Transformers: All Hail Megatron volume 1 (comics)

Writer: Shane McCarthy
Artist: Guido Guidi
Collects: Transformers: All Hail Megatron #1-6

Everyone loves a good villain, right? They're an important part of almost any fiction and a good villain is important to establishing a good hero. Just look at Batman; the character's one of the richest in fiction, but his villains are also some of the best and help make his mythos as interesting as they are.

Transformers aren't exactly lacking for good villains. Either major Megatron (G1 or Beast Wars, for those unfamiliar) rank among memorable villains and the rest of their squads aren't slouches either. But let's face it; they don't exactly come out on top much. For the most part, like many 80's cartoons, the villains didn't get that many victories and the franchise has followed suit.

But what if that was different? What if Megatron and the Decepticons came out on top, just this once? That's the premise of All Hail Megatron; and honestly, so far it's pretty interesting.

The series doesn't really waste time with any Autobot versus Decepticon battle to show the villains winning. It effectively starts after that battle, right when the action begins. With the Autobots nowhere to be seen, Megatron arrives and swiftly takes over New York City as his base of operations, showing up the US military as a bunch of chumps. The resistance fails miserably and soon the other countries of the world are forced to consider other options. Meanwhile, the Autobots have survived, but they've been ravaged; stranded on Cybertron, they've lost definitively with no way off the planet and Optimus Prime down, forcing Jazz to take the lead.

The story essentially shifts between three real plots and sets of characters; the humans, the Decepticons and the remnants of the Autobots. The human portion is the one with the least concrete direction. You follow a central human for a while, but before you know it he's gone and it shifts to a general snapshot of the military as it deals with the sudden attack. The other two are a bit more straightforward; the Decepticons are wiping out any humans they can and the Autobots are stranded on Cybertron and trying to get their crap together. It's effective, if nothing else; the general mystery of what happened to bring this about is unfolded slowly, the pieces are put into play and the story builds.

It's something of a slow burn, really. Much of this volume sets up the situation and advances the pieces in a slow but steady manner, bringing them to interesting places by the end. If nothing else, you could say that this volume consists of the first real act of the story. But it works, as we get time to see the Decepticons in victory and are teased the possibility of mutiny thanks to the notion that what held the disparate Decepticons together was the hope of victory, leaving the question of where they go once they achieve it. It allows Jazz to show some leadership chops as well, reminding you just why the character was always one of the coolest of the franchise. It feels like one of those stories that benefits from decompression, giving the story enough time to breath before the fireworks start.

Aside from some cheesy dialogue for the humans in the early issues, there's only one thing that really bugs me about the story in this volume, which would be the fact that Optimus Prime is, once again, near death in this story. If you're a fan of the Transformers franchise at all, you've definitely seen this before, because they never let the cliche go. Optimus has died or been near death at least once in, well, pretty much every damn Transformers continuity ever made. We can all thank the original G1 movie for that; kids cried, it left an impression and suddenly no writer can resist the urge to mine that well. Personally, I'm beyond sick of it and could go without seeing Optimus die or on the brink of death ever again. It needs to be put to bed, badly.

The art is very good for the volume. Solid, consistant and colorful. Everyone looks like they should, their G1 forms brought to life on the comic page. It's nothing spectacular, but it's the kind of art that can tell a story and not stick out. For a property like Transformers, it hits the proper notes, so while you're not going to see anything defining, it does it's job.

There is one thing that's a major standout about the art though. The covers. They're simply fantastic, evoking old Soviet propaganda posters with the colors and the simplicity. Very eye-catching and evocative. I loved them.

The Verdict: Dramatic Thumbs Up

Definitely worth a read. The volume is a lot of setup, but it's the good kind. If nothing else, the premise alone makes it worth a read for a Transformers fan, as it's not often you see the Decepticons actually, you know, winning. I just hope the second volume is as good and pushes things into gear. But as far as this volume goes, it's an interesting and enjoyable read. If you're a Transformers fan, it's worth a look at the least.

