Elemental Gearbolt (PlayStation)

GameSpot editors' review

• CNET editors' rating: 3.5 stars Very good
  Detailed editors' rating
  Overall score: 7.5 (3.5 stars)

• Reviewed by:
  Joe Fielder
• Reviewed on: 01/23/1998
• Updated on: 04/28/2000
• Released on: 06/30/1998
• Originally published on GameSpot: Elemental Gearbolt (PlayStation) Review

With the recent release of Time Crisis, Point Blank, and now Elemental Gearbolt, it finally appears that a good number of gun games are coming out for the Sony PlayStation. Or, at the very least, a number approaching the volume of PS gun peripherals currently on the market.

Elemental Gearbolt is, if anything, unique. It's a first-person-perspective rail-based game that combines gameplay of two genres: traditional gun games and shooters. As in Time Crisis and Virtua Cop, EG's gameplay occasionally pauses in spots to let you pick off enemies at your will. But overall, the pace is more like Panzer Dragoon (whose graphics and sci-fi/fantasy theme it generally mirrors), which keeps you consistently moving along.

The Elemental Gearbolt premise, explained and furthered by extended animated sequences, puts you - either by yourself or with a gun-toting friend - up to the task of trying to vanquish an empire that has overtaken the land. The goals within its six stages of play are simple: Wipe out the troops and sub-bosses, shoot fairies free from the jeweled magical prisons that envelop them, and take on the main bad guy himself.

The mechanics of having to collect more ammo and reload are withdrawn, as your gun is apparently magic-based. Three elemental weapon options are available, which vary in degrees of damage, speed of fire, and blast radius. The fire elemental setting provides a slow but very powerful shot that can destroy most enemies in a single attempt; the water elemental expels three weak but fast shots; and the lightning elemental works like a shotgun, slowly scattering a hoard of wide medium-powered blasts. The fire elemental is primarily used within the beginning areas of each stage for wiping out the onrushing swarming masses. The water or lightning elemental can provide quick shots for destroying fire from the sub-bosses and boss, while a companion, if present, bombards them straightaway with the fire elemental setting.

Once a level is finished, you are presented with the "trade-off" system, which lets you decide if you want to take your bonuses in the form of experience points, score points, or percentages of both. Bonuses come from the number of enemies destroyed, coins collected, and from how many consecutive hits you have accomplished. Though your motivation for getting a high score seems to be solely braggadocio, advancing levels through experience points will increase maximum health, just like in an RPG.

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