Game Description

500 years in the future...

The First Corporate Dynasty of the second millennium is ruled by the tyrannical SovKhan (short for Sovereign Khan) from the vast seven mile high Megacity S1-9. Using cybernetic embryos and a mysterious substance known as Dark Matter, SovKhan has begun growing an army of giant living robots known as Slaves. In an attempt to rule the world, SovKhan plans to use these robots to enslave all of humanity.

Underneath Megacity S1-9 is a system of sewage tunnels called The Suck. A rebellious group of spiritual warriors, or Guardians, have made the sewers their base of operations. Having successfully stolen a Slave unit, the Guardians are not about to let SovKhan's reign go unchallenged. You take on the role of Chan, the one Guardian chosen to fuse your mind and body with that of the stolen Slave unit. As Chan you must command Slave Zero and save humanity.

While controlling Slave Zero you will navigate Megacity S1-9 and The Suck, destroying all that SovKhan has created. Your Slave is equipped with a ballistic weapon, a power weapon, and a missile launcher, which are consistently upgraded as you progress through the 13 mission-based levels. In addition to these weapons, you have the ability to pick up and throw certain objects, such as cars and steel girders.

The levels are set up so that you must fight your way through conventional military forces, sentinel-class assault units, and other Slaves in order to reach your objectives, which range from destroying power generators to stopping the city's train ways to stealing cybernetic embryos. As you progress through the levels, power-ups, such as health, ammunition, and upgrades are made available. Each level ends with a boss encounter.

In addition to the third-person 3D story mode, Slave Zero has a two to four player deathmatch mode, which is played via split screens. While playing the deathmatch mode, the camera shifts from the normal third-person perspective to a first-person perspective. There are a total of ten arenas specifically designed for the deathmatch mode.

Slave Zero requires two blocks of memory in order to save a game on a VMU. Also, it is compatible with the Jump Pack. ~ Damien Thorpe, All Game Guide

Roots & Influences

Slave Zero draws its influence from popular animé and Japanese games. The large robot theme has been used before, most notably in Japanese television and movies such as Voltron and Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. While not a robot, Godzilla is another character that dwarfs its surrounding landscape.

Previous series that have shaped Slave Zero includeArmored Core and MechWarrior. ~ Damien Thorpe, All Game Guide

Review: Enjoyment

You're in control of a 60-foot robot, smashing through a spectacular cityscape. Using really cool weapons, you get to blow up other giant robots. Yes, you'll enjoy it. Plus, the multi-player mode is addicting. ~ Damien Thorpe, All Game Guide

Production Credits

Producer: Matt Powers

Director: Sean Vesce

Sega Dreamcast Programming: Tim Sanders, Edwin Reich, Dave Aufderheide, Kurt Arnlund, Jason Leighton

Additional Programming: Jim Mazrimas, Dave Aufderheide, Kurt Arnlund, Jim Tomasko, Jack Ritter, Jason Leighton

Design: Jeff Gregg, Mike Wikan, Jason Weesner

Art: Jeff Wilcox, Stefan Henry-Biskup, Ted Naifeh, Michael Khoury, Trevor Grimshaw, David Gustlin, Chin-Han Hsu

In-Game Cinematics: Lee Petty, Judah Baron, Angus Wilson, Seth Swanson

Sound Design and Voice Direction: W. Scott Snyder

Music: Randy Atkins

Story nad Dialogue: Margaret Stohl

Executive Producer: Steve Ackrich

Product Marketing Manager: Greg Sarrail

Tools and Installer: Eric Tetz

Mastering: Luis Rivas

Lead Tester: Sam Newman

Assistant Lead Testers: Ted Tomasko, Jeff Loney

Testers: Greg Akatiff, Donny Clay, Jason Cordero, Erik Johnson, Marie Person, Shawn Shinn, Ben Skelton, P.Tseren Sodbinow, Clayton Wolfe, Christopher D. Reimer, Dan Burkhead, Richard Brock

Compatibility Test Supervisor: David Abrams

Compatibility Analysts: Adam Stokke, Jeremy Anderson, David Strang, Coung Vu

Customer Support: David Costello, Chris McQuinn, Brent Wilkinson, Jason Stokke, Moye Daniel, Blair Reynolds, Will Habeck

Storyboards: Jason Brubaker, Famous Frames

Voice Recording: WebTone Productions, Campbell, CA

Creative Services: Jill Dos Santos, Eric Larson

Manual: Bruce Harlick

Character Design Assistance: Chuck Wojtkiewicz

VOICE TALENT

Commander Li: Morgan Hyde

The SovKhan: Roger Jackson

Old One: Charles Martinet

Number Two: Greg Weber

Number Three: Cosmo Sagan

Convoy Leader: W. Scott Snyder

Manta Pilot 1: Roger Jackson

Manta Pilot 2: David Nowlan

Manta Pilot 3: Mike Wikan

Sentinel 1: W. Scott Snyder

Sentinel 2: Mike Wikan

Sangonar: Charles Martinet

Revenant Prime: David Nowlin

Revenant Prime: Greg Weber

Mayhem: Jarret Black

Screams: Delina Chiechi

Screams: Stacy Lawrence

Screams: Amanda Snyder

TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE

Pat Truong at: ATI

Val Felipe at: Immersion

Sam Detrich at: nVidia

Tom Forsyth at: 3D Labs

SunielMishra at: Aureal

Micah Mason at: Aureal

Keith Charley at: Creative

All the Folks at: 3dfx

Eric Le at: Matrox

Allen Hansen at: Cyrix

Sean Hunt at: Sega

The people at: Sega DTS ~ Rich Hernandez, All Game Guide

Review: Overall

There is just something fun about taking control of a giant 60-foot robot in the middle of a city; destroying buildings, leaping from rooftop to rooftop, and squishing terrified pedestrians with your monstrous feet. This is exactly what you get to do when playing Infogrames' Slave Zero for the Sega Dreamcast. Of course, when you're finally done fooling around with the scenery, you get to save humanity from the evil tyrant SovKhan.