Uncanny X-Men: Rise and Fall of the Shi'Ar Empire (comics)

Writer: Ed Brubaker
Artist: Billy Tan
Contains: Uncanny X-Men #475-486

Picking up where X-Men: Deadly Genesis left off, the third Summers Brother known as Vulcan has flown off into space to get revenge on the Shi'Ar for what they did to his mother and the circumstances of his birth. Professor X, now all but banished from the team he created, is no longer welcome at the X Mansion because of his mistake and choices. But with Vulcan headed for the Shi'Ar, where his ex-wife rules, he cannot let it stand. He rounds up the few X-Men still loyal to him and heads off into space, looking to stop Vulcan and fix his mistakes.

This is one of those volumes that depends largely on what kind of X-Men reader you are. Or more to the point, what kind of X-Men story you prefer. This is of the X-Men space epic variety of story without a shadow of a doubt and about ninety percent of the twelve issues comprising the storyline take place in space. If the space adventures of Marvels mutants were never your thing, this story probably isn't going to change your mind. If you like them in any fashion, however, this will probably go over quite well with you.

The story is quite long, clocking in at the aforementioned twelve issues, but collected as it is it doesn't feel overly so. Ed Brubaker is great at plotting stories and space adventures with the X-Men are a perfect fit for his usual tropes, considering much of the Shi'Ar are embroiled in politics and attempted coup's. He uses the large amount of space allotted to him well, juggling different plotlines and bringing in many of the disparate elements that populated past space stories. Hell, even the Skrull are involved to a very minor extent. The story is a slow build, but an engaging one that never lost me as a reader. On top of that, the story does bring about changes to the typical status quo of the Shi'Ar, which was welcome (these changes play out in other books once this story wraps, I understand).

The group of X-Men chosen for the story are interesting, to say the least. The highest profile character of the entire group is Nightcrawler, the rest of the crew otherwise made of C to D list X-Men. On the one hand, it might be somewhat off-putting, but personally I grew attached to several of the characters over the course of the story, so Bru seems to do well with them. It also serves a good story purpose as well; the Professor is not the most popular guy around the mansion of late, so for him to only be able to get so many makes sense. Plus, for some reason I really liked that despite everything, Nightcrawler was the one who never lost faith or affinity for the Professor.

The art by Billy Tan is very solid and colorful. Nothing I saw really sticks out as offensive or out of place and the colors are well suited. It's hard to describe the feeling I got from the artwork, but the best way I can put it is that the art in the book feels comfortable. It's not going to absolutely wow you, but it tells the story well and looks solid the entire way through. In other words, it's the kind of art that feels natural to modern comics and the kind I have something of a preference for.

If there's any real problem with the art, it's that there are a couple of pages extremely late in the book - say, the climax - that look somewhat iffy. It's nothing in an action scene, but it might still be noticeable as off. Also, a character death late in the book doesn't really come off as such. I'm glad it was a low-gore death - which is contrary to ninety percent of comic deaths these days - but the body looked almost untouched aside from some spots of blood. For that matter, the attack didn't even look lethal; I wasn't even sure the character was dead until the last few pages, simply from the lack of real indication from the art. Considering what you might see in the midst of a battle like that, he looked relatively unscathed. But these are all minor points on an otherwise solid job throughout the story.

The Score: Dramatic Thumbs Up

If you don't like space stories with the X-Men, you can certainly skip this volume as I very highly doubt it's going to change your mind. But if you don't mind a good space story or outright love them, this is a good read. I wasn't quite sure about Ed Brubaker on X-Men - it just never seemed like a franchise that would suit his style and preferences - but this wasn't your typical mutant adventure and I found myself pleasantly surprised. Recommended if you're into this sort of thing.

Joker (comics)

Writer: Brian Azzarello
Artist: Lee Bermejo
Contains: Original Graphic Novel

You'll notice right away that the word "Batman" is nowhere to be found in the title of this. It's very fitting. This is really Jokers story through and through.

