Genuine helplessness, noises in the dark, the knowledge that you could be at any time one second away from death from monsters you cannot see...
There are fewer games more compelling in their ability to make you feel terrified than "Enemy Zero." While it may not offer narrative surprises that make one stare in awe, the game already does that by creating an atmosphere of trodding through dark corridors on pins and needles. The lone piano chime as your only cue that something dangerous is nearby kicks the senses into overdrive, and with only a limited number of saves and loads allowed per file, you cannot abuse them. The intent is about pure sensation within the player, horror that derives from primal science-fiction.
There are fewer games more compelling in their ability to make you feel terrified than "Enemy Zero." While it may not offer narrative surprises that make one stare in awe, the game already does that by creating an atmosphere of trodding through dark corridors on pins and needles. The lone piano chime as your only cue that something dangerous is nearby kicks the senses into overdrive, and with only a limited number of saves and loads allowed per file, you cannot abuse them. The intent is about pure sensation within the player, horror that derives from primal science-fiction.
this game really isn't the worst but I remember it not being that scary just more frustrating. obviously making the mechanics more difficult (like in this game making the gun dookie balls) CAN make a game scarier but I felt more annoyance over fear.
This review contains spoilers
(played on normal difficulty)
the visuals, the music, the concept of invisible enemies you can only locate through audio cues, all of that is 10/10.
once you get used to the trial and error combat, it isn't completely terrible. the limited saving/loading interacting with trial and error combat and exploration (fuck the ducts), and the vague objectives, is kind of terrible. i feel like a lot of it was there just to pad the games length out a bit.
by the time i got to disc 3 I had about 14 energy left and figured once that's gone i'd have to start a new game. i wasn't about to go through all of the game again so starting from when i got the last gun i was making save states at the start of each floor. i'm usually extremely against save states but i'm straight up not going through that shit again, this game is special and i didn't want my enjoyment to get obliterated towards the end, because otherwise i'd probably have just abandoned it.
the visuals, the music, the concept of invisible enemies you can only locate through audio cues, all of that is 10/10.
once you get used to the trial and error combat, it isn't completely terrible. the limited saving/loading interacting with trial and error combat and exploration (fuck the ducts), and the vague objectives, is kind of terrible. i feel like a lot of it was there just to pad the games length out a bit.
by the time i got to disc 3 I had about 14 energy left and figured once that's gone i'd have to start a new game. i wasn't about to go through all of the game again so starting from when i got the last gun i was making save states at the start of each floor. i'm usually extremely against save states but i'm straight up not going through that shit again, this game is special and i didn't want my enjoyment to get obliterated towards the end, because otherwise i'd probably have just abandoned it.
kenjj eno was ahead of his times in so many ways but its just surprising how so many great concepts were built upon in enemy zero. i hate to use the word “””””cinematic””””” when talking about video games but i really like how the characters from his other works act as “digital actors” while breaking up the gameplay with point and click chunks to move the story along without having to have 30 minute long cutscenes. a game that feels like a cinematic experience with gameplay, surprising i know.
kinda sucks that this and a source mod are the only games to explore the concept of an invisible enemy that you can only hear but it does it so well. the latter half can get really annoying with how many enemys it throws at you but the first half is SO good. recommend running the pc port for mouse aim.
kinda sucks that this and a source mod are the only games to explore the concept of an invisible enemy that you can only hear but it does it so well. the latter half can get really annoying with how many enemys it throws at you but the first half is SO good. recommend running the pc port for mouse aim.
It's just perfect. Play on sega saturn emulator
most horror games put on the facade of "disempowering the player" but from resident evil to clock tower to penumbra/amnesia to alien isolation or whatever this game might remind you of, it's never actually true.
but in Enemy Zero, you really are fucked from start to finish. end paragraph
anyone who's uttered any variation of "difficulty in video games" should play this. no fast forwarding or save states. make your own maps. normal difficulty. report back within the hour
but in Enemy Zero, you really are fucked from start to finish. end paragraph
anyone who's uttered any variation of "difficulty in video games" should play this. no fast forwarding or save states. make your own maps. normal difficulty. report back within the hour
A second game in the D "trilogy", Enemy Zero is another "interactive movie" from Kenji Eno, this time for Sega Saturn.
It's probably the game out of the trilogy I've enjoyed the least. First of all, let's talk about the whole "interactive movie" thing. None of Eno's games can be even remotely perceived as movies, and if this WERE a movie, it'd be panned for being a complete and utter rip-off of Alien, which I know even though I've never seen Alien, because it's just so blatant.
