It isn’t often that I get excited over trailers and previews, but ever since I saw the unique presentation and sense of style I knew I wanted to play this game.

Wow, was I in for dissapointment.

You Play the game as Gene, or atleast initially, the game does boast 4 playable charecters, unfortunately certain aspects of the gameplay were so infuriating I simply lost the desire to finish this one. Let me tell you why it’s so bad, first off combat is clunky, at first glance it almost feels like the combat from the Kingdom Hearts series, although in order to do any damage you really need to do combo’s, since there are only two attack bottons, you realistically have only two combos. Luckily there is a lock on system, although dodging attacks seems rather dificult, perhaps the main character simply has a pocket full of rocks, either way, he could scarecely avoid a tree at a reasonable pace.

If only it was the combat that made the game feel like an utter joke, but no, there’s more. There is no formal “Magic” system in Code Age commanders, Powers are actually obtained from Oteros, which are essentially innocent little animals there seemingly for your use, you are able to assign up to three per arm, which, in many cases these Oteros end up saving your ass more than your devine sucktastic fighting skills, (Once I learned I could use sheep to heal myself they eventually became an endangered species :).

Okay, so the game is not awful, but lets’ just say it was a let down, The Graphics however are probably the most impressive aspect, and the Levels have a somewhat realtime aspect as you’ll see night change into day. Most of the enemy designs seem almost derivative of the Nobodies from Kindgom Hearts, infact so many things remind me ever so slightly of Kingdom Hearts I’m convinced they swapped notes, but I disgress.

Code Age Commanders shines in two ways, First off the story line is for one word strange, but it has it’s charm. Apparently they live on such a word that goes through some sort of Rebirth Cycle detsroying all life entirely to give way to a brand new habitat. The inhabitants become aware of this and build space age vessels with stasis chambers to pretty much ride that out (Which all of this is shown in a rather impressive opening CG scene), Well of course something goes wrong, they all crash to the ground and find things are no where as hospitable as they once were. The second aspect is the level of customization you have over your abilities, After each mission is completed you are able to Equip “Genes”, some genes are highly useful, I was particularly fond of one that gave me an Extra life, and your arms upgrade as you perfom your special attack successfully in what can be best described as a quick time Event.

This title is not a must own, but if you insist, atleast try to find it on E-bay because it is NOT worth the $65 USD Price tag you will find almost anywhere online.

Bottom Line:

Graphics: Code Age Commanders is if anything an extremely pretty game. Character models are extravagent, and highly imaginitive, CG sequences are of the highest quality.

Gameplay: Atleast Kingdom Hearts has a jump button, this game suffers from sluggish controls, and overall repetative gameplay, environments seem sparse and without much variety.

Sound: The music in this game is actually very top Notch, not much to complain about in this department.

Import Friendliness: This game is moderately import friendly, Many customization options seem confusing at first, and the story will pretty much be completely lost on anyone who doesn’t have a decent vocabulary, but the gameplay for combat and everything else is intuitive.