The comic's story isn't straightforward in a strict sense. This is the Batman universe if you'd bathed it in noir pathos and dried it with grime. The Joker is released from Arkham without even the loosest explanation of how or why; a fitting omission, because in truth it really does not matter. The Joker is loose, he's mad and he wants to rule Gotham. We see his insanity through his henchman, Jonny Frost; a two bit thug with aspirations as high as the sky. A man who at one point wanted the sort of thing the Joker takes in the story until he slowly realizes just who and what the Joker is. This is not a crime story or a Batman story; in truth, this book is more a character study of the Joker than anything else.

In that manner, things just happen without a lot of resolution. You'll see several Batman rogues over the course of the tale and Joker will trade things, shoot people and threaten others, but we don't always get all the details. Why Joker calls Penguin "Abner", why Penguin is running a boxing gig, what Joker bought from the Riddler; all of these and some more are unresolved and given no explanation, but when you boil it down, they don't really matter either. In truth, the story itself is a ride with the Joker, diving within the depths of his madness. Little of what happens really matters; you know right from the beginning and all through Jonny acclimating to the new lifestyle that there's only one place the story can go to, but the journey there is a whirlwind and that knowledge builds the tension until the inevitable happens.

In a lot of ways, it's very fitting that this was released partially as a tie-in of sorts to "The Dark Knight". To be honest, the story feels like it could well take place down the line in that universe, sharing several similarities without ever meaning to. The Jokers look is a spot on interpretation of the Joker of the film - though this was not intentional, apparently - and the Joker here is in some ways like the Joker there. He just does things, being the tornado of chaos and insanity that he is. But this time, he's mad and focused; he takes on almost a mobster mentality in trying to take over Gotham, unwilling to let it go to the Batman. Gotham itself is less the gothic wonderland it always seems to be in most adaptions, but more the sprawling traditional city of the movie universe. The villains we see carry a similar realistic bent.

It's some measure of fun in seeing the Batman universe filtered through such dense noir pathos. Killer Croc is a black thug. The alleys are shadowed and rain slicked. Harley Quinn herself even shows up as a stripper in Jokers club, never saying a word throughout the tale while being his stalwart lackey. It's also implied she and Jokers relationship is heavily sexual. Drugs, pills and alcohol are all over. Everything carries a dark edge. It's fantastic.

As for Batman himself, he's wisely kept out of the story, for the most part. But that's not to say he's completely unmentioned. In a way, his shadow seems almost perched right outside the proceedings - in a fit of paranoia, the Joker vaguely refers to him, thinking he's watching throughout all the events that transpire - and that shadow builds until it looms large. Small hints of his presence in Gotham throughout the story culminate in the final sequence, or the point you knew the story had to reach.

Then, on top of all that is the artwork; it's simply mouth wateringly gorgeous. Everything is awash in grit and shadow, thick with atmosphere. It's simply stunning. I do not exaggerate when I say that the art is worth the price alone. It's great work that I cannot give enough praise to. In truth, it elevates the book to an even higher level than it was before.

My Opinion: Buy It

The Strange Deaths of Batman (comics)

Writers: Various
Artists: Various
Collects: Detective Comics #347, Worlds Finest Comics #184, Brave and the Bold #115, Batman #291-294, Worlds Finest Comics #269, Batman Chronicles #8 and material from Nightwing #52

This one really should have been called "The Strange Close Calls of Batman", but I suppose that doesn't sound as punchy; doesn't serve this volumes premise as a theme collection brought about by Batman RIP either.

That's the funny thing about this collection. Once you read it, you quickly realize that despite the name, there really isn't a whole lot of Batman dying going on. Out of the eight or so stories presented, he actually dies maybe twice - not counting a dream Catwoman has - and one of those are in a "what if" scenario after the main story is done. It does carry a very loose theme of death, but I find the disconnect kind of funny.