I don't think I've mentioned this in my previous reviews, but Kenji Eno had this wild idea about having "digital actors" in his games. That is, the idea that you can reuse the same character who would "play" different people. When examined in the, let's call it Laura trilogy, it failed miserably. Indeed, the only connecting tissue between the games is the main character, always called Laura, who's always a different person. However if you've not read about the digital actor idea, you'd probably just think Eno likes the name, because with games coming out on different platforms Laura always looks different. Does she have the same actress? Also no. In fact, this is yet another game in which Laura is basically mute, which really begs the question as to why you make what's supposed to be a movie with the main character who never really reacts to things outside of a shocked gasp. The only good thing to come out of this idea is that they could skip some of the character design, I suppose.
Enemy Zero is a bit of a mix between D and D2 in terms of gameplay: there are plenty of pre-rendered rooms you can examine and collect items, but it also has a few labyrinthian FPS sequences where you try to kill invisible enemies via a metal detector-like sound system of various beeps and bloops. It's probably the best part of the game because at least it's original and somewhat tense.
As with other Laura titles, this game also likes to waste your time and be needlessly obtuse at points, and this time I just gave up and used the guide halfway through as the game pretty much required me to go to a random spot on a fairly large map. On the other hand, some puzzles basically solve themselves, which is really strange. The music and graphics are, as always, nice, but I just can never recommend actually playing Eno's main series of games because they seem designed to infuriate, and their best (and worst) moments are confined to cutscenes.
And yet again I find that it was the original D to shock me the most with its final flashback scene, as this game can barely be called scary. Unlike with D2 it doesn't even try to go for shock, mainly just featuring various levels of gore throughout. I've still enjoyed playing it more than D which felt completely pointless, but again, if this sounds interesting, Youtube is that-a-way.
It's probably the game out of the trilogy I've enjoyed the least. First of all, let's talk about the whole "interactive movie" thing. None of Eno's games can be even remotely perceived as movies, and if this WERE a movie, it'd be panned for being a complete and utter rip-off of Alien, which I know even though I've never seen Alien, because it's just so blatant.
I don't think I've mentioned this in my previous reviews, but Kenji Eno had this wild idea about having "digital actors" in his games. That is, the idea that you can reuse the same character who would "play" different people. When examined in the, let's call it Laura trilogy, it failed miserably. Indeed, the only connecting tissue between the games is the main character, always called Laura, who's always a different person. However if you've not read about the digital actor idea, you'd probably just think Eno likes the name, because with games coming out on different platforms Laura always looks different. Does she have the same actress? Also no. In fact, this is yet another game in which Laura is basically mute, which really begs the question as to why you make what's supposed to be a movie with the main character who never really reacts to things outside of a shocked gasp. The only good thing to come out of this idea is that they could skip some of the character design, I suppose.
Enemy Zero is a bit of a mix between D and D2 in terms of gameplay: there are plenty of pre-rendered rooms you can examine and collect items, but it also has a few labyrinthian FPS sequences where you try to kill invisible enemies via a metal detector-like sound system of various beeps and bloops. It's probably the best part of the game because at least it's original and somewhat tense.
As with other Laura titles, this game also likes to waste your time and be needlessly obtuse at points, and this time I just gave up and used the guide halfway through as the game pretty much required me to go to a random spot on a fairly large map. On the other hand, some puzzles basically solve themselves, which is really strange. The music and graphics are, as always, nice, but I just can never recommend actually playing Eno's main series of games because they seem designed to infuriate, and their best (and worst) moments are confined to cutscenes.
And yet again I find that it was the original D to shock me the most with its final flashback scene, as this game can barely be called scary. Unlike with D2 it doesn't even try to go for shock, mainly just featuring various levels of gore throughout. I've still enjoyed playing it more than D which felt completely pointless, but again, if this sounds interesting, Youtube is that-a-way.
Joya oculta y de culto de SEGA Saturn que no había tenido oportunidad de jugar hasta ahora. El juego combina fases de aventura gráfica, donde nos moveremos por un entorno CGI (tipo Myst) para resolver puzles y pasillos/laberintos en 3D donde tendremos libertad de movimiento y deberemos evitar enemigos invisibles. Para ello contaremos unicamente con un pinganillo que emite pitidos segun la proximidad de los enemigos y una pistola cuyos disparos requieren un tiempo de carga y son muy limitados. Además para cargar/guardar partida tenemos un dispositivo de batería limitada que se irá agotando, hasta obligarnos a empezar de nuevo si agotamos toda la batería.
Técnicamente el juego está bastante desfasado, al tratarse de un título de 32 bits, y el control también es de la época, sobretodo si no tienes el mando analógico de Saturn. Sin embargo, si consigues sobreponerte a eso vas a disfrutar de la auténtica experiencia del juego, que consigue a las mil maravillas mantenerte en tensión en todo momento. El hecho de tener enemigos invisibles, sólo pistas sonoras, una pistola muy limitada y un número finito de guardados/carga de partida te obliga a tener concentración máxima en todo momento, ya que sabes que un error lo puedes pagar muy caro.
