I knew there HAD to be
a reason why I’d never even heard of the game called Codename:
Nina except by sheer accident... There is! In fact, there are SEVEN of
them, which I’ll detail in a moment. As always, before I began playing,
the voice of eternal optimism screamed out “bad marketing!!!” Well,
there’s no denying THAT particular fact, but I suspect that the marketing
strategy was more a result of the OTHER reasons than a determining factor
of its own.
Before I get into that,
however, let me explain why I CARED about an obscure first-person shooter
(FPS) from Poland. The answer to that little mystery is that the
developers are Detalion, the talented team that brought us the adventure
games Reah and Schizm. My curiosity got the better of me… given the
chance to break free of the restraints of brain-pain-inducing puzzles and
sedate gameplay, what could Detalion bring to the action table? Well, now
I have my answer – Nina and the seven problems (and if that sounds like a
fairy tale gone bad, that’s about the size of it.)
Entitled Nina: Agent
Chronicles in Europe and published by City Interactive, the game has
been renamed and brought to North America by ValuSoft as a “budget” title
called Codename: Nina – Global Terrorism Strike Force. I can only
assume the purpose of this was to get the “terrorism” reference into the
game name, which seems rather blatantly opportunistic. Still, that would
be easy to overlook if not for the fact that the title is now completely
unmanageable and forgettable. So let’s do just that – forget it. Since
Nina is a “strike force” of one, anyway, we’ll just go with Codename: Nina
for short.
The game’s heroine is a
field agent of a secret, international anti-terrorist organization. Over
the course of three multi-leveled missions, Nina’s assignments are to
destroy a bio-chemical weapon in the Far East, then track down the
conspirators in one of the Soviet republics and on into the ancient ruins
of a South American jungle. Believe me when I say I’m giving nothing away
by telling you this – the story does little (and by “little” I mean
“nothing”) more than serve as a backdrop for introducing the game and
mission locations.
Gameplay is traditional
FPS fare, but simplified more than most. The developers fully intended to
make the game accessible to casual players, and they’ve succeeded so far
as the basic mechanics of the game are concerned. Anyone who has played a
shooter of any kind will find no surprises in interface, controls, items,
or objectives. The only real feature that distinguishes this game from
countless other generic shooters is Nina’s psychic ability to control
minds, which she’ll be called upon to do periodically throughout the game.
Nina herself is
portrayed by Polish model Iza Czarnecka. While Detalion certainly isn’t
the first (nor will they be the last) to use an attractive female lead in
a game, they at least earn recognition for choosing a model that isn’t the
stereotypical top-heavy freak of nature like other more notable game
heroines. Unfortunately, the effort ended up being largely wasted as a
selling point anyway. Codename: Nina was originally designed to be a
third-person game, but during production, that idea was scrapped in favour
of the first-person perspective. Since Nina never appears in any of the
game’s few cutscenes, the only times you actually SEE her (usually dressed
in fatigues) is in static images during level loads, a tiny icon by the
health meter, and briefly after dying (which admittedly, you’ll be doing a
LOT).
Now, with the
pleasantries out of the way, let the dissection begin. Scalpel!!
(In reverse order of
irritation)
Problem #1 –
Dated Graphics
Codename: Nina is based
on the renowned LithTech Talon engine – the same one that powered other
titles like Aliens vs. Predator II. This serves to raise the question,
“How did it get so butt-ugly?” Okay, okay, I’m being a little harsh, as
the game isn’t downright ugly so much as it is extremely dated. The
backgrounds look blurry, blocky and two dimensional, and there simply
isn’t much detail in anything. I know action reviewers are often guilty
of demanding that a game demonstrate cutting edge graphics, but this isn’t
about bells and whistles. I don’t expect Nina to compare with the latest
and greatest big-budget titles, but it had better compare favourably with
older games that can be found in bargain bins.
