You'd have thought after the last harrowing few weeks of Fallout 3, that I'd have promised myself only positive videogame experiences for the rest of 2009. I am seemingly not that kind to myself. For the last few days (since finishing Resi 5 really) i've been playing/enduring a Dreamcast game called Kiss Psycho Circus: the Nightmare Child. And what a fucking nightmare it's been.
Ostensibly a first person shooter/mythical quest type thing, the game has very tenuous links to the band Kiss. You might find a jukebox or stereo which will play a kiss song. As the player, you go around collecting pieces of Kiss costumes... Ace Frehley's platform boots, Gene Simmon's shoulder pads or Peter Criss's cod-piece.
The game is just a tedious run through of a middle of the road, dated, FPS. Some of the game's monsters are pretty well designed, some of the landscapes boldly coloured in psychedelic hues, which make it alright to look at, graphically a kind of cross between Half Life and the more trippy boss levels in NiGHTS.
But the game gives you nothing for your dogged completion of levels. If you die you get put back a long way, meaning the replaying of elements of the game over, and over, and over again. The story is literally one of the most convoluted pieces of bullshit ever, one that I can't be bothered to relate. The cutscenes are minimal, there's nothing to unlock or collect and the boss battles are never really going to inspire. After literally hours of playing through seventeen, long, long levels, the game just fizzled out with one of the most boring and simple boss fights ever. Nothing memorable at all.
I was hoping for a Dreamcast revelation, a repeat of the joy I found when I played 'SOTB: Gut's Rage' last year. but the only joy I had from completing this game is knowing that I beat it and I'll never have to play it again!
