Gorky Zero: Beyond Honor Review

A review by Barnes

Gorky Zero is an interesting game, its apparently part stealth, part action game, the best place to start is the story i quote directly from the back of the game box:

"Intelligence reports out of the former Soviet Union tell about a mysterious and dangerous sect which deprives people of their own personality and turns them into obedient human robots. The European Union secret council decides that there is no time for official action. General Evan McCorkick, Special Forces commander briefs his best man to finally make this delicate mission a success. After infultrating a secret laboratory and set on the task to destroy the operation there, Cole Sullivan discovers more and more of the real truth behind his mission. The evidence he uncovers tells a story that is different from the version told by his superiors.

Survival now comes down to trust - no one...."

So, its Metal Gear with zombies then??

its a shame to start a review on such a downward note but this game really is a disappointment, whilst not necessarily being bad it is very clunky in its construction, i'll explain myself further as the review goes on, its a shame because the plot and the first few cut scenes start to tell an interesting story, but the gameplay has turned me off so badly that i dont think i can be bothered to struggle my way through the game just to discover the story...

I should have known not to expect one of the greatest games ever when i read that the specification requirements were so low, five years ago this game would have been cutting edge... It's not anymore!!!

The Gameplay is slow, the movements and general actions in the game are limited, your character can move at 3 speeds, run, walk and stealth, each gives off a different sized noice circle on your radar, running being really noisy, and stealth being silent. You are given a variety of weapons during the game, from a knife through to a pistol, shotgun, rifle, and also explosives, your movement is limited by having to turn the mouse to alter direction, so no quick altering of course, no sudden changes or quick fluid running. No, just slow clunky action. Shooting has never been more difficult, you can aim at people no problems, i've been reading the manual and apparently the longer you aim the better the chance you have of gettinga critical hit.. i'd say more Hit and Miss than Critical, not easy at all. all commands and actions are laboured and nothing comes fluently, it's a very frustrating game to play!

The Levels are pretty enough but are a mix and match of generic evil lab 1 to junkyard 3. Nothing special. Route's are pretty easily and clearly layed out on the radar so there really is no difficulty in working out which way to go. This I think is part of the problem, I wouldn't have tried to sell GZ as a tactical stealth game, i'd have marketed it as a puzzle game, its more akin to Commando's than to Metal Gear or Splinter Cell there are far better tactical and stealth games around for GZ to even try and tread water with the big boys!

Sound and audio are good, voice acting is strong and well put together, as I said before the best part of this game is the story, its quite good and I can see it having been done quite well (its very reminiscent of the first level of Timesplitters 2 for anyone who's played that before). The voice acting is well produced and carries the cut scenes along well.

Now for the real failing of the game AI. The game suffers really badly with enemies who seem oblivious to the bullets whistling past their head but will run to the exact spot your hiding in if you are unfortunate enough to make a noise. They patrol a set route and will spot you from impossible angles and open fire, there's no give in the AI, its very very difficult, as I mentioned before, its far more of a puzzle game than a tactical one!

Overall Gorky Zero shows its not the most engrossing of games, its got very little replay value if playing value in the first place, there are a lot better games out there on the market, and my advice would be that if your given the game to play, then give it a try but don't waste your money on buying what is at best an average game.