Unfortunately, Slave Zero ends not long after things start getting really good. There are 16 missions in total, which really is not enough for such a fast moving genre. Experienced gamers could easily finish it in one or two all-nighters, which makes its $40 street price tag a bit hard to swallow. In addition, there is no multi-player to keep things interesting when you finish the game. Due to its brevity, Slave Zero seems very suited as a game to bundle with hardware but does not hold up as well as a stand-alone product.
The overall look of Slave Zero is much like the future corporate look of Blade Runner. The game takes place on, under and in the military industrial hell of Megacity S1-9 (we don't think 7 of 9 grew up there, but it's possible), the kind of place that makes the Detroit of Robocop look pleasant. Gigantic dark arcologies impale the sky. Bridges span the gaps between five-mile tall industrial buildings. From half way up, the ground is lost from sight beneath boiling toxic smog. It's dark, dingy and depressing, much like my apartment. It's also quite awesome to behold, unlike my apartment (well, I guess that depends on your tastes).
One of our favorite parts of Slave Zero is how you can pick up people and throw them with deadly accuracy, to both the person and the target. And if you miss, you'll leave a nice red splotch on the side of a building that sticks, drips, and slowly slides down.
The scale of Slave Zero is huge and impressive, which is good because you're a 60-foot robot that likes to step on people. It's hard to step on people when you're on your hands and knees crawling through a dungeon. S1-9 is a bustling metropolis filled with busses, blimps, billboards, buildings, and bridges as well as other things that don't start with the letter "B," like cars and people. Everything is smaller than you are and a lot easier to break as well. A few punches can turn a whole factory building into flaming wreckage. You get a good sense of scale, which was probably a primary goal of the designers. You also feel like you're in a real city. Things are going on around you that your presence is disrupting, like rush hour traffic.
Another "B" word that applies to Slave Zero is bump mapping. Well, that's a "BM" word, but who cares? Slave Zero supports embossing and environmental bump mapping. Right now, the only mainstream 3D card that supports environmental bump mapping is Matrox's G400. And with environmental bump mapping enabled in 32-bit color, things are so good looking, they give us goosebumps (wukka wukka wukka!). Slave Zero has wonderful graphics all-around.