Para mí este título es un claro precursor de Alien Isolation. Uno de esos juegos muy desconocido a día de hoy pero que en su época marcó una tendencia que otros aprovecharían más tarde para crear joyas del género de terror. Pese a sus limitaciones, ha conseguido engancharme por las sensaciones que transmite y la historia que cuenta, también muy inspirada en Alien: El Octavo Pasajero. Enemy Zero es una experiencia que todo amante de los videojuegos debería probar. Recomendado!
Técnicamente el juego está bastante desfasado, al tratarse de un título de 32 bits, y el control también es de la época, sobretodo si no tienes el mando analógico de Saturn. Sin embargo, si consigues sobreponerte a eso vas a disfrutar de la auténtica experiencia del juego, que consigue a las mil maravillas mantenerte en tensión en todo momento. El hecho de tener enemigos invisibles, sólo pistas sonoras, una pistola muy limitada y un número finito de guardados/carga de partida te obliga a tener concentración máxima en todo momento, ya que sabes que un error lo puedes pagar muy caro.
Para mí este título es un claro precursor de Alien Isolation. Uno de esos juegos muy desconocido a día de hoy pero que en su época marcó una tendencia que otros aprovecharían más tarde para crear joyas del género de terror. Pese a sus limitaciones, ha conseguido engancharme por las sensaciones que transmite y la historia que cuenta, también muy inspirada en Alien: El Octavo Pasajero. Enemy Zero es una experiencia que todo amante de los videojuegos debería probar. Recomendado!
game kinda stinks but george was peak
Memory presented as a delicate and fallible abstraction, defining our sentience, identity, and humanity. What keeps us as a species seeking survival aside from the bare minimum of self-preservation that separates the human condition to other species, and what is worth surviving and existing? Kenji Eno's space horror art-house game plays on his pet themes seen in D2 and set a preliminary thesis in Enemy Zero to great success a majority of its time. It plays like an interactive film hybrid of being a first person survival game mixed point-and-click adventure game with grounded puzzles that propel the story forward. Its inspiration is worn heavily on its sleeve borrowing a page from both Blade Runner to Alien. Without giving too much away, it manages to maintain its own identity and keeps from being contrived by expanding on certain thematic elements of both that aren't simple retreads.
Enemy Zero's protagonist stars Eno's Digital actress named 'Laura', a concept he heavily believed would be the future of entertainment and was thinking in the same vein as William Gibson's Idoru centering around a future with digital celebrities. Within the same year, the world was introduced to Tomb Raider and what we would soon see was the first digital celebrity being featured on Playboy magazine and spear-heading campaigns for Pepsi, cars, and other big brands.
The voice actor Jill Cunniff of the band Luscious Jackson plays Laura convincingly and I found myself invested in Laura's care for others and her plight. The concept of a digital actor ties well to its theme of sentience and whether a soul is defined by self-preservation and memory; his digital actress acts almost as a meta commentary on video games as a whole - the personification the player gives to an abstract 16 bit character or 32-bit blocky abstraction. We give likeness to what we want to identify as human or sentient, and in the case of Laura, what defines her humanity, or further asking what defines the human condition: the capacity for empathy towards the appreciation of abstractions; preservation of memory; whether we are always defined by painful memories and if they have merit to hold on to; caring for the other; and arguably the biggest theme, yearning for connection. Thematically the gameplay ties into these ideas, particularly the quasi-fps section.
Sensory experience is an integral piece of Enemy Zero and at the forefront of Eno's thematic obsessions of how humans interact with their environment, specifically auditory and visual. During the fps portions of the game, you navigate from dimly-lit sterile corridors completely alone, with only a ear-piece beacon and charge pulse-gun holding limited charges. You can't see the enemy, yet only hear them from 3-tonal pings indicating if its in front, to the side, or behind the player that intensifies the closer the enemy approaches until it's an unbearable crescendo followed by a harrowing screech as it closes-in. On top of this, the only weapon you have has to be timed perfectly to be used and can only fire within close-range. It is some of the most nerve-wracking moments I've ever experienced and is highly effective in not just engrossing the player, but also making confrontations daunting and forcing the player to become hyper aware of their environment. Without spoiling anything, it ties back to its humanist themes of experience perfectly and connects something not seen typically in games - the appreciation of silence, of experiencing the world through sounds and how a simple sound can instantly change our mood or yearn for a familiar voice we may never hear again.