There are quite a few stories in this trade from era's past, but they were clearly picked by theme. As such, it won't surprise you to hear the quality varies from issue to issue. The story I may have enjoyed the most is the issue of "Brave and the Bold" included. In it, Batman's brain is fried by electrocution and the Atom has to shrink down, take control of Batmans dying body through stimulation of the brain and complete his last mission. The very idea is almost insane and that's what makes it fun. It feels very "seventies comic", but it's well crafted and holds up as an interesting read.

It's a bit dicier from there. The bulk of the trade (I'd estimate about half) is taken up by a tale called "Where Were You the Night Batman Died". It's from the seventies and features most of Batmans villains holding a mock trial to determine who really killed Batman, since everyone and their grandmother took credit. People familiar with Batman: The Animated Series will feel a sense of familiarity; a couple episodes seemed to take inspiration from this one. It holds up okay, though it does suffer somewhat from the dated writing style of the day.

After that, it's more a matter of personal taste. A few of the stories are from Batman's relatively forgettable Silver Age; they're alright, but not something you'll remember. There's a pretty decent 90's tale with Talia, wrestling with her fathers command to kill Batman; it's a nice enough, even if that particular thing had been done to death by then. The most modern thing in it is probably a short vignette at the end from an issue of Nightwing, where Catwoman dreams about marrying Batman and ends up killing him.

The production of this trade is pretty bad. It feels incomplete, for one thing; the covers for the given issues are nowhere to be found, which is basic trade composition in this day and age. On top of that, the trade is done on the old kind of paper that I've never been fond of. Details are missing as well; when I went to write this review, I realized that I had no idea whatsoever if the closing Catwoman six pager was a backup, part of the issue or what. To be blunt, the collection feels somewhat rushed; pushed through so it coincided with Batman RIP, a landmark story featuring the "death" of Batman. Damn shame too.

These kind of theme collections are always a crapshoot. Considering stories are often pulled from different eras, there's almost never any consistency and you don't really know what you're going to get beyond the basic theme. This wasn't one of the better efforts. Still, there's enjoyment to be had. If your interest is piqued, it might be worth a read.

My Opinion: Try It

Marvel Zombies (comics)

Writer: Robert Kirkman
Artist: Sean Phillips
Collects: Marvel Zombies #1-5

Ahh, Marvel Zombies. To say it's popularity was surprising would be an understatement. I'm not sure anyone suspected the pairing of zombies and superheroes to strike a chord with folks. Still, despite it being pretty much everywhere - from t shirts to folders - I've only just now gotten around to reading it, about as late to the party as a guy can get.

Having finished it, I've got to say that I'm not sure what the big deal was. Don't get me wrong, I'm a sucker for zombie stuff. I'm also an easy mark for superheroes, as is probably obvious. But something about this just didn't resonate with me the way it seemed to others.

In a lot of respects, this book is stupid fun. There is some small thrill to be had out of seeing recognizable and well loved Marvel superheroes as flesh eaters, which is probably a good part of what was so popular about the concept. Also, Robert Kirkman doesn't really hold back with his gross ideas; this is not Walking Dead caliber of disturbing, thankfully, but there are some darkly humerous moments to be found in the book. This is probably it's strength; if you want a cool, breezy read that you won't mind picking up, this is a book to check out. But on the same token, it doesn't ever actually try to do anything interesting beyond the fun of it's surface concept and it does have flaws.

I think the main flaw of Marvel Zombies is the story, or really, the fact that there isn't one. We start out where Ultimate Fantastic Four's arc "Crossover" - the arc that introduced the concept - left us, with the dimensional portal closed and Magneto alone. For maybe eight or nine pages we follow him as he attempts to stay alive in the midst of the zombie heroes, but it ends abruptly. From that point on, we follow the zombie heroes as look for more food, fight the Silver Surfer and Galactus and half-heartedly try to figure out their zombie condition a bit too long after the fact. Sure, we later get a couple pages of the Black Panther and the last couple surviving humans and mutants, but it's a pittance late in the book. The story never really goes anywhere or does anything beyond "zombies kill everything and try to eat everything"; which is fun, but makes the book on the whole largely forgettable.

