SOS: The Final Escape - PlayStation 2

Periodically, tremors endeavour to knock you off your feet (combated by use of the brace button) and cause buildings to collapse, conveniently forming platforms to be used to traverse the shattered landscape. As you progress, shopping malls, skyscrapers and baseball stadiums come crashing down around you resulting in either careful exploration or mad dashes for safety. The pace and gameplay varies later as armed mercenaries hunt you down to ensure your silence.

SOS's graphics are functional and feature bland textures. The characters come across as robotic, the dialogue and voice acting are stilted. What the game does have is a bountiful amount of atmosphere. The feeling that you never quite know what's going to happen next is a welcome and increasingly rare commodity. The ability to shout, in the attempt to attract survivors, highlights the eerie silence and the varied locales keeps it engaging. Trademark Japanese oddness comes in the form of some wonderful yet irrelevant set pieces, collectables and multiple endings. Overall, SOS is a flawed work, but it contains some fresh, inspirational ideas that make it worth experiencing. --Jonathan Winter