Requiem: Avenging Angel (PC)

GameSpot editors' review

• CNET editors' rating: 3.5 stars Very good
  Detailed editors' rating
  Overall score: 7.3 (3.5 stars)

• Reviewed by:
  Elliott Chin
• Reviewed on: 04/25/1999
• Updated on: 05/05/2000
• Released on: 03/31/1999
• Originally published on GameSpot: Requiem: Avenging Angel (PC) Review

Half-Life didn't usher in a new era so much as it showed us a glimpse of what the future holds for 3D shooters. While it would be unfair to ask that every game be as good as Valve's shooter, it wouldn't be unfair to expect all shooters hence to have better stories and better design. Cyclone Studios' Requiem: Avenging Angel isn't as compelling or universally appealing as Half-Life, but it is a pretty good shooter otherwise. Its pacing, level design, and graphics ensure that it's a typical 3D shooter, but the presence of some highly amusing angelic powers and the unique premise take it near the top of the current crop of action games.

In Requiem, you play Malachi, an angel sent by God to stop the machinations of the Fallen, angels who went against God's word and were cast out from Heaven eons ago. The evil outcast Lilith leads them and has decided to snuff out all human life. She has sent her agents to Earth, who are possessing Earth's leaders, rounding up the innocent, and using them to power a massive spaceship called Leviathan. The plot won't win a Pulitzer prize, but it does set up the action uniquely. All you have to know is that you are God's vengeance given form, and you must stop the Earthbound Fallen, while also occasionally doing battle with a few boss Fallen in the realm of Chaos, the limbo that exists between Heaven and Hell.

The game opens in Chaos, with you needing to find your way to the portal that leads to Earth. While Chaos is supposed to house the many lost souls, it is amazingly empty. This problem persists throughout the game. Certain levels are meant to be populated towns but are really just ghost towns with one or two NPCs. The pacing of this game is fairly slow in the beginning but does ramp up to some very intense action. Oftentimes, you'll find yourself getting ambushed from behind by half a dozen soldiers. These enemies tend to appear out of thin air, but at least they keep the action flowing.

In many ways, Requiem is your average shooter. Its level design is straightforward, with few surprises or branches. Some levels bog down due to an unintuitive puzzle or the need to fetch a key. If you failed to pass by the crucial clue or pick up the vital keycard, you could be wandering around in circles for a while. The plot, while unique in premise, doesn't really pick up until later in the game. It isn't compelling from the start; you meet one NPC who tells you to complete a task, and then you meet another who sets you up with a new mission. At this point, the gameplay is just wandering around killing things for the sake of it, rather than toward a greater goal. However, the story does become more prominent later and is helped along by an occasional cutscene.

What Requiem deserves praise for are Malachi's angelic powers. His normal weapons in the game are unoriginal - the obligatory shotgun, machine gun, rocket launcher, sniper rifle, etc. - but the angelic powers are something else entirely. The closest thing to them would be the Force powers in Jedi Knight, but the powers in Requiem are more interesting and better implemented. They are divided into different categories: offensive, defensive, maneuver, and interactive powers. Offensive and defensive powers are very straightforward, as are the maneuver powers, but the interactive powers include those that can be used to manipulate enemies in more exotic ways. You can possess an enemy and move through him with the possession power or compel an enemy to fight for you with insist.

The effects for most of these powers are quite spectacular. Enemies targeted by To Salt turn into solid white salt statues and stand frozen for a fraction of a second before disintegrating into fine white powder. Casting Time Warp conjures up images of the slow-motion action scenes in John Woo movies or The Matrix. Time Warp slows time down all around you. Enemies not only move and fire at half speed, but they also die in slow motion. In real time, a dead soldier would simply reel backward and fall spinning to the floor. But with Time Warp, you'll see frame-by-frame animation; he'll appear to float in the air, spinning around in slow motion, as the shells from your gun fall to the ground like feathers.

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