Malice

OK so I was asked the question: what do I give Malice? I played this game a while ago so my recollection is a little bit hazy. Here goes anyway. Malice was touted as an Xbox launch title and was originally voiced by Gwen Stefani. Let's just say, neither of those things happened. By the time it made it to market, the Xbox was well along the way and Gwen was out of the picture (and more accurately, the sound). I played the Xbox version because the game was originally designed for the Xbox by Argnonaut software. Honestly, the game felt somewhat unpolished. The textures were kind of muddy and the camera was typically a bit of an issue at times. However, I felt compelled to keep playing. So much so, that I finished the game. My friend Adam (who asked me what I'd give this game) was playing it roughly at the same time as I was. What I remember was that it was short, it was reasonably fun but I hated the whole Beach of Souls thing (when you died you went to this beach with other dead people). I didn't really get that at first so it just made it ... well, strange. I also discovered a bug in the game... I finished off a boss and you are supposed to get a key that appears in the center of the room. Well, I beat him and for some reason, the key did not appear. Well I wasn't sure what was going on so I wandered around trying to figure out what to do for a LONG time. I don't think there was an FAQ out for the game at the time but when I talked to Adam he said yeah a key appeared and blah blah....well, fortunately, I had a save that wasn't too far back (a level or two) and I went back to that and redid everything and this time it worked ok. This is the second time I've discovered a major nasty bug in a game (the other time was Dragon's Lair 3D). All in all, I have fond memories of Malice and I would give it a 6.5 out of 10 - better than average but there are better games out there. Obviously, unless something strange happens there will be no sequel.