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Good: It's Final Fantasy VII, good art direction, awesome FMVs

Bad: Dull gameplay, drab level design, minimal AI, cheesy dialogue, overly-long cutscenes,

Biggest Surprise: Hojo sounds like Gollum

Final Fantasy VII is my favorite game of all time. It served as my first introduction to the RPG genre with one of the greatest stories ever seen in videogaming. When Square-Enix announced its Final Fantasy VII compilation, I was, needless to say, ecstatic. After the visually stunning but plot-devoid movie Advent Children, I still held out hopes that Dirge of Cerberus would deliver the follow-up story that FFVII so deserved. To that end, Dirge succeeds at times. However, the game sandwiched in between the story is average in all regards.

For those keeping track, Dirge takes place three years after the events of the original game, placing it sometime after Advent Children in the FFVII chronology. This time around, the story focuses on Vincent Valentine, the enigmatic hidden character from the original game. In that game, it was revealed that Vincent was a test subject in some kind of experiments done by the evil Shinra corporation.

While a large part of Dirge's plot revolves around his character's origins, the other part deals with an ongoing plan by a group called Deepground to revive an ancient Weapon sleeping beneath the now-dead city of Midgar. Remember those towering Weapons from the original game? Think that, only bigger. Due to his special shape-shifting talents, it ultimately comes down to Vincent to save the planet against this new threat.

Much like the original game, a huge part of Dirge's appeal lies in its story, and for many fans of the original, that will be enough to warrant a playthrough. For the most part, the story is very good, and at times lives up the epic nature of the original. Unfortunately, a number of forgettable characters and an overdose of melodrama prevent it from standing on the same level as that title. Additionally, the sheer length of some of the between-level cutscenes borders on overkill. Granted, the story is good, but there has to be a better way to present it than constant non-interactive cutscenes that sometimes go above the 20-minute mark.

Unlike the traditional RPG design of the first, Dirge is a third-person shooter, and a fairly dull one at that. It does try to incorporate some of the RPG elements from the first game, but for the most part, these seem forced. When stripped away, all you're left with is a simple, unexciting shooter with bad AI and level design.

Control-wise, Dirge plays just like a typical shooter, with the left analog stick controlling movement and the right controlling aim. The shoulder buttons are used to fire your weapon and use magic, although the necessity of drawing your weapon prior to using it is a minor but annoying design decision, especially since Vincent puts his gun away every time you use a melee attack.

As Vincent completes missions, he gains experience and levels up. This improves his statistics, but since the enemies always seem to stay about the same difficulty throughout the game, it just doesn't feel very necessary. You can also find gil (Final Fantasy's standard form of currency) and use it to purchase healing items, ammo, and weapon upgrades. This feature is used frequently, especially considering most firefights simply boil down to proper use of healing items.

Another RPG-style feature is the ability to customize your weapons with different types of barrels, materia, and other accessories. The feature is kind of cool, and the fact that your customizations change the physical appearance of the gun is even cooler, but after the first four or five levels, I never really messed with the feature again.

One other carry-over from the original is Vincent's limit break ability to transform into other creatures. This time around, the transformation requires the use of an item conveniently called a "Limit Breaker." Using one of these completely heals you, and gives you a huge attack boost in addition to the change in looks.

With all of the unique features in Dirge, one would think that it might provide a decent shooting experience. Unfortunately, a few major gameplay flaws turn it into a completely average experience. Foremost, the enemy AI is downright stupid. Basically, all the enemies are programmed to do is stand still and shoot at you. This means that firefights simply consist of standing still and shooting everything you see. Even boss fights are painfully simplistic, with little strategy outside of running in circles, shooting, and then healing when necessary. Since the entire game revolves around firing at stuff, the boring shooting game results in a boring game experience overall.

Making matters worse is the abysmal level design. Most of the environments are based off of classic locations from the original, but the layout this time around is so bland and maze-like that it's hard to get immersed. Almost all of the areas are simply comprised of linear corridor after linear corridor, all filled with a huge number of mindless enemies.

Even worse, the environments are almost completely non-interactive. Tiny objects and invisible walls will constantly block your way. Also, the little "puzzle solving" that is there is comprised almost entirely of key-hunt quests to get past confoundingly tiny laser gates. Why can't Vincent (who has the ability to fly in one of his modes of transformation, mind you) just walk around or hop over these tiny gates? It's a baffling design choice that seems more of a ploy to milk unnecessary extra hours out of the already dull gameplay.

In terms of length, Dirge is a respectable 10-15 hours, fairly standard for a shooter. A whole slew of unlockable content, including art galleries and cutscene theaters add further incentive for multiple playthroughs. The game's biggest draw in terms of bonus features is the unlockable extra missions, which take place in a wide variety of environments. Their inclusion is nice, but only if you're not already tired of the gameplay from the main story. Some kind of multiplayer would have been a nice addition, but as it stands, the number of single-player options is acceptable.

Fortunately, the graphics are a lot more passable than the gameplay, and next to the story, serve as one of the game's strongest points. In particular, the artistic design is exceptional, with interesting reinterpretations of familiar characters and great looking new characters. However, a lot of the game's aesthetic look bears more of a resemblance to FFX than VII, due in part to the fact that FFX's character designer helmed Dirge.

Granted, the characters look great, but a lot of the feel of the original is lost in the process. The FMV's are especially exceptional, living up to the high standards set by previous Final Fantasy titles. The in-game character models also look very good, and the game-engine cutscenes are very well done. Unfortunately, the game's overall visual impact is hurt by the extremely bland looking environments. Textures are repeated ad nauseum, and the overall flat appearance of classic areas is pretty underwhelming. Also, the framerate, while frequently good, experiences a number of drops in larger areas and instances where several enemies are on screen at once. It all boils down to pretty cutscenes and average looking gameplay.

The sound is also a mixed bag. The music is for the most part nicely orchestrated, although it would have been nice to hear more classic pieces from the original game. Some of the Japanese metal sounds a little cheesy, but thankfully these songs are kept to a minimum. Sound effects are also acceptable, although they're mostly limited to gunfire and the occasional explosion. Unlike the original, all of the dialogue in Dirge is supported by voice over, which is decent at best. Vincent himself sounds pretty cool, as do several of the main characters. On the other hand, some of the characters (Yuffie, I'm looking at you) are absolutely grating, and really make you miss the days of all text-based dialogue. This isn't helped by the fact that a lot of the script sounds pretty cheesy. It's kind of sad when the only lines given to formerly important characters like Cloud, Tifa, and Barret are variations on "Yeah!"

If Dirge was stripped of its FFVII setting, all you would be left with is a mediocre shooter with a few interesting ideas and a whole slew of problems. The story itself helps save the game, but anyone who missed the original would be better off avoiding this one altogether.

Graphics: 7.5

Sound: 7.0

First Play: 6.5

Replay Value: 6.5

Gameplay: 5.5

Overall: 6.7