Project: Snowblind review

Playing as a biologically-altered super-soldier in a futuristic war hardly counts as a groundbreaking premise (see: Halo and Halo 2), but if you give Project: Snowblind a chance, you'll find it to be the very definition of a jack-of-all-trades first-person shooter: it does everything well but nothing brilliantly.

Strapping on the boots of critically injured soldier Nathan Frost, whose name is unfortunately as generic as his character, you're thrown on the war veteran scrapheap, so to speak, before doctors do some experimenting on you with prototype nanotechnology. The risky process is, of course, successful, and Nathan is sent back into the field, better than ever and now gifted with incredible abilities like seeing through walls, cloaking and other abilities that unlock throughout the course of the campaign.

If this sounds a bit familiar - like say, similar to the 2000 Game of the Year-worthy Deus Ex - that's because the project originally began life as an action-oriented, multiplayer-focused offshoot of that beloved role-playing/action/adventure hybrid. Its heritage shows through not only in the nanotechnology but also in the game world. Like Deus Ex, you'll encounter robots ranging from spider-sized constructs to multi-story mech-like monstrosities. Some are big enough for Nathan to jump in and "drive," but all can be possessed and controlled using Nathan's augmentation abilities, allowing him to wreak havoc on foes from a safe hiding place. Indeed, it's the vehicles and bot play along with the slick, cutscene-heavy presentation of an otherwise generic story arc that keeps Snowblind interesting and fun.