In this vein, Marvel Zombies greatest strength is also it's biggest weakness. On the one hand, it's rather unique in your average monster or zombie project to have the focus be on the monsters. In fact, it's what some fans absolutely demand out of some franchises. But here it leaves the story to remain one note. I thought for a while that perhaps it was just because of a lower investment in the characters - while I like Marvel a good deal, I'm more of a DC guy - but realized that wasn't really the problem. In truth, this series really could have used more of the human perspective to really make it shine. Going back and forth between the zombies and the human perspective would still have left the story as unique, as it isn't often you get into the heads of the opposing creature, but on top of that it would have added an extra layer to the proceedings. There would be plenty to mine from uninfected humans, especially considering it was their heroes who protected them whom were now out to devour them, and it would have made a nice counterpoint to the zombie perspective. In this way, Mark Millars original idea for the zombieverse - with The Punisher as the last man alive trying to fend off the undead - might well have worked better for the overall concept.

Worse still, the zombies aren't even very likable. Despite the fact that they supposedly retain their general personalities, it doesn't truly feel like they do. Even when thinking straight - which comes only after they feed - the only one who truly seems to feel remorse and emotion over what they've done is Spider-Man, whom the other zombies find annoying for it, and Giant-Man. The others just excuse their behavior and seem to be alright with what they've done without much internal strife, despite the fact that they now devour the people they were supposed to protect.

Add on to this some logic problems - see Hulk and the Silver Surfer midway through the book - and this isn't a story you can think too hard about. Thankfully, it is indeed some stupid fun. That can't really be undersold. But it's not the kind that's going to stick out in your head beyond a few of the larger set pieces in the story. Still, in some ways, that's enough, but I can't lie and say I didn't want more out of the tale. If Kirkman hadn't managed to make the book the kind of breezy fun he did, I could see this book collapsing under it's own weight.

The artwork, however, is nicely done. Sean Phillips does a nice job illustrating the book, giving it a feel reminiscent of a Marvel comic, merely with the heroes as flesh eaters. In some ways, this style choice helps keep the comic from ever getting too disturbing, for good or bad; on the one hand, the comic basically relies on shock value and a smidge of dark humor, but on the other, a realistic style for Marvel heroes devouring guts and eyeballs could have been a bit much. As it is, the book doesn't have a lot going for it behind the curtain; anything more realistic than what we got would have removed the fun of the book, which is really all it has going for it.

The Score: 7.5 out of 10

This book was stupid fun in every respect. Luckily, that worked for it. I don't quite get why it caught on as it did - truth be told, this isn't exactly a high point in comics - but it is worth a read. I'm not sure what to expect out of the sequels though. This book managed to close out before the concept had worn thin enough to snap. I can't see three or four sequels holding up without the joke growing old. Still, this is good for a breezy, goofy read; just don't go expecting anything of substance, because if you want any of that this isn't the book you should be reading.

Batman: The Resurrection of Ra's Al Ghul (comics)

Writers: Grant Morrison, Paul Dini, Peter Milligan, Fabian Necieza
Artists: Tony Daniel, Ryan Benjamin, Freddie Williams II, Don Kramer
Collects: Batman #670-671, Batman Annual #26, Robin #168-169, pages of Robin Annual #7, Nightwing #138-139, Detective Comics 838-839

"Too many cooks in the kitchen spoils the soup."

If you've been out of the womb for more than ten minutes then you've probably heard that one. It's a very common saying, but it's common for a reason; eighty percent of the time it's spot on. This goes for comics too. Especially crossovers. In fairness, it's possible to buck the trend, as Batman himself has had several well done crossovers.

This is not one of them.

