GameSpot editors' review
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CNET editors' rating:
stars
Terrible
Detailed editors' rating
- Reviewed on: 02/13/2007
- Updated on: 06/22/2007
- Released on: 11/08/2006
- Originally published on GameSpot: Origin of the Species (PC) Review
You don't even have to open the box of DIRT: Origin of the Species to know that you're not exactly dealing with an A-list game. While some might not be apt to complain about the thong prominently displayed by the gun-toting girl on the cover, a couple of "Hey, wait a sec" moments are provided by the apparently random quotation attributed to President James "Maison" on the inside flap and a list of "intriguing" levels that places New York alongside ET hangouts Area 51, Groom Lake, and "Hanger" 18. So you don't need to have access to technology from crashed flying saucers to realize that the chances are pretty good that quality control isn't going to be a highlight of this third-person shooter from NuGeneration Games.
Some of Dirt's psychic maneuvers sure look cool, but they're not all that useful during gameplay.
And surprise, it isn't. Ugly, virtually unplayable in spots, and with a plot guaranteed to make your head spin when you're not laughing at the ridiculous dialogue, Origin of the Species is quite simply one of the worst games to hit hard drives in the past year.
The bizarro storyline is as good an example of the game's ineptitude as any. You wake up in a New York City jail cell watching what looks like a giant cockroach eating a guy. Sure, we've all been there. Well, in games, anyways. But none of this weirdness is readily explained or even touched on later, so you can't develop any interest in finding out what's going on. You're a candy raving riot grrrl wearing the "hot if it were 1999" outfit of thong panties peeking above hip-hugging pants, but you have amnesia and can recall only that your nickname is Dirt, you've got some psychic powers, and your friends may have abandoned you at a beach or something. A reporter who looks and talks like a hooker gives you some clues about a chemical spill "in some backwater craphole," and then you're off blasting giant bugs and what appear to be some kind of Special Forces commandos. Just in case that last sentence makes this storyline sound a little too generic, let's now add that you do all this with the aid of a sentient teddy bear backpack named Mr. Boo that tosses out the occasional tip.
As is usual with these hackneyed man-or-woman-of-mystery plots, the tale here is gradually revealed through little hints and cutscenes. Most of them make little sense, though. You might round a corner and trigger some inexplicable clip of police cars being tossed through the air, or get a comic book-style dialogue scene with an apparently anonymous civilian you just saved from a Kafkaesque death. Level structure makes zero sense. One moment you're on a torn-up NYC street, the next you walk through a doorway and you're in what looks to be some kind of Victorian mansion complete with heraldic arms on the wall. Vital plot points aren't hooked into the game properly. One key plot device at the start of the game, about a stranger coming to your assistance, is set up to trigger in an out-of-the-way room that you don't have to enter. But the mystery man's voice-over plays as you run by the room in question, so the game keeps going even if you soon wind up having to backtrack to figure out what the hell this voice is talking about.
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Origin of the Species (PC):
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