Aeon Flux
Utterly Fluxed.
Published: December 12, 2005
Maybe it's because of all these acrobatic theatrics that I got so frustrated with the game. There are plenty of moments when doing cool stuff nets you a slo-mo view of the action like leaping off a wall or vaulting into the air after jumping over a small step, but it's the basics, like all the platforming (or, uh, pole-forming) that the game just ends up screwing up on.
There are some cool level designs, and the overall look of the game is probably Terminal Reality's strongest, with plenty of futuristic vistas dotted with bits of neon or crumbling stone and metal structures, but it never really comes together as a complete and immersive world, usually because the game skips around so damned much without sharing enough common ground.
The introductory and especially ending cinematics, however are, awesome, and continue Blur Studios' work of, well, blurring the line between what's CG and actual movie footage. The first few seconds of the intro were footage from the movie, I thought, until I started noticing things were just a bit off. Lighting and animation-wise, though, it was incredible.
The animations, textures and lighting are all competent - three refinements of the Infernal Engine that powers BloodRayne have seen to that - but the framerate can be absolutely hideous at times. It honestly gets first-generation PlayStation 2 game bad during some points, and often without anything major going on that would explain it. It does affect things negatively, if only in that it breaks the illusion that this smooth, graceful ninja of a woman is flawless.
The audio's equally uneven. The sound effects, when they pop up, are fair, usually very simple and clean blips or taps from Aeon's weapon when her fists and feet aren't connecting with another body with a satisfying thump. The music, though, is uninspiring. It's not horrible, but it does just sit there, usually looping without ever feeling like it's contributing to things. The voice work's the same.
Though the cast as a whole puts up some nice performances (I'm thinking specifically about Laura Bailey's work as Una, Aeon's sister, but then she is Rayne from the BoodRayne games), even Charleze Theron herself is a little too meek most of the time. None of the performances sound outright horrible save for maybe the bad fake accent for Sithandra, Aeon's mentor.
In the end, Aeon Flux just doesn't pull together enough to make it a polished, complete experience. There are some very solid things in place here, but many of them are lifted from games that did them better, and others are just plain messed up. You can tell the development team dug the source material, and in some ways they did it justice, but overall, the levels are too uneven, the difficulty spikes to pronounced and the action a bit too repetitive to stay fun for long.