Batman: The Resurrection of Ra's Al Ghul is a story that is pretty much summed up by it's name; Ra's Al Ghul is dead, but he got better. It was a story that was almost inevitable. After all, refusing to die is pretty much Ra's entire deal. Still, inevitable doesn't mean it will be good, but this story had every reason to succeed; after all, it's headed up by crazed Scottish genius Grant Morrison and Paul Dini, who was regular writer of Batman: The Animated Series.

But those two aren't the only writers involved; and therein lies the problem.

After a couple of prologue chapters - the first of which being pretty decent while the material from the Robin annual being just awful - the story kicks into high gear with the actual prologue issue, written by Grant Morrison. In a brilliant move, Grant skips the resurrection entirely; when the story kicks off, Ra's is already alive, though decaying, and wants to take over Damians body. Obviously, the lovable little bastard has a few issues with that. It's a pretty quick moving prologue that sets the stage nicely for something that could just be great.

Then we get to the next issue - a Robin issue - and it all goes to hell.

This crossover fails in large part because of the Robin and Nightwing issues. Most of them end up embroiled in a subplot where Robin contemplates using the Lazarus pits to bring his dead friends and family back to life. We've been to that well who the hell knows how many times before and in this story it simply comes across as a tedious way of bringing in the Robin and Nightwing ongoings into the crossover for old times sake. Any scenes from those issues worth the time involves - surprise, surprise - Ra's and Batman, while said subplot succeeds in doing little more than breaking up the flow of the story.

Really, this crossover brought up a problem that I wasn't surprised cropped up but was still dismayed to see. Such being that aside from Grant and to some small extent Paul Dini, no one involved in the writing actually understood the character of Damian at the time of publication. It's not entirely their fault - when this was serialized it was only the second real story with Damian - but the other two main writers miss the point of him completely. Under Grants pen, Damian is a spoiled heir to the Batman dynasty who can be a prick, but carries some semblance of his fathers goodness in him, just desperately needing the guiding hand to help him. A mini-Batman, really, with intense loyalty to his father, whom he strives to take after. Under Milligan and Nicieza, however, he's depicted as little more than a spoiled prick with no redeeming qualities whom golden boys Dick and Tim have to pull out of the fire numerous times while lamenting that the world would probably be better off without him.

The Batman and Detective issues, however, are what convince me that this crossover could have been great. They're chock full of great moments, especially in Grants chapters. Mostly spotlit on Batman and Ra's, these issues display the respect between the two better than any of the others seemed to. The fight between Batman and Sensei in Batman was also something else. The idea of a two minute master of combat is nigh genius, as is the revelation of the tie's between Ra's and Sensei. Grant chapters are the best of the bunch and are where you get the sense that there really were good ideas buried by the other chapters. Dini's chapters are a bit spottier, but he still manages to keep up a decent pace with Grant, even if he doesn't completely understand Damian himself. Had the Robin and Nightwing titles not been involved, I really believe this story could have worked.

However, story problems aren't all of the stories worries; the art pretty much kicks any remaining value out of it.

The best artist of the bunch is Tony Daniel, without question. I've pretty much followed his work over the course of his Teen Titans run, watching him improve. This was his first work with Grant Morrison and while the art wasn't perfect, the improvement can be seen here too. If nothing else, his work was the cleanest and easiest to look at, leaving me satisfied and looking forward to see him improve even more over time.

Everyone else pretty much just drags his work down. The worst of all the artists involved is easily the work of Ryan Benjamin. His work is craggly and unappealing, with odd choices to display motion as well as broken storytelling. His work is a stark, unappealing contrast to the work of Tony Daniel, so much so that such art really had no business being used in conjunction with an artist with such a strikingly different style.

