Return To Home Page		March 21, 2006

Our game has English text of course!

Tecmo are a company which have had a string of hits in recent years. Franchises such as Dead or Alive, Fatal Frame (or Project Zero as it's known in Australia), Ninja Gaiden and Gallop Racer will be known to millions the world over. When this new game, Trapt was announced for release here there was little fanfare, and little PR and marketing pushing the title. Was this a sign of a poor title - we had our concerns some which were founded, others which were not. In this review we let you know just how well this PS2 exclusive title fares compared to Tecmo's other brilliant titles.

The graphics are, well, average.

Set in old Europe, the player takes on the role of the seductive Queen Allura, who after being framed for her father’s murder, is forced to flee the castle to take refuge from those that are out to kill her. Allura, along with her maid Rachel, escape to the Black Forest, where an evil spell from the devil transforms Allura into a trap master, an evil temptress that uses deadly traps to avenge her enemies. Returning to the castle with the devil as her guide and on a mission of vengeance, Allura uses her wicked strategy and skill to set up gruesome medieval traps to lure her enemies in and then destroy them.

He won't be in Trapt 2!

So this is an adventure styled game with a few neat twists. The Queen isn't equipped with any weapons and instead your task is to set a series of three traps (mapped to three face buttons) in each room and then lure your enemy into their path before setting them off. Without a doubt this is one pretty gruesome game with plenty of decapitations, spearings and crushings. It's pretty easy to see why this game got it's MA15+ rating. The traps themselves are put together quite well and it's the traps which also make the enemies interact with the environment that really gets this game exciting. It really is one of the pleasures of this game just to see you plans fall into place. In order to aide your setting of these traps you have a map of the castle to assist in your planning.

I guess the biggest failing of this game is that the game doesn't hold it's originality too well - after a while the traps all become familiar with only slight variations later in the game. For instance, some traps may also be set on fire later in the game. Another big failing is the AI of the enemies which rarely seem to try to avoid your traps, and simply run right into them. Towards the end of the game it swings in entirely the opposite direction as enemies will almost always spot your traps and therefore avoid them meaning you'll spend plenty of time running around just trying to lure them into the right spot before springing the trap. Also disappointing is the games length, which at 14 missions for the story mode, simply doesn't provide a long enough game time despite the numerous items to be discovered. Finally, the translation in this game is, well, mediocre at best.

Trapt is gory at times!

Graphics in Trapt are one area where we expected Tecmo to bring us something very special, but we were quite dismayed to discover a title that, besides the gore, really lacked any visual punch. The textures are rather bland, as are many of the locations. Fortunately the characters look detailed enough, and their animations nice, but in the end you'll spend too much time looking at the backgrounds wondering why the game barely looks like a first generation, current generation game rather then a console whose power has been maxxed out near the end of it's life. While it's not really fair to compare against upcoming next-generation systems it's hard not to and it only makes the graphics in this game look plainer then ever.

Ohhh, a cut-scene!

Audio in Trapt was a massive disappointment. The music is passable but the voiceovers and sound effects are quite dire and almost bring us back to the "standards" set during the 32-bit era when developers didn't seem to spend more then a few dollars to localise the games properly - or professionally.

Coming from a gaming powerhouse such as Tecmo I actually expected a bit more from this game then was actually delivered. The concept is rather unique, some of the settings and cut scenes are interesting but ultimately it just falls a bit flat. Fortunately, unlike America, Australia is getting this game as a budget title with a RRP of only $49.95 which is great to see. It's still not the best title mind you, but is good enough to keep you distracted for some time and is worth checking out.

Review By: Dave Warner

Order your copy now from Gameswarehouse (PAL version) or Amazon (NTSC Version).

GRAPHICS	The backgrounds really needed some sprucing up, characters are nice.	68%
SOUND	Poor voice acting and effects makes this an average sounding game.	55%
GAMEPLAY	Yar, I can dig this. Plenty of voilence, and fun at the same time.	74%
VALUE	Nice to see this game get a budget release, as a result worth a look.	76%
OVERALL	Trapt isn't Tecmo's best title ever - far from it, but gamers looking for some gore, and fun, may enjoy this game.	69%