Customer Reviews

Galerians

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This is a Very Good Game! From Crave, the people who came out with Jade Cacoon and the less known Mort the Chicken, plan to release Galerians to the USA on March 29, this next Wednesday. Playing it on a Japanese mod chip was great but now everyone can finally play it in English.

You are Rion, a fourteen year old boy who wakes up one day in chair with doctors probing needles into his neck and rest of his body. Not knowing who these people or himself are, the confused Rion wakes up again later in his cell. He appears to be in a hospital. This is where the quest begins.

This game has Rion's weapon being the power of his mind not. Instead of guns he has powerful psychic blasts that can knock an enemy down, burn him, or incinerate him.His items and ammunition are drugs that he is addicted to. Nalcon, Red, & D-Felon are the types of drugs he uses for power. This game plays like a survival horror with very Resident Evil-style controls. The biggest difference between this and Resident Evil is that instead of fighting hordes of zombies, the Galerians (a human sub-species hoping to take over the world and can only be stopped by our pal Rion) are fought. Gameplay is very fun, a psychic blast is charged and released to kill these enemies. There are drugs that can "skip" or make you become more powerful for certain amount of time. This temporary level system makes it feel a bit like Parasite Eve or other RPG's but especially like Parasite Eve. Other interesting features is the ability to "short" when Rion's AP (Addiction Points) reaches a max, he must take a ceratin drugs or else when he tries to attack, all the enemies in the range will how their heads and then their heads will explode. This is good for the first boss and a ton of bad guys but it causes your HP (Hit Points) to go down as well as your speed (unable to run is similar to dnager status in Resident Evil). THere is also a drug that will cause you to automaticaly short in case you need it.

Controls are good. Hold R1 to charge a blast, Square to release it. Holding X and moving on the D-Pad makes Rion run and when without holding X he walks. These are the main controls. The only complaint is that it does not support analog mode (even though I don't like analog others like it).

The atmosphere is amazing. The futuristic world is depicted very well with spooky environments with stunning pre-rendered backrounds. The graphics are so amazing in game play and FMV's that it could make the atmosphere perfect on its own.

Sound is good. Its soundtrack offers spooky background music and relaistic sound effects. The sound team was allowed to use their imagination in making the psychic blast sounds and other sounds. The sound sets the mood very well like in Silent Hill (spooky, onminous tones) and Ridge Racer Type 4 (techno).

In conlusion this game simply is awesome!

Gameplay:5 Controls:4.5 Atmosphere:5 Sound:5 Fun Factor:5 Overall:5

This game is all around extremely good. The graphics are smooth, the voice overs are very well acted, and the gameplay is simple and easy to learn. Rion is a convincing character who you grow to care about. His psychic powers are escellently animated, judging by how much you charge them. Using the scan ability to figure out puzzles is great, because the visions that you sometimes recieve show the area you need to go to to find the next item or step of the predicament. The pre rendered backgrounds are beautiful and well detailed, and they are 100% original. The fact that you can look at your movies again whenever you want is cool, because they are all exciting and well animated, making the game all around more fun. The only flaw is that Rion constantly gains anger points, and when you cant find the medicine to reduce them, he shorts out and starts gradually losing HP. The only cool part about it is that it blows up the oppositions head when you get close to it. But it's even better that this doesnt happen very often because when you short out, the enemy stays away from you.

Though getting some bad reviews, Galerians is a game that won't disappoint anyone who is wanting a game that offers a facinating plot, cinemas that start every five minutes, and a game that doesn't rely on you blowing up everything in site.

Starting out in a lab, young Rion wakes to find himself enpowered with psychic abilities. Not remembering much of his past, Rion strikes out to find out who he is, why he has been subjected to experiaments, and to help an old friend, Lilia, who is calling to him.

Galerians does not contribute anything really new to the sirvival horror genre in terms of gameplay. While the psychic powers are enough to set this game marginally apart from other sirvival horror games, it's the plot and atmosphere which really give this game it's edge.

