Nanotech Warrior

Project: Snowblind is a fast-action first-person shooter with some serious sci-fi behind it. When a madman threatens to deploy his devastating EMP weapon against innocent people, the powerful Coalition Army sends in its trump card: an earnest young soldier who has been implanted with experimental nanotechnology and equipped with state-of-the-art weaponry. As Lt. Nathan Frost, players battle tanks, Mech-like machines called Ogres, and an entire army of well-armed commandos in order to save the day. It's no easy task, but Frost has the guts, the technology, and the firepower to get the job done.

Weapons from the future pack a nasty punch.

Nathan Frost has all the abilities an FPS star needs—he can jump, crouch, melee attack, and throw grenades—but he also does things a little differently. His bio-augmentation gives him special abilities like Enhanced Vision (so he can see through walls and in the dark), Cloak (Halo® 2-style active camouflage), and Reflex Boost (a kind of bullet time that slows down everything else on screen). These bio-augmented abilities only last a short time and deplete the special bio-energy meter, but the advantage they provide in both single- and multiplayer games is considerable. Another helpful innovation is the objective marker display, which highlights what you're looking for and/or the next place you need to go, so that you never have to wander around or backtrack unnecessarily.

The weapons in Project: Snowblind are also spectacular. There are futuristic versions of shooter mainstays like the rocket launcher, shotgun, and sniper rifle, but there are also unique and tactically devastating weapons like the mine launcher (which plants mines and lets the player detonate them on command), the flechette (which fires balls of energy that rebound off walls), and the rail laser (which is so powerful it can shoot through walls). Each weapon has an alternate fire mode that does more damage and is more visually impressive, but also burns through ammo much faster. The H.E.R.F electric blaster, for example, has a secondary fire that hurls sticky plasma balls which quickly explode. It's an effective weapon and a cool effect, but each plasma ball uses up one-third of an ammo clip.

Enhanced Vision: See them before they see you.

The robust multiplayer component supports both System Link and Xbox Live™, and if you're online you can create your own clan and track multiplayer stats. There are nine multiplayer maps derived from the locations in the single-player game and each features wildly varying multileveled terrain. Classic shooter game types like Capture the Flag and Deathmatch/Team Deathmatch are joined by more strategic, objective-oriented team games like Assault (where each team must attack the enemy base while simultaneously defending their own) and Demolition (teams must find and plant a bomb at a randomized bomb site). Project: Snowblind also lets players select a specific class of soldier; each class comes with a different weapons load-out and different bio-augmentations. The Sniper, for example, combines a sniper rifle and the H.E.R.F. gun with the bio-augmentation Cloak; the Heavy uses a rocket launcher and a pistol along with his Ballistic Shield ability. Finding the right balance between the class weapons and bio-augmented abilities will be every serious player's first step in achieving online dominance.

Along with the weapons and nanotech abilities, players are also able to use turrets and specialized combat vehicles in both single- and multiplayer, including tanks, armored cars (with and without weapons), and two-legged engines of destruction called Ogres. The sharp level design makes it possible for all of these varying elements to appear on the same map and be effective without any one element being overpowered—a nimble soldier with a pistol and some grenades is not necessarily dead meat just because he's squaring off against an Ogre. The levels also encourage three-dimensional thinking and reward exploration and experimentation—if you can think of a way around a problem or a shortcut to your objective, there's probably a ladder or a vent that you can exploit to get there.

Online multiplayer with class (and clans).

Project: Snowblind balances tried-and-tested shooter conventions (grenades, alt-fire, melee attacks) and innovative new touches (the biomod abilities and multiplayer character classes). It also serves up heaps of shooter action in a slick sci-fi package.

By Pete Hutter