ANGEL DEVOID: FACE OF THE ENEMY
1995
SYS REQUIREMENTS: DOS
TYPE: FMV ADVENTURE
Angel Devoid is a terrible game, and I loved every minute of it. If you are the type of person who enjoys things that are "So Bad It's Good" then you will love Angel Devoid.
PLOT
The plot is the same as a movie that came out a few years ago called Face/Off. (I believe this came out first though). You play Jake Hard, a cop who gets captured by his nemesis, Angel Devoid. Mr. Devoid then performs surgery on you to give you his face, so everyone mistakes you for Angel Devoid.
GAMEPLAY
The gameplay itself is fine, which is why this game is bearable. The interface is easy and the graphics are good (for 1995). I encountered only one bug in the game: sometimes you couldn't load a saved game and when you quit the game it would reload. You would try to quit again, but the game would just reload. Deadstarting was the only way out. Clearly, the programmers just didn't want you to leave. And why would you want to?
WHY THIS GAME IS SO BAD...
First off, this game has the worst acting I have ever seen in a game. I am sure there are others that are just as bad, but seeing as how this game is played completely seriously, I often found myself busting a gut over the terrible dialogue spoken by the cheesy actors. Top that off with the the fact that everyone is addressing you as "Angel Devoid" and you have one of the most unbelievable bad games ever. How could anyone take a name like this seriously?
The gameplay mostly consists of walking up to people, listening to them for a bit, and then shooting them. Remember, however, you are a cop, trying to prove to people that you are not a nefarious criminal. Shooting everyone you meet might not be the best way to do this...
It also consists of the single oddest moment I have experienced in adventure gaming: in the casino there is a 'virtual reality' machine, which if you are able to find the right angle to click on it, it 'treats' you to a movie, a minute or two in length, of just colors. Flashing colors. And no, not interesting colors either. Just a few colors flashing.
In the same casino is a gambling 'game' you can play for fun: after reading a lengthy explanation it consists of clicking a "ROLL" button once, and as far as I can tell, you win every time. Now that's entertainment.
Oh, and to tell you how difficult this game is, as far as I could tell there is exactly one puzzle.
WHY YOU MIGHT NOT LIKE THE GAME...
Well, you pretty much shoot everyone you meet. Not exactly a 'family' type game.
The game is definitely the shortest I have every played. (It makes the game "D" look epic). I would imagine it would take most adventure fans 3 hrs tops to play this one. This is odd considering it spans 4 cds! You are switching a cd about every 1/2 hour. Luckily the cd swapping is completely minimized.
There are some "timed" sequences. Not really timed, and quite easy, you have to shoot the person at the right time before they shoot you. However, the most difficult of the 'timed' sequences (one which I had to replay 3 or 4 times) comes right after a movie of several minutes in length and a CD swap. Very poor planning.
However, I have to say I enjoyed the few minutes I did spend playing Angel Devoid. I was never bored, but rather was excited to see how much worse the game could get. Its not a boring bad or frustrating bad, just cheesy bad. I would recommend tryign to get a copy with a manual, considering it had a story to go along with the game that took longer to read than the game did to play. If you can find it cheap, BAAG it up.
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