PS2 Underrated Gem: Giants: Citizen Kabuto
60This is a series of gameplay vids I'm doing highlighting overlooked games for the PS2.
I remember being in my local Walmart a few years back buying some games, I believe that I was buying The Mark of Kri, and I had just enough money left over to buy either Project Eden, or Giants: Citizen Kabuto. Both were a mere $20 brand new. I chose Project Eden, and though I don't regret it, because I really enjoyed that game, I do regret not getting this game sooner. This is only a recent acquisition for me.
Giants: Citizen Kabuto is a fun, and humorous third person shooter that also infuses the gameplay with some strategy elements, and even some racing. This game was originally made on the PC by Planet Moon Studios (the team who would later go on to make Armed and Dangerous on the PC and Xbox) in 2000, but was later ported to the PS2 in 2001 by Digital Mayhem (who would later go on to make RLH- Run Like Hell on the PS2 and Xbox).
Giants is split up between three campaigns. You start out playing as the Mecc guys with the green helmets who get a good arsenal of weapons, and more importantly a nice Jetpack to boost quickly around the large-scale environments. There is even a few Squad shooter elements, and you are able to give your squad a few basic commands like attack, regroup, and retreat.
Once you're done with the Mecc missions, you then take control of Delphi who is a reaper. Her missions largely consist of the strategy-game elements where you have to save the little smarty guys, and help them build and defend a village. Some of these missions tend to drag on, but just remember that you don't have to save every smarty on the map. You just need enough to get your tornado spell and wipe out the enemy base.
During Delphi's missions you are also faced one vehicle scene, and then four race scenes. The developers no doubt put the racing scenes in there to try and break up the monotony, but they are actually the point where some people will want to stop playing the game. I only had to restart one myself, and was able to beat most of them in my first try, but if you're not a fan of racing games, or aren't that good at them, then you will probably be annoyed at these scenes.
Her dash move also takes some getting used to in the controls, and her spells seem to shoot way off and aren't very helpful overall.
The Kabuto missions are pretty straight forward. I haven't completely beaten the game fully as of writing this, but so far they deal with building up your strength by eating evil smarties, and also hatching baby monsters to help you on your journey. In order to regain your life, you also eat the enemy soldiers.
The game is really good, but it has it's problems as well. First of all, the game can be very frustrating at times. Sometimes the enemies overwhelm you and murder you in a matter of seconds. This means sometimes you'll have to slowly grind ahead sniping them from a distance and constantly going back for ammo. It's slow, but keep in mind that you can save anywhere in the game, so kill a few baddies, and save.
But then again, the load times, and the save times can also be pretty long, and the game sometimes has some nasty slowdown. I mean to the point of an unplayable slideshow, but it's not often. It only occurred once or twice while I was playing.
Overall, those gamers looking for a quality third person shooter with a good sense of humor should look into Giants. It has it's flaws, but is overall a worthwhile experience. Especially the early missions where you control the Mecc guys.
You can look for the PS2 version in your local game stores, or you can buy the PC version on GoG.com for a mere $6.
Buy it here: http://www.gog.com/en/gamecard/giants_citizen_kabuto
There was apparently an Xbox port planned for this game, but it was canceled.
NOTE: To those who want to quote metacritic reviews cores to me, go here:
http://dookiecakes.blogspot.com/2010/08/clarification-of-when-i-use-term.html
And STFU. I'm not talking about review scores.