To make matters worse,
the in-game cinematics are few and far between, and there are NO engaging
opening or closing cutscenes. I don’t care how you slice it, that’s just
a rip off. Do something – ANYTHING – to pull me into the story, and
reward me for my efforts. Don’t just drop me in and yank me out and send
me on my way. That just reeks of “amateur”, and Detalion has proven
itself better than that in the past. Still, the game’s visuals were head
and shoulders above…
Problem #2 – Horrible Voice Acting
Without a doubt, the
voicework for Nina is the single worst demonstration of acting I’ve ever
encountered. My guess is that the developers were trying to have Nina NOT
be identified with a single nationality… sort of a “one accent fits all”
mentality. Instead, the result is an absolutely wretched distraction that
is part British, part southern American drawl, and part
making-it-up-as-she-went-along. Bleccchhh… Fortunately, being a shooter,
we’re not subjected to a ton of it, but between radio transmissions,
thinking aloud, and narrations, you’ll be desperately wishing there was a
subtitle-only option. On the plus side, the other sound effects were
decent, if minimal. There was no music in the game (by now, I’m sure
you’re shocked). Of course, graphics and sound don’t make a game, but
gameplay itself is further marred by…
Problem #3 – Feeble Weapons
Let’s face facts… most
shooters require suspending a certain degree of disbelief. So we usually
don’t concern ourselves with how our character is able to lug around
massive weaponry and enough ammunition to stage a small war. However, in
Codename: Nina, the developers decided that Nina would be allowed to tote
only what she could “realistically” carry. The result of this decision is
a whopping two (count ‘em… TWO!!) weapons for each of the game’s three
missions. Along with the pistol common to each mission, you’ll also be
dazzled with a basic shotgun or submachine gun. Adding to the exciteme…
YAAAAAAAWN…. Oh, excuse me!! The thrill of recounting this portion of the
game must have exhausted me!
No, the only variety in
your tools of the trade is the aforementioned mind control. On certain
occasions, Nina will be required to utilize her paranormal gifts by
getting close to a person and wafting some heebie jeebie rays at them
through her hands. So much for realism. It’s easy to identify which
particular targets are susceptible to this telepathy, because when you
instinctively kill them in response to them SHOOTING at you, the game will
abruptly end and inform you that you’ve offed a key information source.
Oops.
Yo, Detalion… next
time… if you’re going to make realistic tactical combat the basis of your
game, fine. But if “reality” is going to be arbitrary, then Vulcan mind
meld – out; flame throwers – in!
Although boring, you’ll
at least find the arsenal to be adequate for progressing through the game,
thanks in no small part to…
Problem #4 –
Idiotic Enemy A.I.
Actually, I’m not sure
the dopes in Codename: Nina even deserve to have their brain functions
described as “intelligence”. Honestly, not only was it nice of them to
stand still and shoot wildly while I pumped them full of lead, but it was
particularly considerate of them to announce their presence with a
grunt-like “Hey!” every time they saw me. On occasion, an enemy would
further accommodate me by getting hung up on a wall and jogging in place
until I put them out of their misery. Yes, to be fair, they occasionally
DID run away when injured, but that’s about the extent of their tactics.
Adding to the fact that ammunition and health packs are plentiful, really
the challenge in the game doesn’t come from the enemies at all, but rather
from...
Problem #5 – Obtuse Puzzles
Like any shooter,
Codename: Nina includes various puzzle elements. I’d have thought this is
where Detalion would really shine, given their adventure roots.
Unfortunately, the transition between genres wasn’t entirely successful,
and the puzzles were largely run-of-the-mill shooter stuff – flipping
switches, finding missing items, etc. There were a couple of moderately
clever ones, but whatever goodwill these earned were blotted out by a few
dreadful ones which, for all intents and purposes, amounted to a pixel
hunt. If not for a walkthrough in the very first mission, I’d likely
still be wandering around aimlessly. Fortunately, when I encountered a
similar (though more difficult) version of the same dilemma later in the
game, I was prepared for what the game expected of me, but causing me to
feel stuck in the early stages was most unwelcome.
