TOKYO – The 3rd Birthday packs more nonstop action than one might expect from the followup to Parasite Eve.
The original two games, released for the PlayStation a little over 10 years ago, straddled genres. But they were generally referred to as a role-playing game and survival horror, respectively. Based on the horror novel from Hidaeki Sena, they followed the adventures of a character named Aya Brea who was forced to fight all sorts of gross things. The long-awaited PSP followup, playable at Square Enix's Tokyo Game Show booth, is an all-out shooter, a fast-paced action game with some interesting ideas.
To be released on December 22 in Japan and sometime next year in the U.S., The 3rd Birthday most closely resembles a more casual version of Gears of War. The camera position is locked over Aya's shoulder, and the game has a rudimentary cover system – if you see any big red boxes, you can crouch behind them and leap over them. But it's hard to properly call it a "shooter" when you don't really aim your gun. If you press the fire button without aiming the weapon, Aya will free-fire in the direction you're facing. This is useless. What you actually want to do is hold the R button, which will lock you on to the nearest enemy.
Aya's special power is the ability to "overdive" – switch bodies with any of the team members who are in your vicinity. This is important right from the beginning, as you'll need the power to zoom around the first battle area as you fight a massive introductory boss. Swapping positions lets you escape an enemy's clutches or find a better vantage point from which to pump bullets into it.
You can also overdive into enemies when their health gets low enough, which will allow you to make them explode into gory bits from the inside.
Another key feature is "linkage." Lock on to a nearby enemy but refrain from shooting it and a meter will start to fill; when it does you can unload some bullets into it in rapid-fire just by holding down the fire button. This even works when you're holding your dinky pistol, so it's quite useful.
It's tough to say quite how The 3rd Birthday will shake out, since a 10-minute demo of practically any shooter is going to be fun. But I felt like it all came together well. It's a pretty game, the action feels smooth and the different combat moves could be used to create some unique encounters.