The other artists are far more competant, but each of them carries a style that they do not even try to mesh with the rest. Every chapter has a drastic shift in art, jarring you out of the story like an icy slap in the face. The worst of all seems to be the depiction of zombie Ra's; no one save Tony Daniel seems to have a clear vision for what zombified Ra's should look like, from fat and chunky to one with a face not even resembling Ra's. It's appalling and a textbook example of how not to do the art in a crossover; it's like the various artists didn't even try to mesh with one another or follow each other's lead.

Which again brings me back to how bloated this crossover feels. Give Don Kramer to Dini's issues, cut out Robin and Nightwing completely then add an extra issue of Batman and Detective each and this could have worked. As it stands, this crossover feels like a bunch of other writers ruining Morrison and Dini's good time, to say nothing of the artists who simply can't keep up.

Had this been only Morrison and Dini's show, I think this could really have been a fun story. As it is it's inherently skippable; thankfully - aside from the appearance of Damian and a mention of the ritual Bruce underwent in 52 - this story has little relation and no bearing on Grant Morrison's overall Batman run. The scene where Batman rips Sensei's staff out of his side and nails him with it was awesome enough that I didn't feel like I completely wasted my cash, but I doubt the few moments of that excellence will do the same for you. Don't waste your money.

My Opinion: Skip It

Mirrors Edge (video game)

Platform: X-Box 360
Also On: PS3, PC
Developers: EA DICE
Genre: First Person Action/Adventure
ESRB Rating: T
Release Date: November 12th, 2008

This game reeled me in on premise alone. I'll admit to anyone who asks that I'm something of a sucker for Cyberpunk - Blade Runner is easily one of my all time favorite films, and let's not even get into the work of the man who inspired it, Phillip K. Dick - and this game is definitely playing with some of the trappings. So I checked it out.

Thankfully, I wasn't disappointed; but it has to be said that it wasn't an entirely smooth ride.

What initially got me to try the game - the story - is ultimately where the game finds some of it's faults, which I'll get into later. You play as Faith, a runner in the utopian city. Runners are basically what you might expect; your modern day message courier delivering messages the old fashioned way. Any other way is monitored by the cities government, meaning any attempts to organize any sort of rebellion in the modern ways is little more than a good way to get yourself caught. Suddenly, the cops begin actively pursuing runners - whom they'd mostly left alone - with guns blazing. Faith's sister is framed for murder and before you know it Faith is in hot water too, trying to escape capture and figure out the conspiracy at work. It's pretty distinctly cyberpunk in a lot of ways; you'll recognize the oppressive government, a clean, future-esque city, overzealous government monitoring folks and common citizens rebelling against this oppresive regime in the only way they know how.

The graphics are clean and crisp. The city really does look futuristic in it's own way. You're not going to see any major technology leaps beyond what we have today - you're not going to be seeing any flying cars, for instance - but the city itself looks unnaturally bright and clean. So colorful and eye-popping that the city looks as artificial as you know it is below the surface. Everything looks smooth and there were few to no glitches in the game graphically. The game simply looks pretty, without a shadow of a doubt.

The sound is give or take, however. You can hear Faith panting and grunting as well as the sounds of the city quite clearly. Voice acting is perfectly fine and inoffensive to the ears. But music-wise the game doesn't have a lot to offer. Quite a bit boils down to variations of the main theme, muted mood music or no music at all. It's rather telling to me that as I write this review up, I can barely even recall any of what I heard; that's not a good sign of a great soundtrack at all.

Controls are great. The general scheme takes some getting used to - whenever any game takes the jump action off one of the face buttons I'm thrown for a loop for at least ten minutes - but the learning curve is far from steep; once you get the hang of it, which should take no longer than the tutorial, pulling off even advanced moves slowly begins to become second nature. Everything is responsive and tight, allowing you to pull off sweet moves with the right timing and find quicker ways to a goal than you might have thought possible. "Running" never really gets old in this game, which is a signal to me that what they've got works.

