Abomination: The Nemesis Project

Pros • real-time/X-Com style fusion • Graphically-detailed environments	Cons • Frustrating artificial intelligence • Poor interface/control
Bottom Line Think of a real-time X-Com homage, rushed much too much in the playtesting department. It’s the end of the world as we know it...and I feel slimed. It’s right there in black-and-white: “Thou shalt not make X-Com real-time.” I’m certain it says that in the Bible, somewhere, at least three or four times. So why did they do it?

Abomination is a real-time game of squad-level combat presented in a bright, somewhat cartoonish isometric view which is your first clue that we have an X-Commish tip of the hat here. A plague worthy of Stephen King and H.P. Lovecraft simultaneously has devastated America (and presumably the rest of the world) over the course of six days (and in this universe we are lucky enough not to have that god-awful 7 Days television show, so that fix-it is right out the window), and the urban streets of the United States are overrun with mutant cyborgs, armed gangs, wandering freaks, machinery & vehicles sporting tentacles--it’s a lot like the Miami Winter Music Conference, only you won’t get laid, and the illegal aliens are, like, Aliens. The remaining population that has remained alive has broken into two main camps: A sort of doomsday cult who are more or less happy with the mess the Plague has left; and all those who have banded together as a resistance, trying to bring the world back under some kind of control.

As the real muscle for back-to-normality change, you control a core group of ultra-secret, genetically-enhanced soldiers recently emerged from a government bunker to confront the post-plague mutant menace, deal with the cult’s various acts of terrorism, and bring the world back to its pre-plague state. Between the tactical real-time missions which form the bulk of the game, you’ll be able to regulate the flow of time on a strategic response map which shows your military objectives, command centers and various depots---you can speed time up to advance to the next crisis, or slow it down to allow your assembled squads to be dispatched to hot-spots as they crop up.

In addition to the enhanced members of your comic-book super squad, you’ll also have access to lots of normal human troops (who will serve largely as cannon fodder, as you’ll need them to), while your commando-types handle the difficult missions. Unlike the majority of the agents you’ll control throughout the game (who are, after all, ordinary human beings), each of your core hybrid-heavies has a special skill---such as temporary invisibility, resistance to certain types of weapons, special demolition skills, the ability to heal or what have you---accessed by right-click menus. These menus also determine each character’s stance (prone, standing) as well as his/her combat Attitude (openly aggressive, return-fire-only). Like the special-skill scheme, it’s a good idea, and like the special-skill scheme, it doesn’t really seem to work too well in practice. Sometimes it seems to make no difference if a character is set prone in cover-fire position---I understand if somebody sneaks stealthily by while you’re sniper-locked on a distant target, but for God’s sake, turn around and take notice if something blows up behind you (cars, by the way, can be a great source of entertainment in this game as you can blow them up while characters duck for ‘cover’ next to them).

While Abomination’s range of weapon types is ultimately large and satisfying, you’ll often find your immediate stockpile wanting, and you’ll need to rummage around in the odd trashcan, box, or curbside corpse’s clothing for more. One um, interesting touch here is that it takes a set amount of time to thoroughly search said treasure troves, as it should---an onscreen progress bar appears, and those few frantic seconds of scrabbling (for what may be a devastating weapon or a useless pea-shooter you didn’t need) can draw out like a blade when you’re under fire. It makes utterly no sense of course (“You there! Check that mailbox for extra grenades!”), but it keeps combat teams vulnerable and their players edgy. I like it---but then, I like realistic running-speeds in first-person shooters too, and you wouldn’t believe the legions of Quake-nerds who whine on and on about that.

Things get more interesting and challenging when you get to the real baddies in Abomination---oh, you didn’t think it ended with the rifle-toting zombies, did you?---but all the coulda-woulda-shoulda here makes for a depressing near-miss. It looks like X-Com, and tries to pace like a real-time strategy game, but it’s not enough of either to win over the Faithful from either camp.

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