I discovered this first person shooter about ten years ago. It caught my eye because of the artist, Adian Hughes. This man was responsible for all of the album art for the band KMFDM. I read the back, which said "soundtrack by Ministry". It was immediately sold. I brought the game home, and after a quick install, was greeted by a short movie that involved a space coffin falling to earth with our hero, the warrior messiah.
This game's graphics are quite good for the time, and it has a very dark, comic book feel.
The object of the game is to collect all of the artifacts that will allow the hero to ascend to the throne. The soundtrack is quite good, and the background noise is quite immersive for the time. This being the sole reason that I initially bought the game, I paid pretty close attention and did not find the sound a bit lacking.
Weapons are fairly unique, one gun with 7 functions - 8 if you count the ability to beat people with it. You have your standard machine gun for an appetizer, followed by a shotgun, but you quickly ramp up to a rapid fire rail gun (it shoots balls of rusty nails), which allows one of the most fun parts
of the game, stacking up multiple enemies in a row and killing all with one shot. The final function is called the vaporizer (guess what it does). The gun advances in its destructive force as you advance and collect power-ups.
In the last chapter of the game you pick up the glove, which replaces the gun and you get to use really neat mental powers like "big bang" and "psionic flak" This game incorporates a lot of weapon consciousness - don't stand too close to what you are shooting. The hero messiah of ZPC is truly lethal, even to himself.
Enemy AI is decent for the time. I was often surprised where some of them were shooting me from. The early enemies are quite simple-minded, but that allows for some really fun mass-kills. The game has a rather useful map feature, which allows you to move while in map mode. The levels are often huge and easy to get lost in. There are some levels that are all swimming, which is an interesting change of pace and takes some getting used to, control-wise.
Overall, I would definitely recommend playing this game. It is an excellent example of the first person shooter genre. Enjoyable gameplay, interesting cut scenes, and sometimes amusing player death cut scenes make this quite fun to play.
