Hybrid Heaven
by Konami
Our Price: $30.99
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Category: Video Games
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Product Summary
Platform: Nintendo 64Publisher: Konami
Video Game Reviews of Hybrid Heaven
Customer Review: Despite its flaws, I always look back on this with a smile.
Summary: 4 Stars
Hybrid Heaven is really one of those games the likes of which you will probably never see again. It is, essentially, one of the many failed attempts of blending various genres of games; it's really a hit or miss depending on which specific genres you choose to mix. Needless to say, you've never seen another wrestling/3rd person action/RPG game. But despite the many flaws obstructing this game from glory (or many positive reviews, for that matter), I still have a special place in my heart for it.
What makes it good is the fact that its overall experience stays with you and is quite memorable. The storyline in itself is worthy of praise. You start the game as Mr. Diaz, working for an organization aiming to replace the president with a clone. They have started the process by replacing one of the president's bodyguards, and left you in charge of supplying him with weapons for the next phase of the operation. But for some reason unknown to you, you shoot the replacement instead. This obviously generates a problem with your employers, and you go on the run inside the group's extensive underground facilities. As the story progresses, you find out that neither your identity nor your employers' is what it seems, and before long you are caught in the middle of an interstellar war.
Sound intriguing? It really is a decent story, and not nearly as confusing as some people might lead you to believe. If you're a fan of stories like those found in Deus Ex or the X-Files TV show, you'll easily warm up to Hybrid Heaven's alien conspiracy plot. It's really worth playing through the game's problems just to advance the storyline, which features the classic "commanders" set of villains which are part of the main cast, and naturally they fall one by one as you progress through the game. I found it nice that each and every one of the main boss characters had their own storylines fleshed out throughout their "level", in a very similar fashion to Skies of Arcadia or the like. The underground locales grow more and more extravagant as you progress deeper and deeper into the earth's crust. At one point in the game I believe you are as low as you can go, and the surrounding area really makes you feel as if you're far, far away from home. Ever see the movie "The Core"? Then you can get a feeling for the constant descending motion as you go farther and farther into the game.
The combat in the game is a very mixed bag. On one hand it's a very interesting combination of turn-based strategy and wrestling combos, but on the other it's placed very awkwardly into the game, often seeming pointless and repetetive. You will only ever encounter one enemy at a time, and when you do the surrounding room will become the battlefield. In battle, you can move around the field as you wish while your battle gauge builds up. Once it has, you can move in and attack, at which point a menu will pop up. At first, you'll have only a few options, but as you level up you can build your gauge to include many follow-up moves as part of a combo (toward the end I could execute 6 punch/kick attacks in a row). You can punch, kick, use an item, guard, or execute a throwdown move. The combo system works here in that you can kick an enemy 5 times and then finish with a scissor hold. The throwdown moves are certainly modeled from WWF throws and holds, and seem a little out of place in an underground sci-fi facility; you don't expect mutants to know how to perform a full nelson, suplex or head drop, but here it is.
The final aspect of the game is the exploration phase, which covers a fair amount of the gameplay. This, too, is a mixed bag, as it often seems boring and nothing more than a means to get to the next storyline moment. You control the character from a 3rd-person perspective, and essentially you have 2 goals in life: shoot electronic sensing devices, and jump/climb/sideshift over boxes. The shooting apsect of the game is rather weak, and aside from one exception, there is no need for it other than to disable sensors so you can pass. The terrain rarely uses more than flat walkways, so there is little need for climbing or sideshifting either. Not much to talk about here.
Finally, the pacing of the game is sporatic at best. There are time that feel rushed, and then there are sections that have endless repetitiveness. A few locations in particular come to mind when I mention the word "repetitive"; you will have your fare share of mindless boredom when traveling through some parts of the facilties, fighting the same 3-minute battle as many as 9 times before finally being able to progress to the next area.
Those things being said, for the most part the battles are fun and engaging. The boss fights, in particular, are a joy to play, as are the cutscenes afterwards. This game has a fair share of memorable moments contained within it, and the rest of the game is worth the play-through to experience them. The end is perfectly crafted, and leaves you with a warm, satisfied feeling, almost as if the game's problems made the ending all that more the rewarding.
Because of the mental patience and effort you must go through to see this game to the end, you probably won't want to play it again for at least a year or two after you finish it. But it is certainly worth experiencing, even once. You owe it to yourself to experience this story. Recommended, if you can find it for a low price.
Description of Hybrid Heaven
Hybrid Heaven apparently derives its name from the different genres involved, including role-playing games (RPGs), action, and fighting. This dynamic combination is most notable in the game's battle mode. Enter a room containing an enemy, and battle mode is activated, presenting you with action-interrupting onscreen choices to fight, defend, or evade. Each of these choices has many associated subchoices, drilling down to the nth degree and, in effect, squashing the game's enjoyment value.The story, conveyed in the game's painfully long opening cinematic sequence (and not found in the manual), features an American secret agent who walks around his apartment naked, and is then shot in a New York subway. Strangely, players take control of the shooter, guiding him through sparsely populated hallways in an underground facility that breeds human clones and other biological anomalies.
This game is slow and tedious, but may appease RPG fans who have been looking for some dodecahedron dice-rolling fun on their Nintendo 64. An expansion pack can be used for a higher resolution mode and a letterboxed view. The game does have some merit, being a unique title and attempting to tackle a grandiose plot line, but in the end, Hybrid Heaven is a bit too convoluted. --Jeff Young
Pros:
- Interesting mix of game genres
- An odd, yet intricate storyline may have lost a bit of congruity in translation from Japanese
- Slow pace
- Strange interface
- Unexciting graphics
Role-Playing Games
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