There are some slight problems with Galerians, but nothing that should keep you from buying it. The voice overs could have used some help. The controls are ackward, with a huge leaning curve. But the main problem is the games easiness and shortness. Dispite the huge three disk attire, Galerians only has four areas which shouldn't take you that long to beat. However, like I said, none of these problems are major, and this is definately a game to recomend.

First, let me start out the review by saying that the "over 50 hours of gameplay" claim on the back of the CD case is an outright lie. I beat it in under 6 hours my first (and only) time through. From what I've heard and read, 5-10 hours is average. In other words, don't expect the weeks of entertainment the packaging promises...

So, onto the basic premise of the game. You're a young boy named Rion. You wake up in a lab with no memories and an array of psychic abilities, apparently received while you were the unwilling subject for some sort of experimentation. You begin the game by escaping your restraints and trying to win your freedom. As you progress through the game's 4 areas, the story unfolds through character interactions and beautiful movies and images usually triggered by some sort of psychic flashback or intuition related to various objects and locations.

The gameplay basically involves battles (that are usually few and far between) and puzzle solving (mostly of the "find items and keys and figure out where to use them" variety). Your main weapons in battle are your psychic abilities, enhanced by chemicals called PPECs. You start out with 2 offensive abilities. Nalcon allows you to send sort of an attack wave ... You'll get a 3rd ability (albeit a fairly useless one) halfway through the game. So, you're basically left with 2 fairly weak main attacks, each taking more than one hit at full power to take out all but the simplest of enemies.

The game's weapon and healing systems all rely on drugs. You have certain amounts of offensive drugs in your system. When they run low, you have to inject yourself with more. When your health runs low, pop a pill. You also have "anger points" that rise just from walking around and rise more rapidly when you use psychic powers. This is due to the interaction of drugs in your system, and when the AP meter gets to high, you "short", which is basically a psychic overdose that leaves you walking around with a big migraine. The plus side: Every enemy you go near while shorting will die violently. The negative side: Your health will go south rather quickly until you stop the shorting by taking a pill called delmetor.

Enemy battles are usually easy, except for a handful of very difficult end bosses that take a while to defeat and a few instances where enemies attack you 3 at a time, leaving you frustratingly unable to fight back. Strategy is limited, usually involving running around in circles until you have enough time to charge your powers and attack.

As for the graphics and sound, they're both excellent for the Playstation. The general game graphics are nice, sharp, and detailed. The movies (which are the reason the game spans 3 discs) are also quite impressive. The sound is excellent, from eerie music down to the footsteps that let you know an enemy is pacing around the corner...

The controls..well..they're annoying. If you've never played a survival horror game, the stiff controls will prove to be a great annoyance. If you're a survival horror veteran, they'll be a familiar annoyance. Having to charge up your psychic powers in order to attack with any effectiveness adds to the frustration as it's sometimes hard to target fast moving enemies while charging, leading you to miss often and waste your PPECs..

Overall, I'd say don't buy this game, rent it. It's a rather enjoyable game with a great storyline and entertaining puzzles. However, as I stated earlier, it will only last you a couple nights, and since the main thrill of the game is following the storyline and figuring out the puzzles, it has practically no replay value.

Galerians is interesting from the start: you play Rion, a 14 year old who wakes in a hospital with no memory of the past. You discover you have phycic powers which, properly used, can fire a shockwave, levitate people and smash them into the ground, or simply set them on fire. If you are sick to death of all the shoot em ups out there, this will be refreshing. The story is quite strange: set in the future, Rion travels to his house, contantly having phychic visions of the madness that transpired there- in the house it does get a bit creepy. While some of the boss's are extremely difficult, and the play controls lanky from time to time, it is a small price to pay for the overall quality. I really enjoyed this game- it had a fresh twist on things, and kept me entertained till the end, which is something you certainly can't say about all games. There are 3 discs and hours of gameplay that presents a good challenge to those who want one. .... Honestly, it's a good game. :)

