Written 9/18/99 Platform: PC Genre: Action/Adventure Subgenre: FPS Minimum requirements Win95 P166MHz 32MB RAM 120MB hard drive space 4x CD-ROM Recomended system Windows 2000 PVI 133 GHz 8 GB RAM nVidia NV-20 Before I get into this review, I just want to say that I'm reviewing the demo. The demo may be better or worse than the full version, but I believe first impressions are very important, so a demo is a vital part to selling a game. Now onto the review. GRAPHICS This game shares a lot of traits with the older non-accelerated games of a few years ago. They looked like crap and had choppy framerates. First and foremost, the framerates. Tresspasser has a software mode, but unless you have several thousand P3's hooked together, you can forget about it. On my Celeron366 MHz with a Riva TNT and 128 MB of RAM, I had to go to 640x480. My system isn't the most powerful rig out there, but it's no slouch. When a 3D accelerated game slows down my system this much, then there's a problem. Unless you have a supercomputer, don't expect this thing to be playable in 800x600. As for the actual graphics, the enviroments are well detailed, with rocks, trees, boulders, and other crap all over the ground. Unfortunately, the textures are highly pixelated. Sad, really. If it wasn't so damn pixelated and had better framerates, then this could've been the highlight of the game. And last but not least, a few thumbnailed screenshots. The more, uhhhh, exciting part of the game is the heart health meter on your character's breast, as can be seen in the first pic.       SOUND The sound isn't bad, but it isn't great either. The weapons and dinosaurs sound realistic, and there voice-overs are okay. Pretty much the standard fare for FPS games. Make sure to at least have a subwoofer so you can here the nice lows. The only music I heard was at the end of the demo, but it was good. CONTROL The main character can do a lot more than fire a gun. She can lift and carry boxes, barrels, and whatever, but not if it exceeds the maximum wieght that she can carry. She can push and pull objects, and can alter the enviroment in some way. For example, she can push boxes off of the platform and, in order to get down, she must shoot the mobile home so it rocks and it's foundation breaks. It then rolls down and stops short of the platform pillars by a boulder. It may take a while to get used to, but it's pretty nice. GAME PLAY This is Tresspasser's high point. They phsyics are almost perfect. When holding a gun, the character waves it around when walking. The bullet doesn't just fly straight, and when shot, the dinosaur reacts accordingly. The gun's recoil will throw your aim off a bit, especially with the machine gun. When dropped, objects bounce around like they would in real life. If you slam your gun against an object such as a box, then you'll drop it. The difficulty is also fairly high. Unlike most FPSs, when you fall, you don't lose some health; you lose your life. Ammo for guns don't just lay wherever, and you can't hold more guns then God. A lot of times I found myself killed because I ran out of ammo. There were times in Tresspasser when I almost had to step away from the monitor to get a breath of fresh air and a drink. One time I got off the platform and ran, in the wrong direction. The velocaraptors didn't appear to be following me, so I didn't worry about them. Then, I find that the road is blocked, and I turn around. There were three of them just standing there. Then they slowly moved forward. I couldn't escape, and I knew what was gonna happen, but they just moved very slowly. There's very little blood in the game, but that sickened me. Tresspasser's game play is so good, yet it all comes crashing down (no pun intended) when it crashes. The demo isn't overly long, but what could've taken 25 minutes took half of the night. The game crashes waaaaaaaaaayyy too often. COMMENTS Tresspasser could have been great, but due to the crappy textures, slow framerates, and instability, I would feel guilty reccomending this to anybody. This game might be enjoyable when the technology can handle this game, but at this point, it pretty much sucks. On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being the lowest: Graphics = 4.5 Sound = 7.5 Control = 8.3 Game Play = 5.0 Average score = 6.3 Also, I forgot to add that this game is based in the Jurrasic Park universe.