Kenji Eno viewed games as little capsulized sensory experiences and his experimentation with sound being a core mechanic connecting to sight and memory are unlike anything in a game. Real Sound would be his most experimental in pushing this concept to its most extreme while D2 built on the foundation of both former titles. There are minute-sized details in Enemy Zero that I'll hold with me whenever I look back on this game: from the load/save mechanic acting as Laura's inner monologue and journal entries to Laura trying to grab holographic butterflies in vain, and Laura's reflection trapped in a projected window as she stares pensively towards space. The game isn't perfect and at times suffers from outdated design as a product of its time, yet these are small blemishes to the entire scope of its delivery. Eno was ahead of his time in trying to emulate an interactive film and for the most part is successful. It has near-perfect pacing in delivering its story and does not overstay its welcome. After finishing Enemy Zero, I wanted to immerse myself again in that environment and listen to its characters wax poetic and pontificate on the memories they live for. In turn, it had me thinking introspectively on the memories I hold onto; both painful and embarrassing, yet equally important in defining the self, and reminding me what I'm reaching towards in my own growth. These are the memories that I hope will never fade away, and ultimately keep me alive. To me, this is worth living for alone, and is worth everything.
Enemy Zero's protagonist stars Eno's Digital actress named 'Laura', a concept he heavily believed would be the future of entertainment and was thinking in the same vein as William Gibson's Idoru centering around a future with digital celebrities. Within the same year, the world was introduced to Tomb Raider and what we would soon see was the first digital celebrity being featured on Playboy magazine and spear-heading campaigns for Pepsi, cars, and other big brands.
The voice actor Jill Cunniff of the band Luscious Jackson plays Laura convincingly and I found myself invested in Laura's care for others and her plight. The concept of a digital actor ties well to its theme of sentience and whether a soul is defined by self-preservation and memory; his digital actress acts almost as a meta commentary on video games as a whole - the personification the player gives to an abstract 16 bit character or 32-bit blocky abstraction. We give likeness to what we want to identify as human or sentient, and in the case of Laura, what defines her humanity, or further asking what defines the human condition: the capacity for empathy towards the appreciation of abstractions; preservation of memory; whether we are always defined by painful memories and if they have merit to hold on to; caring for the other; and arguably the biggest theme, yearning for connection. Thematically the gameplay ties into these ideas, particularly the quasi-fps section.
Sensory experience is an integral piece of Enemy Zero and at the forefront of Eno's thematic obsessions of how humans interact with their environment, specifically auditory and visual. During the fps portions of the game, you navigate from dimly-lit sterile corridors completely alone, with only a ear-piece beacon and charge pulse-gun holding limited charges. You can't see the enemy, yet only hear them from 3-tonal pings indicating if its in front, to the side, or behind the player that intensifies the closer the enemy approaches until it's an unbearable crescendo followed by a harrowing screech as it closes-in. On top of this, the only weapon you have has to be timed perfectly to be used and can only fire within close-range. It is some of the most nerve-wracking moments I've ever experienced and is highly effective in not just engrossing the player, but also making confrontations daunting and forcing the player to become hyper aware of their environment. Without spoiling anything, it ties back to its humanist themes of experience perfectly and connects something not seen typically in games - the appreciation of silence, of experiencing the world through sounds and how a simple sound can instantly change our mood or yearn for a familiar voice we may never hear again.
Kenji Eno viewed games as little capsulized sensory experiences and his experimentation with sound being a core mechanic connecting to sight and memory are unlike anything in a game. Real Sound would be his most experimental in pushing this concept to its most extreme while D2 built on the foundation of both former titles. There are minute-sized details in Enemy Zero that I'll hold with me whenever I look back on this game: from the load/save mechanic acting as Laura's inner monologue and journal entries to Laura trying to grab holographic butterflies in vain, and Laura's reflection trapped in a projected window as she stares pensively towards space. The game isn't perfect and at times suffers from outdated design as a product of its time, yet these are small blemishes to the entire scope of its delivery. Eno was ahead of his time in trying to emulate an interactive film and for the most part is successful. It has near-perfect pacing in delivering its story and does not overstay its welcome. After finishing Enemy Zero, I wanted to immerse myself again in that environment and listen to its characters wax poetic and pontificate on the memories they live for. In turn, it had me thinking introspectively on the memories I hold onto; both painful and embarrassing, yet equally important in defining the self, and reminding me what I'm reaching towards in my own growth. These are the memories that I hope will never fade away, and ultimately keep me alive. To me, this is worth living for alone, and is worth everything.
While not my personal favorite of Eno's works, I would say that it's without a doubt his most consistently solid game. It's occasionally slow at points, but no game since has made me feel this apprehensive, even on repeat playthroughs. No amount of replays dulls this game's terrifying edge, and considering this came out in 1996, it's a real shame that basically 0 survival horror games since have even come close to being this legitimately anxiety inducing.
D but it's an alien ripoff and also with shitty clunky combat.