Metareview: Aeon Flux

Continuing this week's theme of movie-based game metas (see recent Harry Potter and Narnia meta reviews), we have an early roundup of Aeon Flux scores before its big screen counterpart arrives next week. The roots of Peter Chung's dystopian society and its femme fatale protagonist can be traced back nearly 15 years to MTV's Liquid Television, but the marketing blitz is now in full force with a new DVD collection of the original animated masterpiece to accompany the movie and game releases.

• Yahoo! Games (80/100): %uFFFDEven if you%uFFFDre a cosmos-newbie with no previous exposure to the subject matter, Terminal Reality has managed to offer a well-rounded introduction to a mechanically complex experience. It%uFFFDs a good introduction to a stylish, obscure universe, and an overall vindication for the movie-based game.%uFFFD

• IGN (78/100): %uFFFDWhile the game doesn%uFFFDt implement its storyline effectively, it does offer players a huge array of moves and platforming options. You%uFFFDll be able to run on walls, run along ledges, hack into gun and rocket turrets, use a grappling hook to descend and ascend huge vertical distances, and perform a large variety of punches, kicks, block and fatality moves.%uFFFD

• TeamXbox (78/100): %uFFFDOther than the camera gripe%uFFFDAeon Flux performs with aplomb, without any serious pop-in, clipping, or other glaring issues that sometimes plague third-person, multi-level action/platformers.%uFFFD

Much like the original animated series, the story and the main character%uFFFDs motives in Aeon Flux can be hard to follow at times. However, a fusing of Prince of Persia and Bloodrayne-inspired game play and a vividly reproduced movie atmosphere (including Charlize Theron%uFFFDs voice) indicate a strong effort from Majesco and Terminal Reality.