Iji
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Rating: 4 out of 5
Multiplayer: none
Minimum requirements (from the manual included):
  Windows 98/NT/2000/XP/Vista
  1 Ghz CPU
  32 MB graphics card
  200 MB memory

Positive points: great music, good action, story
Negative points: few moves, phoney alternative
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When Iji wakes up, the last thing she recalls is being on a visit of her dad's workplace, a military research facility. She doesn't recognize the room she's in, nor having gone to sleep at all. There was this weird phenomenon in the sky however, or was it a dream? Since there's no one around, she decides to peek out of the door... seeing a number corpses on the floor, presumably killed by those people in hard suits! Immediately a voice is heard out of some speaker, and it's the familiar voice of Iji's brother. He tells her that the place has been attacked by aliens. And even more shocking, that the scientists who saved her life used alien technology in the process, not casually augmenting her with super-human abilities, in the hope that she will somehow use them to save the humans. From this point on, it will be up to Iji to make things as right as can be.

Iji belongs to that species of platformers that Prince of Persia pioneered, Out of this World/Another World and Flashback developed into adventure-intensive awesomeness, and Tomb Raider projected into 3D. So-called action games or platformers in general are not my cup of tea usually, and yet I love most of these games, specially Flashback. I don't seem to be the only one, since they always sold way better and were better praised than the more generic action or platform games, even way better than the industry's average. What I'm saying is that it's a winning formula, and it sure is good to see the freeware scene delivering some of the old 2D school, now that the mainstream public is too good for 2D. (If you like these games I also recommend 1213.)

It reminds specially of Out of this World or Flashback, because of the style of the graphics. The graphics are however the less developed department of the game, relatively speaking, but they work. There's a generous number of cutscenes, and although their drawings are amateurish they're nice enough.

One thing fans of similar games will likely miss is the small variety of moves. From Prince of Persia this genre has traditionally been all about mad moves, but Iji has fairly limited movement possibilities. On the other hand there's a great array of weapons available, from small to devastating. In order to use them you need to collect power-ups and increase Iji's level. Combat soon becomes very high-powered, and the challenge lies more in this than in the enemies' sagacity.

The bosses on the other hand pose very fun challenges, and the battles with them are really climatic moments, very particularly the final one. It really reminds of those arcade games of old, having to learn the boss's routine so that you get to place a hit after having skillfully evaded his series of attacks. You also get to talk with them beforehand so you know their motivations and learn more about the events taking place.

The story plays an important role, giving the game an adventure flavour, and it's interesting enough to stimulate you into beating the game. It's unveiled during the cutscenes as well as the game itself, since Iji will find lots of computer logs to read, first tutorial ones, but later ones written by the aliens themselves.

In theory there's an alternative story path if you play pacifist and choose not to kill hardly anyone, but the only things that change are a couple of side events and a few sentences in the cutscenes, and even the ending is exactly the same. It seems as if this option was strapped on the finished game, that it didn't influence the making from the beginning. So if you really want to try it go ahead, but if your motivation is getting to see some Easter egg I'd recommend against it, since there's not all that much to see, and this game is a shooter after all so it would take most of the fun away.

The sound is perhaps the most polished department of the game, specially the music. It's really good and changes in accordance with the pace of the game, from action to suspense.

In the end Iji results as a remarkably enjoyable game, that appears better than the sum of its parts, with elaborated level design, and is very fun to play through. It's the right dosage of action and adventure that will keep you hooked till the end, and the final boss battle is awesome. If you like this kind of games I'd recommend it, and I'd bet you'll enjoy it too.