From within the seven-mile-high Megacity S1-9, the First Corporate Dynasty of the second millenium, controlled by SovKhan, is planning to grow an army of giant living robots known as Slaves. This army will be used to conquer and enslave all of humanity. In an effort to stop the evil SovKhan, a group of spiritual warriors called the Guardians have stolen one of the first prototype units. To lead their fight, they have chosen their best warrior to fuse himself with the giant prototype and become Slave Zero.

Slave Zero begins by placing you on a city street in the middle of Megacity S1-9. The city looks amazing. Huge buildings with crisp graphics tower far off into the distance. Their size is matched only with that of your giant robot. It's truly an exciting moment when the first tiny cars swerve and screech past your feet and you realize how large you and the environment really are.

Another fun aspect of the background is that you get to blow some of it up. Certain buildings, when shot or punched, will explode and crumple to the ground. It would have been great if more of the environment was interactive; unfortunately, only certain structures can be destroyed. On the upside, even though only certain buildings fall, the entire cityscape is subject to your weapon's fire. Portions of a building's walls will melt when hit with a blast from your energy weapon. Huge holes mark the pavement when strafed with your machine gun, and as a nice touch, Slave Zero has the ability to stomp pesky motorists, leaving huge cracks in the ground beneath him.

Of course, your weapons and attacks are used for more than just chewing up the scenery. To help you mow down the bad guys, Slave Zero is equipped with three weapons of mass destruction that get upgraded considerably as you progress. Your primary weapon starts as a light slug canon - effective at first - but quickly gets upgraded to a rapid-fire assault canon. Your secondary weapon is a powerful energy rifle that eventually gets upgraded to a...well, you'll see. Finally, mounted on your left shoulder is a faithful rocket launcher. Ammunition is made amply available in the form of power-ups as you run through the levels.

Launching a barrage of missiles and energy clusters at enemies never gets old. Watching them fall under the wrath of your weapons, shuddering as waves of electrical current surged through their bodies just before they exploded while the scenery melted and crumpled around them was enough to make me forgive the fact that the enemies are not that diverse. Most of them are just slightly different versions of giant sentinels with a few conventional military forces, like tanks and jets, thrown in for good measure.

Two things save Slave Zero from being a mindless shooter, which at times it comes dangerously close to being. The first is the enemy AI. Sentinels will duck, dodge, and run from your attacks as if they were actually trying to stay alive. This actually frustrated me from time to time. I just wanted them to die, and yet, when the smoke cleared, there they were crouched behind a wall picking away at me. The second is the incredibly fun boss encounters. Early bosses were a bit easy but the difficulty did rise, fortunately, not to the point of frustration. It reminded me of a good anime film; there's a lot going on, but somehow your winning.

One problem with Slave Zero is the control, which takes some time to master. Every button on the Dreamcast's controller is used in one way or another. Navigating edges was difficult and platform jumping in the later levels became very frustrating. I was almost reduced to controller throwing a few times when I would just miss a jump at the end of a level and would have to sit and watch helplessly as I would fall to an uncertain demise. Which brings me to another negative point. There are no mid-level save points. If you die, you start back at the beginning of that level. This got old quick on the harder levels.

Another noticeable problem is that the game seems to be overly long for what it is. There were moments when I would have appreciated a harder objective or a few difficult enemies over the mindless droves of sentinels. Slave Zero is a linear, mission-based, meet the objective shooter. Unfortunately, most of the objectives consisted of blasting through enemies and surviving the boss encounter. There are, however, a few mission objectives that provide a nice challenge.

If you beat the story mode or are just in the mood for some fast-paced fun, gather some friends and play the deathmatch mode. You can play with 2-4 players. This is where Slave Zero's replay value comes in. There are ten levels specifically designed for this mode. They range from high atop skyscrapers to the stifling confines of a tunnel system. You will feel intense pleasure when you launch a flurry of rockets at a screaming friend who is trying desperately to escape your ambush. Deathmatch mode is played on split screens and shifts from the normal third-person perspective to a first-person view.

Overall, Slave Zero has its flaws, but turns out to be a fun game. If you have any interest in giant robot games, check this one out. It provides some rather intense gameplay and very clean graphics. It might take a while to master the controls, but it's worth it the first time an unsuspecting friend sits down to play and you run circles around him in the Deathmatch. ~ Damien Thorpe, All Game Guide

Review: Graphics

Crisp, clean graphics. The city looks amazing. Rocket streams and gunfire are stunning and will bring you back for more. Slave Zero looks like something straight out of an animé. ~ Damien Thorpe, All Game Guide

Review: Sound

Nice sound effects and explosions. You'll chuckle when you distinctly hear pedestrians screaming in terror. Excellent voice acting. ~ Damien Thorpe, All Game Guide

Review: Replay Value

Not much to bring you back to the story mode, but the multi-player deathmatches will have you and your friends wasting away hours at a time. ~ Damien Thorpe, All Game Guide

Review: Documentation

The instruction manual gives you everything you need, plus some nice descriptions of enemies and weapons. ~ Damien Thorpe, All Game Guide