Hybrid Heaven

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About Hybrid Heaven

Amazon.com Hybrid Heaven apparently derives its name from the different genres involved, including role-playing games (RPGs), action, and fighting. This dynamic combination is most notable in the game's battle mode. Enter a room containing an enemy, and battle mode is activated, presenting you with action-interrupting onscreen choices to fight, defend, or evade. Each of these choices has many associated subchoices, drilling down to the nth degree and, in effect, squashing the game's enjoyment value. The story, conveyed in the game's painfully long opening cinematic sequence (and not found in the manual), features an American secret agent who walks around his apartment naked, and is then shot in a New York subway. Strangely, players take control of the shooter, guiding him through sparsely populated hallways in an underground facility that breeds human clones and other biological anomalies. This game is slow and tedious, but may appease RPG fans who have been looking for some dodecahedron dice-rolling fun on their Nintendo 64. An expansion pack can be used for a higher resolution mode and a letterboxed view. The game does have some merit, being a unique title and attempting to tackle a grandiose plot line, but in the end, Hybrid Heaven is a bit too convoluted. --Jeff Young Pros: Interesting mix of game genres An odd, yet intricate storyline may have lost a bit of congruity in translation from JapaneseCons: Slow pace Strange interface Unexciting graphics Product description small rip on front label and large rip on back label Review Hybrid Heaven is an unholy union of a few different genres. The RPG aspect is represented in the game's numbers-based approach to stats and level-ups, as well as in the menu-based fighting. The fighting-game genre peeks through a little bit in the game's combo system. The third-person adventure line makes up most of the rest of the game, forcing you to run around, climb onto boxes, hit buttons, and yes, shimmy sideways until there is room. Whether you like one or all of these types of games, Hybrid Heaven combines them in such a way that locks it firmly in the stack of games that were interesting attempts, but it ultimately isn't good for more than a rental. The story is as confused as the game is. It starts off rather mysteriously, and doesn't really let you know what's going on until you're about four or five hours in. It seems that there's a secret group of synthetic humans living under Manhattan. They're working to replace the President with one of their synthetic human hybrids.They plan to take control of Earth's largest military force, then rule the world, ultimately making it a safe place for clones. Without giving away too much of the story, you play as Mr. Diaz, a blonde-haired hybrid with a penchant for face paint. You've just shot and killed the clone that the hybrids were using to get close to the President. Needless to say, the rest of your posse isn't exactly happy about your sudden change of heart. From there, the story bogs down with long-winded (and unskippable) cutscenes that detail all sorts of weirdo alien influence. The wording and punctuation used in these cutscenes are pretty atrocious in some parts, ranking up there with Metal Gear on the NES on the laugh-o-meter. The gameplay starts out with you running around in a Tomb Raider-esque fashion. Armed only with your extremely silly defuser pistol, you run around and shoot little bubbles at sensors, security systems, and doors. Some doors require a key code, so you'll have to find a key-code-refreshing station to get the latest code put onto your all-purpose key. As you aimlessly run around the complex, you'll run into scientists who help you out with occasional information and other cutscenes. You'll also run into rooms with monsters in them. That's when the fighting portion of the game takes over. The fights are a little tough to sum up. It's like an RPG fighting system that takes place all in real time, and you can move wh