The worst of the
“puzzles”, however, were based on avoiding mounted weapons. Unlike the
popgun shooters used by the mobile baddies, these weapons resulted in
virtually instant death when approached. While annoying enough in
themselves, these puzzles were made infinitely worse by the presence of…
Problem #6 – No
Save-Anywhere!!
It’s been a looooong
time since I last played a shooter that didn’t offer full freedom to save
your progress wherever you pleased. That’s probably because every
previous game that has tried it has been loudly criticized for doing so.
And for good reason!! When the object of a game is to kill or be killed,
it’s inevitable that the latter will occur, and probably frequently.
I guess the developers
of Codename: Nina didn’t get the memo that said gamers are outraged by
having to repeat huge chunks of a game over and over again. It’s
ANYTHING but fun having to repeat a level just to find out WHY you died,
let alone beginning the arduous task of avoiding the same fate.
I could ALMOST excuse
this decision if it were explained by developing for consoles, but that
simply isn’t the case here. Nina is PC-only, so there’s simply no excuse
for this omission. The game auto-saves at pre-determined points. Some of
these seem fairly placed, but others are ridiculously far apart,
necessitating a great deal of repetitive gameplay.
Admittedly, no FPS
veteran will be severely hindered by these challenges for long, but since
Detalion was aiming Codename: Nina at casual gamers, this decision is all
the more bewildering. Even if all other aspects of the game met with my
approval, I’d be reluctant to endorse a game to newbies for this fact
alone.
Only as I continued to
play did I realize the reason for the restrictive save feature…
Problem #7 – Too Darn Short!
For all my moaning and
groaning about Codename: Nina, it does have some reasonably fun moments
interspersed among the frustrating ones. Once I’d adjusted to the game’s
many shortcomings and lowered my expectations accordingly, I began to
think it just might climb out of my doghouse and into the rarefied air of
mediocrity… and then it happened… the end!! I was STUNNED!!! It was easy
to understand THEN why the save-anywhere feature was left out, but even
WITH all the repetitive gameplay, I couldn’t have been playing for more
than about 6-8 hours.
Amazingly, the original
plan was to have the game released in short segments (hence the
“Chronicles” moniker). This version of the game is the result of
scrapping that idea and COMBINING the episodes. Thank goodness for that,
but even this was inexcusably short.
OK, time to close up
the patient. Sutures!!
So what do we make of
Codename: Nina? I’ll go out on a limb and suggest that a game like this
might have a market in eastern Europe. It seems fairly obvious that
compromises were made to get this game to market at ALL, but a budget
title by a “local” company is never a bad thing, and I applaud City
Interactive and Detalion for the effort. However, I think it was a
mistake for ValuSoft to bring it to the North American market, and I
suspect they’ve already realized that. Glancing through ValuSoft’s
catalogue, I’m sure I’ve seen all of their other budget titles sold
elsewhere, but I’ve yet to see or hear a single peep about Nina. Bad
marketing? Certainly, but having played the game for myself, I wouldn’t
be surprised if the decision to do NO marketing was intentional.
Codename: Nina isn’t a
horrible game; it just offers nothing that a myriad of other games don’t
do better, and it misses both potential target audiences with poor design
choices. Why buy a “budget” title like this one for $20 when you can find
older, better games for less? You don’t. Should you ever see the game at
a rock bottom price, and feel like spending a weekend with it as a
novelty, be my guest. Otherwise, do yourself a favour and play or even
REPLAY No One Lives Forever or Tomb Raider.
Final Score: 44%
Played on:
Win XP
P4, 2 GHz
512 MB RAM
GeForce 4
This document may not be distributed without express
written permission of the author and the content may not be altered in any
way.
For questions or comments on this review,
Please write to:
Singer
design copyright © 2003
GameBoomers
Group
