The 3rd Birthday

Ever since I had my PSP, I always knew that you couldn't do a proper Third or Fist person shooter with the controls it has. But for the life of me, I always fall for it time and time again and usually get dissapointed. While I'll admit many developers have made strides to improve the experience, it never felt enough. Enter The 3rd Birthday, a third person shooter that tries to compensate the lack of proper camera controls with other additions to the gameplay. Also, the game has strong ties to the Parasite Eve franchise, so I couldn't help but try it.

The story follows a female character by the name of Aya Brea, the main protagonist from the Parasite Eve franchise. In this story, New York has been ravaged by these monsters called the Twisted. Aya joins a team that has a device that can let Aya travel back in time to prevent these events from happening. Why Aya? Well see she has this ability called "Overdive" which allows Aya to project herself into another person and control them. And this time machine basically allows her to Overdive into the past. So Aya basically becomes some sort of time cop to prevent the Twisted from becoming a major threat.

Generally, the game plays like any PSP third person shooter, which honestly isn't all that well. You move with the analog nub and shoot with the R button. To control the camera, you have to use the D-Pad, and that never really works well. To compensate for not so great camera controls, The 3rd Birthday implements an auto-lock button on the L button. This way, the camera always stays focused on an enemy, and your free to switch between all enemies in the area with the D-Pad. You can also go behind cover behind conveniently placed objects throughout an area, which Aya initiates automatically. It works like you'd expect, but it just feels old. Though they try to changes things up with Aya's Overdive ability.

Since Aya has the ability to posses other humans, whenever another person is in the same area as Aya, she can freely transfer between any friendly allies. This is basically used for Aya to either get between places faster, or just let her live a lot longer. Aya has a life bar that regenerates over time, but in the cases where your getting hammered by the enemy, you can move to another ally who is farther from chaos. Along with that, Aya can Overdive into enemies to cause damage to them when a Triangle symbol appears over them, and Liberation mode, which is a meter that fills up when Aya deals damage to the enemy. When filled, Aya uses duel wielding pistols and can dodge pretty much any attack, though when the meter depletes, she'll return to normal.

You'd think with all these additions, the gameplay vary from the standard locking on to an enemy, moving around, and shooting until all enemies are dead. For the most part, these other additions don't really do much to help. Overdiving enemies leaves Aya at a vulnerable state, and if your not behind proper cover, you can get hit pretty hard. Also, it doesn't seem to do as much damage as you like. Given, the game states that Overdive damage is accumulative to your level, it never really felt like using Overdive was a proper trade off from just shooting bad guys till they die.

Your allies aren't exactly the smartest in the bunch, they usually just stand in one spot and shoot whatever is around them. Though you can tell all your allies to attack a specific enemy it doesn't really help much since you need to charge a meter to do so, which can be hard when a bunch of monsters are trying to attack you. Really, they just seem like a way for Aya to stay alive for as long as possible.

While, your primarily just running around and shooting things, they sometimes change things up every now and then. There are some vehicle moments, and even times when Aya simply has to just run away from a threatening monster. While neat, they aren't implemented very well. The running away sequences are nothing more then through corridors and Overdiving when needed, the controls never change so it can be difficult to navigate through theses moments. And while the vehicle moments are fun, they just don't seem properly thought out.

It may just come down to the general layout of each levels. You usually know when your going to be in a battle because you see objects lying around, and what do you know, enemies start spawning and you shoot everything till they die. Move on to the next area, and do the exact same. It works a lot like say, a Devil May Cry game where areas get closed of the instant enemies appear, and the only way to progress forward is to defeat them all.

Even the boss battles seem to be out dated. Your usually just locking on and shooting them until there dead. There probably was only one boss that made me travel to another side of the map to attack its weak point. And even then, your usually just behind cover, and waiting until your moment to strike.

The games strength is in its presentation. Like most of every Square Enix games, the cutscenes look fantastic and most of the character models look as great. Aside from that, I had some chugs every now and then, and even moments when the game just wouldn't load up the next sequence in a battle until I ran around a bit for no particular reason.

While The 3rd Birthday tries in its own way to hide its flaws by changing up the gameplay every once and awhile, it doesn't happen enough. Generic progression in the levels and predictable design don't do much for the game. Heck, even if The 3rd Birthday had some real innovative ways to compensate for the lack of a second analog nub, it wouldn't really help when it just comes down to what your doing. Really though, the decision to make this game a third person shooter probably wasn't the way to go.