad thing. However, Scourge Project lacks all of those things, leading to an entire experience that could be categorized as mediocre if we're feeling generous. Inhumanly generous.

Up to four players can co-operate through the game's mercifully short campaign, and you'll need them because Scourge Project's AI is, quite literally, the worst I have ever seen in a game. Enemies and allies alike possess the reasoning ability of a goldfish being swung around on the end of some string. Most of the time, both sides of the fight are content to run around the map without any reasoning behind their actions. AI partners won't revive each other when they fall, and they only revive the player if they feel like it. Sometimes I'll be downed -- which happens often because characters have the HP of a fly -- and an ally will simply stand and watch.

Most of the time, a single AI ally will break off from the other three and run headlong into a hail of enemy fire. The ones who are slightly less suicidal will frequently run in front of the player, soaking up friendly fire and generally obscuring the view of targets. One character threw a grenade into a wall so it bounced back and exploded the team. Another stopped fighting and chose instead to smash his crotch into a metal box. It would almost be funny if the checkpoints weren't few and far between, the enemy strength so imbalanced, and the player characters so prone to collapsing after absorbing three seconds of gunfire. Ostensibly, you spend the whole game backed up by the cast of Police Academy, and it's inexcusably terrible.

Most of the game is spent babysitting these fools as they fight an army of slightly more intelligent, but no less exasperating, morons. If you happen to get gunned down, it's not uncommon to see a "Fail Conga" where one ally will run in to revive you, suffer the same fate you did, then wait for the next ally to run in and get mowed down too, followed by the fourth and final idiot. They don't think to clear the area of enemies first. They simply run into the same danger spot without a care in the world. You can't issue orders, and characters lack the ability to see what you're doing and act the same way. You have the ability to generate a shield, for example, but your allies will, without fail, run straight through it so they can fill themselves full of enemy and ally bullets. It's simply unbelievable. AI was better than this two generations ago. I don't know how characters like this exist in 2010, unless they were programmed by a kindergarten special ed class.

System Requirements

* Os : Windows XP (SP3)/Vista/Win 7

* Processor : CPU Intel Core2Duo 1.8 GHz or AMD CPU

* Graphic Card : 256 MB (with Pixel Shader 3.0)

* Memory : 1 GB RAM (Windows XP) / 2 GB RAM (Windows Vista and Windows 7)

* HDD : 5.4 GB free Space Drive

* Sound Card : DirectX 9.0c Compatible

* DirectX@ : DirectX 9.0c

* Keyboard/Mouse

* DVD-Rom Drive