SEGA DREAMCAST - BLUE STINGER, The first survival horror game for the Dreamcast! Options

[T2KFreeker]

Blue Stinger, one of the launch titles for the Sega Dreamcast tells the story of a small group of people trying to survive a catastrophic asteroid hit to a research facility on an island called Dinosaur Island, the island that was believed to be the place where the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs hit millions of years earlier. The Asteroid hits and strange monsters are released out of it. You are Elliot Billot, a member of a search and rescue group that is on a vacation with your friend when the Asteroid hits and all hell breaks loose. You awaken on the shore of the island and realize it is time to act. Get help and try and rescue those that may have survived. Plus try and find out the mystery of if your friend Mike has survived the Asteroid hit.

Believe me, Blue Stinger is a well put together game as the island is massive and full of some seriously deranged monsters, most of the main ones looking like a strange mix between Resident Evils zombies and the monster from John Carpenters "The Thing", and that's not a bad thing as they look quite bizarre and sinister. The island itself can hinder you as well as it is locked down due to the Asteroid hit, so expect alot of hunts for key cards and codes do you can make your way through the Hell that is Blue Stinger. Don't worry though, Billot will have some help on the way from Dogs Bauser, who actually is pretty useless except for one part of the game, and Jineanne King, who again, is just another character in the background of the story, but they keep the story moving and also help to keep the cinematics from becoming useless. Then there is Nephlam, one of the aliens and she seems to be helping Elliot along, or is she? You'll have to play the game to find out.

The gameplay is pretty well put together for the most part in the US version, which is what I am reviewing as the Japanese version has some seriously screwed up camera angles and is sadly mostly unplayable because of this. The US version has some better camera mechanics, but they are far from perfect, so I will get this out of the way now. If there is anything that hinders Blue Stinger, it is the jerky camera. Sadly, there are still a few places that the camera really makes it difficult to play the game, but again, once you get used to the way the camera controls, the story in the game will keep you wanting to play. Running around is easy for the most part except for tight places where the camera goes psychotic with horrid angles. Fi9ghting is pretty simple, especially when you get so many weapons to choose from in two different categories as well, you have just your weapon, and then your close range weapon, and believe me, a laser stun sword or even an aluminum bat can make all the difference in this game as the monsters can get pretty hairy, especially when they are in groups. Getting new items is almost fun too as that is controlled for the most part by buying items from vending machines placed all over the island. Let me tell you though, the day I can walk up to a vending machine in real life and buy ammo for a sub machine gun, I am so moving underground. Also, money isn't a problem as when you kill monsters, money shoots up into the air from the bodies. I know, seems cheesey, and it is, but it works.

The controls are nice for the most part. Fighting is pretty straight forward and easy to pick up on. Moving works out well also. The only real problem I have with the controls is swimming. Not that you do a whole lot of it in the game, but there is one key place in the game where you do and I warn you, this gets frustrating as it is the on ly place in the game I had to get a walkthrough to figure it out because the controls for the swimming are crap! I almost stopped playing the game and am glad that I didn't as the story going on was worth finishing the game for. The controls dfo what they are supposed to do for the most part though and it is nice to see a third person game with some well defined game play in that respect.

The sound is awesome in Blue Stinger. This is actually the main place where this game shines as it really helps with the cinematics as well, adding life to the surroundings, especially when you get to the shopping areas and get the nice Mall Christmassy Muzak, it makes you almost think of George Romero's "Dawn Of The Dead", so the tip of the hat there was really nice to see. I was happy with this game, again, not perfect, but very entertaining and worth a look see. The saddest thing here is that there was no sequel to the game with fixed cameras and nicer controls in the swimming area as the game was begging for a sequel. Especially since the game generally goes for less than $5.00 these days, I would pick it upa and check it out if you haven't.

Graphics: 7 (Would have been an eight if not for camera issues)
Sound: 10
Controls: 8
Fun Factor: 7
Replay: 7

This post has been edited by T2KFreeker: Oct 25 2008, 01:41 PM

Attached File(s)

 Blue_Stinger.jpg ( 57.17K ) Number of downloads: 6
 Blue_Stinger_2.jpg ( 43.11K ) Number of downloads: 9
 Blue_Stinger_3.jpg ( 53.17K ) Number of downloads: 7
 Blue_Stinger_4.jpg ( 53.46K ) Number of downloads: 7
 Blue_Stinger_5.jpg ( 48.58K ) Number of downloads: 3
 Blue_Stinger_6.jpg ( 22.61K ) Number of downloads: 7
 Blue_Stinger_7.jpg ( 9.84K ) Number of downloads: 10

 

[kgenthe]

This was on of my first Dreamcast games I got back in '99 (with the excellent Tokyo Xtreme Racer being the first) and I played it a lot. I never beat it (not sure how far I got). I remember this game getting a lot of bad to mediocre reviews from the magazines. I always thought it was great. Slick and clean visuals with great sound and easy enough controls. Not sure if I'll ever play it again (dozens of other untouched Dreamcast games need my attention), but good review!

[T2KFreeker]

This was on of my first Dreamcast games I got back in '99 (with the excellent Tokyo Xtreme Racer being the first) and I played it a lot. I never beat it (not sure how far I got). I remember this game getting a lot of bad to mediocre reviews from the magazines. I always thought it was great. Slick and clean visuals with great sound and easy enough controls. Not sure if I'll ever play it again (dozens of other untouched Dreamcast games need my attention), but good review!

Welcome, even though you have been here for awhile. I am very glad that you enjoyed the review as well. I love the game and enjoy it when people enjoy when I write.