Galerians is a decent game. However, it's not for everyone. Imagine a more flawed Resident Evil, with awkward controls and relatively bland gameplay, at times. You control Rion, a teenager who awakens in a strange lab to find himself with incredible psychic abilities. As he makes his way around what appears to be a laboratory of some sort, there will be all sorts of enemies roaming around, trying to stop him. In order to stop them, he must inject himself with psychic power enhancing drugs, so that he has the juice to take them down. Too much [illegal drugs] and he goes berserk, losing life rapidly, but blowing away everyone in his path. Not enough, and he won't have what it takes to defeat the opposition. Little by little, you'll uncover more and more of Rion's past and exactly why he's there.

The gameplay has some blaring faults, mainly in the sense that the fighting is hard to control, and somewhat poorly designed. The whole drug idea is a cool one, in terms of storyline, but when it comes to actually playing out that idea, it can be annoying. You'll be constantly running around, searching for drugs to either heal you, protect you against "shorting out", or help you kill the bad guys. Other items are strewn across the game, such as keys and what not, to add a bit of puzzle-play to the game, but all it really does is slows the game down.

When it comes down to it, the gameplay is very sub-par. But, the storyline, graphics, sound and overall atmosphere make up for it. The entire game is filled with chilling cinemas to depict the game's downright creepy sci-fi storyline. All of the environments are very imaginative and drip with style. This game isn't blatantly jump-out-of-your-seat scary like Resident Evil. It's closer to the subtle, psychological and atmospheric horror found in Silent Hill--but in a sci-fi setting. The game has a sinister air about it everywhere you go; you'll feel for Rion straight from the beginning, while being disturbed by the violent acts he commits, almost unknowingly. I would recommend this game to someone that is willing to sacrifice good gameplay for a unique, chilling plot, and superbly executed sound and graphics. But if you demand a game that focuses more on gameplay than ambience and aesthetics, steer absolutely clear of Galerians.

Galerians is a great game, and surprisingly gory. The main character is Rion and he is so cool because he is psychic, but he has to take psychic power enhancement chemicals to use his powers. This game is very original and clever. Although other reviews said it wasn't very good and took to long to load, they were wrong. The loading was not bad and is nothing to complaim about or even worry about. It took me a while to figure out how to use his powers with the drugs, but that was because I had no instruction book. Once I figured it out though, it was amazing. Running around and using his psychic powers to kill the bad guys was so much fun! This game has a great plot and is NOT just some Resident Evil rip-off.

The sole reason why I gave this game four stars is due its length. Although a three CDs game, it does not live up to that. The first CD contains two areas to explore, and being three CDs long, I at first thought each CD contained two areas. Unfortunately, the second and third CDs include one area each.

But don't let this disappoint you; Rion's house and the Hotel are more than enough to play this game. Really, that hotel was something creepy; knowing that the guests are dying one by one (and even creepier, knowing how they died) builds up enough atmosphere.

Another point. The reviewer from Boston, Mass. had to read the instruction manual before playing. You need to take your pills in order to avoid that kind of events, not that Crave did that intentionally.

I bought this game mainly on how i remember the game and even though the enemy are pretty easy and slowly get hardly near the end what really hurts you if you don't have anything to stop the ap from surging you need a lot of hp and ap pills to make it through this game if you try to beat it without ap pills i recommend starting the game over ... over all this game is a test of trying to make it without using a lot of items because if you don't you will have to restart from a point in the game of your choice as long as you got a save ...

This game was awesome, but it had a few rough spots. First of all, the PPECs had to be taken almost constantly. Also, if you dont take another kind of drug, youll freak out and eventually die. The environments were vivid and believable. The characters were cool, too. The puzzles were a bit easy, though. I have to admit, I had some help with beating the game because I found it to be so hard. Good thing I have my trusty game shark! :)