Someone tells you you're going to review a game based on ex-rock superstars KISS and some Circus gone out of control, the first thing that comes to mind is stinker. Seriously, have you ever seen a game based on a rock group actually do well? Or even be good? Have you heard of Ed Hunter, a game based around Iron Maiden? You get my drift. Until it's release I thought KISS: Psycho Circus: The Nightmare Child would be a game based on the KISS group members going about towns wrecking havoc (like they did with their guitars), turns out to be it's less KISS than KISS, in simple terms it's not about KISS but a comic book by Todd McFarlane based on the Rock superstars, confused?

Instead of a crappy story by the developers, the game is centered around a loose storyline telling of the 4 KISS members out to save the world aided by an all knowing woman/man/unknown with a crystal ball, each KISS member has to collect Armour "shards" in their specific realm and then face off against a powerful (unborn) foe called the Nightmare Child. Through the course of the game there are 4 realms that have to be sanitized of evil by each of the KISS members, each realm being centered on the 4 prime elements of Water, Earth, Air and Fire. These 4 realms were ruled by Gods that kept balance in their specific realms but something has gone wrong and the binds that held evil away from the world have come apart. This allows all out evil to attack on the mortal world and as always, you have to fix it all.

KISS, using the "Lithtech" engine looks pretty much on par to all but the highest of 3d engines today, it features most of the eye candy we have gotten used to with the exception of realistic water effects, but the true selling point comes through in the levels and their design, each level is built realistically and scaled to a precise detail. Textures are creative and non repetitive and the game is filled of various nifty graphical tweaks, like tracers on most of the weapons. This gives the game the extra edge it needs to come on tops of most mediocre 3D first person shooters. The engine has also been tweaked further to add a unique system called Horde Technology, this basically allows for copious amounts of monsters on screen without a hitch of slowdown, and unlike many features promised today by developers this actually works, many times you will come across a room full of monsters asking for a good ol' ass whoopin'.

Next >>