Game #1197: Project Snowblind

 I don't remember any snow in this one.

 It feels like Deus Ex, which makes sense, as Project: Snowblind was born as a spinoff, but then turned into its own thing. It's still in first person, you've got augmentations, and called as such, as well as some light hacking elements and other bit, but it's pretty much a linear first-person shooter, and a pretty fun one at that.

 And that's pretty much it. You get a decent assortment of weaponry, all of them with alternate fire functions, and you follow a pretty straightforward campaign heavy on the military bro-vibres. I honestly didn't really care too much about the story, but, hey, you get a pseudo gravity-gun!

 Stages are pretty simple to navigate, but there are usually alternate and/or optional routes you can take towards your objectives. Exploration is rewarded with permanent Health and Energy upgrades, both which come quite handy considering there's no regenerative health and using energy to use your Augmentations is pretty useful. Shooting is how you'll go through most of the game, but some stages may benefit from a more stealthier approach, and you can hack some panels to turn automated turrets on your side, provided you have ammo for your hacking gun.

 The game plays really well, and controls feel very natural. While you can't customize them beyond selecting from a few presets, it has the shoot functionality on the shoulder buttons, as modern shooters do. You can also zoom in a bit with R3, which isn't quite exactly like aiming down the sights, but it gets the job done.

 Augmentations are pretty cool, and you slowly get them as you get through the game. You can use them for abilities such as infrared vision, a temporary shield or, my favorite, Reflex, which slows down time. I very rarely used anything other than Reflex, but it felt amazing to just walk up to my enemies and shotgun them to death while they tried to fend off for themselves very slowly. The gunplay is definitely a highlight in the game, as firefights in the game feel pretty good.

 Something I found interesting is that there's no real final boss. There are two bosses, and the one that sort of acts as the big bad is fought, and defeated, by stage 14. Afterwards you get a few more stages left in which you must fight the remainder of the enemy, which was... it certainly was different. Not necessarily a 'bad' different.

 Project: Snowblind is a pretty solid effort by Crystal Dynamics. Playing the game feels pretty darn great, as the controls are tight and the shooting is very satisfying. I kinda understand how it went under the radar, as the game really doesn't have any flashy hook or much of a personality, but what it does, it does pretty well.

 8.0