Customer Reviews

Steel Harbinger

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During the lifespan of the PS 1, there was such an onslaught of games for the system that many good titles got completely overlooked. Steel Harbinger is one of them. It's primarily a shooter, but also comprises puzzle elements, exploration, and item collecting. You even get to drive vehicles. It is played from what folks in the biz call an "isometric" view, which is essentially a camera in the sky at about a 45 degree angle to the ground. The graphics are 2D and scroll side-to-side and up-down, but the game creates the illusion of three dimensions by having buildings and other objects go transparent when Miranda walks behind or inside them. Miranda is the character you play, and she is a rather attractive young girl who was unfortunate enough to be partially mutated into an alien. It is her job to single handedly save the entire earth (or at least the continental United States) from an alien invasion.

The gameplay is non-stop shooting action, and Miranda has a huge arsenal of weapons at her disposal. The environments are littered with all kinds of stuff to pick up. There is a large variety of alien creatures and some of them are downright creepy (giant mutated babies?!). The action takes place in several major American cities, and each locale is unique. Your primary objective in each city is the same: find the Net Node card which will activate the satellite defense system over that region of sky. (Why they can't just do that from the White House or Pentagon I don't know).

The cutscenes are actual film footage of real actors, and, I'll admit, some of it is pretty bad. But the gameplay is what counts. The difficulty level gets pretty nasty towards the game's latter stages, but it's nothing overwhelming. The frame rate is consistent throughout, the control is problem-free, and the game never gets boring. And there's also the little fact that the outfit Miranda is wearing is pretty dang sexy. It's great, shoot-em-up fun. If you're up for some old-school PS 1 action, Steel Harbinger would be a great place to look.

This is the kind of game magazine editors warn you to stay away from. The graphics are sub-par, the camera is fixed (though that can be an advantage), the storyline [is bad], and you'll probably hate the music unless you're me.
On the upside, Miranda does a good job of juicing up an over-used storyline. I mean, come on! An alien invasion?! Like that's never been done before!!