If the game has shortcomings, it lies in the story. The general job of the runners - transferring messages by hand - is literally all but forgotten directly after the prologue level wraps, barely to be more than referenced again. Also, the general naivety of the principal characters is somewhat off-putting. It doesn't exactly take a rocket scientist to figure out why the police might suddenly start opening fire on runners - yeah, a totalitarian government is really going to allow people to actively resist it forever - yet it seems like a great big mystery to the characters, whom can't seem to put two and two together. The same thing goes for the framing. It's not much of a secret conspiracy if the folks at home can guess the gist of what's going on by the end of the first real mission. Also, many of the side characters are cookie cutter; you can pretty much tell who the backstabbers are as soon as you meet them and anyone without that sort of importance to the story are around for short bits before being dispatched.

Adding insult to injury, the game literally ends when things have finally progressed to a point where everything has gotten interesting; this is the kind of thing that absolutely pissed me off with the PS2/X-Box generations BLACK and the annoyance for such things hasn't lessened in the meantime.

Then there are the cut scenes. This one's kind of baffling. For story related bits between levels, the game switches over the simplistic anime cutscenes to tell it's story. It's a pretty jarring transition; the in-game graphics don't even look remotely like the 2D animation used. I'm not sure why this was chosen; the in-game engine and graphics are just fine, so why isn't that being used? It simply sticks out as something that should not have been.

On top of that, this game is impossibly short. There are only nine actual levels, not including the prologue. Most of the levels aren't really all that long either, especially when you're perpetually moving forward as you do in this game. The first playthrough can literally be finished in an afternoon. Obviously, this isn't an RPG, but a game with a length like that just shouldn't happen; this isn't the days of the Sega Genesis, where games of that sort of length for full price were perfectly fine.

For any normal game, the length would have killed it; but there are plenty of things that save this game. It's actually nice to have the "level" structure of old back; in an age where everything is free roam these days, it's a welcome change that I didn't realize I'd missed until I played this. Why this is important is that much of the games best parts outside of the story rely on distinctly old fashioned fun.

Speed runs in particular are a pillar that this game celebrates. One of the modes outside of the story is, well, speed run. Basically, you pick a story level and you use every trick you've learned to blaze through it as fast as possible, aiming to finish under a target time. I'd forgotten how ridiculously fun this sort of thing can be; the addition of leaderboards - a common and usually insignificant thing in most games these days - hits home an old school, arcade feel that is often missing from todays games. The same thing goes for the "Time Trials", which are small sections of the games stages with goals attached. The fun that can be gleaned from these modes cannot be understated; the old fashioned desire to beat your own score or a friends score really extends the life of an otherwise short game.

The reason these modes - and the story too, in fact - can also lie in the level design. Truth be told, the game is somewhat linear; sometimes there's no choice in path to take and you're always running towards the same goal. However, the structure of the game makes everything feel a lot freer than it should. While you're always going towards the same goal, each level is like a giant parkour playground; the ways to get there feel more plentiful than they are thanks to vaults, jumps, ziplines and walls everywhere that can springboard you towards these goals in new and sometimes faster ways. You rarely have time to consider linearity or even recognize it.

One other thing I appreciated was the lack of emphasis on guns. Let's face it; we're overflowing with First Person Shooters. You can't fire a nine millimeter in a game shop without hitting the latest First Person gorefest. Thankfully, this game is not about that. If anything, disarming and using the guns your enemies take is somewhat discouraged. With almost any gun aside from a pistol or an SMG, your movement is limited and you cannot do most of your parkour tricks that get you out of the jams you find yourself in. This is not a shooter and the game really plays that up in it's basic structure; it really helps the game feel fresh in a game market overflowing with first person games.

The Score: Dramatic Thumbs Up

This game has a lot of potential. It seems to be set up as a new franchise and I truly hope that's the case. This game is held back by it's shortcomings, but there's plenty there to build upon in a sequel. The core mechanics are there and there's a framework for success, it just needs a lot of polish and thought. Hopefully a sequel releases and can take advantage of the promise inherent. Recommended for a rental at the least; if you can get it for a bargin though, it's worth the money.