It’s a shame that the first shooter that comes from Tecmo is a lame duck.

The game starts out with brooding hero Syd escaping from a collapsing tower called an Ark. By his side is Nyx, a heroine that fights with a sword. It’s an interesting concept in a shooter to have a character that relies almost solely on melee fighting, and leads to an interesting dichotomy; the player can work through the female sidekick to attack a large enemy.

Unfortunately, Nyx dies and Syd escapes and laments that everyone he fights with dies. So starts the story, with Syd brooding more than ever. After he meets up with a contingent of soldiers later on, who are afflicted with a tower that is consuming and changing the nearby populace.

The game has great ideas, changing battlefields, a buxom heroine sidekick and interesting melee combat. Not to mention a mildly interesting story and coupled with some decent graphics, but it is basically a terribly re-skinned version of “Gears of War.” Where it excels however, is with an interesting melee system. Tapping “x” and timing it right by watching a contracting circle allows the gamer to pull off a pretty cool melee combo attack.

Pressing “A” will attach Syd to cover. Unfortunately, breaking cover is done the same way, and when the game hits the fan, it can lead to cheap deaths. On the bright side, Syd is a battle tank that can absorb more damage than a sponge absorbs water.

With the game being a shooter, one would assume that the aiming would be up to snuff. It’s not, which is sad because that game has some of the best gun ideas in awhile, and they feel powerful. It’s satisfying to fire a gun that shoots exploding ninja stars that cause enemies to explode into a bloody cloud. This is a little hard to do, though, as the aiming is a bit too sluggish or a bit too responsive, depending on the situation. To exacerbate the issue, enemies are wicked fast, and can result in a lot of lost ammo and angry gamers.

The graphics are slick, but sometimes the special effects are just terrible. It’s almost like going back to the PS1 era of gaming, just in high-res. However, the game has an interesting art style that works well and is great to look at, when it works.

It’s a shame that a game that uses two characters for most of the story does not have co-op. It would be a really neat idea if one player relied on guns, and the other on running in close to do quick kills. This would have made the game stand out so much more, but as it stands, the game just feels like stilted “Gears” clone.