Official Website

Platform: PlayStation 2

Genre: Action

Number of Players: 1

Peripherals: USB Headset

Known in Japan as: Operator's Side

You've really got to hand it to the video game industry for coming up with some rather inventive ideas of the past year or so. Already we've had games that took the joy of dancing from the arcade right into your living room, a USB camera that actually allows you to interact with the game itself, and then the microphone and headsets that will let you communicate with the game itself as well as your friends. And, while Sony's headsets, as well as those of third party companies, have managed to get plenty of use with SOCOM and many of the new EA sports titles, leave it to Sony to once again come up with another idea for the product.

Lifeline is the PS2's first voice recognition action game. Unlike SOCOM where you are in control of the action and use the headset simply to tell your team members what they should be doing, Lifeline takes a different approach. The year is 2029 and you and your girlfriend are attending the grand opening of Japan's Space Station Hotel. It should be an extravagant event, but that quickly is shattered. The hotel is attacks by strange creatures and the next thing you know, you awake in the stations security room. That's where you meet Rio, a member of the hotels staff, but Rio is locked away in a cell and you are her only means to escape. You are stuck in your present location, and Rio needs assistance as well, and so you must be her guide if the two of you plan on making it off the station alive.

The set up for the game, at least in terms of game play, is very simple. You only are going to be using the square button to occasionally open doors for Rio and then circle to communicate with her. You will of course also have to own a USB headset as well since the game does require on the player communicating verbally with Rio. Aside from that, the only other buttons are the shoulder buttons that can access maps, a list of key words and phrases, and display what items Rio currently has. That in itself might sound very easy, but it gets a little more complex than that.

This is a game where clear annunciation is going to come in very handy. As Rio moves from location to location, you will have to tell her what you want her to look at and where she should go. If you tell her, "Go over there," she'll have no idea what you mean, and question you about it. Being precise and specific is the real key. You'll always want to check your map to see what is in each room. Say, "table" and that's where she will go, and so forth. You need to be specific with what items you'd like her to check as well. You can tell Rio to check a bottle and she will, and if you're more specific, like by saying "green bottle" for instance, that is the one that she will examine. While she explores the station, with your help of course, Rio will find a number of clues as well as items that will help her out.

It's not all about wandering however. There are aliens on this station, and they show up from time to time, placing Rio in a combat situation. Rio however isn't the most skilled fighter there ever was, and she'll often admit to it. So, what you're going to have to do is tell her what she'll need to do. Each enemy will have various body parts that can be targeted, although the techniques you will need to use will be different from enemy to enemy. If you want Rio to shot in the head, that's what you will say, or stomach, or right eye, or any other part that is listed. If there are two enemies and you want to target the first one, tell her "number one." If there are too many of them, tell her to dodge, or if she's running low on health, you'll need to tell her to flee and recover. Sometimes enemies will appear and Rio won't see them however, and in those instances, you're going to need to warn her, otherwise she gets a bit testy with you. You also are going to need to tell her when to reload her weapon, as she is a bit slower if she does it alone. Lastly, you can combine commands, usually the result being combat that flows much smoother, and quickly.

To give you a break though, there are a few other options included. Saying, "consultation" for example will give you a break while Rio jabbers on about events that have happened. The cinematic scenes will also not only reveal more of the story, but also give you a series of questions that you can ask her. You can also say "category game" and Rio will take some time out to play a game with you. She'll pick the topic such as Summer Olympic Events, states, etc and then the two of you will have to name the ones you can think of, in the right amount of time and without repeating of course. However, I think that the computer cheats quite a bit here, often times taking longer to answer than what I was allowed, then telling me the score so far and how she's unbeatable. Yeah, if you cheat you're unbeatable, and that's just what she's doing. There are mini games as well which are located in the bonus section, but you will need to have Rio collect four chips to open each individual one.

The concept itself is very interesting, but where the real key to playing comes in is with patience. Often times, the computer won't quite understand a word if it isn't said clearly enough, or often times will mistake it for something else.  This can make things extremely frustrating at times, especially when you've told Rio to go to one location and she's moving to another, or you tell her what object she should look at and she has no idea what it is. However, that can also be due to not knowing exactly what something is, and luckily you have a zoom in feature that will allow you to get a better look at Rio's surroundings, although it isn't always helpful enough. The game is set in a fashion where you need to be exceptionally precise with what you say, and even the slightest alteration will cause something completely different to happen where Rio is concerned.

I'm sure there are some guys out there wondering just how far you can take things with being able to interact with Rio. Well, this isn't a strip show, but there are a few things that, if said, Rio will have a comical answer to, in most cases anyway. There are a few that I don't think the game was actually programmed to understand, but since they occasionally do sound similar, you may get some funny reactions from them.

The game isn't too bad graphically, although the enemies seem to be very unimaginative at times, and you usually face the same types over and over, just with different colors. The only real exception to this rule would be the bosses, but they tend to be few and far between. The cut scenes are done more in the "in-game" style of graphics instead of using fully rendered CG, although there is a bit here and there. Although the game could mistakenly be considered survival horror, I wouldn't lump it into that category, especially the areas are brightly lit for the most part, and the creatures on board the ship aren't something that is nightmare inducing, unless of course you have an inherent fear of slugs.

I'm really not sure why it is that Sony opted to not release this title, but I do think that Konami did the right thing by picking it up. It is a one of a kind title, at least for now. I'm sure that more games will follow in time. I can only imagine what types of games might be designed in Japan using this technology, but seeing as how their views on certain things are a bit more relaxed than our happen to be in the United States, if there are any titles that have a bit more of an adult theme, we won't see them over here. But, I guess it's okay to run people down with a car, like in Grand Theft Auto for instance, but we don't want there to be any nudity shown, and certainly no adult material.

Aside from the frustration factor of the game, which can go from mild to wanting to punch the screen in a matter of seconds, I can see how this can be used as an educational as well as instructional tool as well, teaching those that have difficulty with their pronunciation more effectiveness. Lifeline however can be a time consuming game, mainly due to Rio not listening properly (okay, maybe it's how I'm saying things) but it also is a title that I would recommend renting, assuming there are video stores that carry the title, or at least borrowing it from someone else who owns it prior to making the decision to purchase the game.

-mike-