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XBX
Phantom Dust -
New Import |
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In a ruined future wracked by destruction and
cratered cities, man still lives to fight. Suit up
in hipster clothing and battle on tiered landscapes
where skills are gathered on the field. Upon
starting a game, a fighter can only run, jump, and
lock-on. In order to launch an attack however or
counter an incoming blast, skill spheres must be
picked up on the field and assigned to the four main
buttons on the Xbox joypad.
Over 300 possible skills which range the spectrum of attack,
defense, and level-up are available for addition
into a players bag of tricks. The wrinkle however is
that various skill spheres show up randomly for
pickup but players may hike the odds of a skill
appearing by placing it in multiple slots before a
stage begins.
Many attacks are available including a ripple wave blast, an
incendiary rain of fire, and one that encapsulates a
target in a luminous sphere and drains lifeforce. An
impressive attack that shows up is a local area
explosion which digs out the ground underneath your
feet and leaves pockmarks on the pavement. Anyone
that is close enough to be enveloped by the blast
suffers massive damage. While we're enjoying Phantom
Dust this morning, we did notice some niggles with
the camera work where it occasionally can't seem to
catch up to our forays as we ran, hopped, and raced
across an arena. We've only noticed it a few times
but we'll investigate further once we put the game
through its paces. |
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Visually, Phantom Dust is beautiful. The mottled
stone walls and grimy metal patchwork appear very
much the bombed-out dystopia that Microsoft Studios
apparently envisioned in their futuristic post
doomsday scenario. Little details throughout the game are also nice such as the huffing, puffing, and
haggard attempt to catch one's breath when a
fighter's lifeforce has drawn down to a few bars and
death is near... |
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