Zax - The Alien Hunter stars Zax, an alien who longs for an ever-lasting wealth. Several years prior to Zax's birth, Oleus Caranth journeyed to a nearby planet, discovering the only minerals in existence that could be converted into virtually any material; Caranthian Ore and Crystals. These minerals made life easy, but would later make things much worse than they ever were before. After the world is stripped of all its Ore, the demand for this mineral increased tremendously, finally leading to an economic depression that would last for 40 years.

Hoping to gain his wealth the same way that Mr. Caranth did, Zax hopped in an old spaceship (which he named Zelon after one of Oleus' supposed mistresses) and set out on his own journey for the universe's rarest minerals. As Zax approaches a planet that he suspects might have Ore and Crystals, his spaceship is attacked. The ship goes down in flames, though fortunately he survives the crash unharmed. The Zelon didn't fare as well. Much to Zax's dismay, the ship will not be able to take off into space and return the rare minerals found (if any). Worse yet, the Korbo (a dying species) believe that Zax is a gift from above and that he has come to save them all from the evil Om. Om recently took over the planet, and the Korbo have been dying (literally) for a savior ever since.

Now it's time to search the planet for the proper materials needed to fix your ship, defend yourself against any unfriendly aliens, inadvertently help those in need and eventually make your way back home.

Zax - The Alien Hunter is being promoted as an Action/Adventure/FPS that is a cross between Diablo and Quake. While I agree that it combines the depth of Diablo with the intense action of Quake, promoting Zax that way isn't fair because it's so much better than both of those games. That's not to say that either of those are bad games. I am a huge fan of Quake and enjoy a game of Diablo every now and then. But neither Quake nor Diablo held my interest for as long as Zax has.

The reason: it just plain rocks. Like Diablo, the arrow keys control Zax's movements from an isometric view, and like Quake, the mouse is used to aim your weapon. This means that you could be running backwards, dodging every enemy attack while retaliating with a few blasts from your Plasma Gun. It sounds simple, and once you get the hang of this unique control scheme, it is. The rest of the game isn't so simple, but all of it, especially the multiplayer modes, is insanely addictive.

Why "insanely addictive" and not just "very" or even "extremely" addictive? All I could think about is playing it more. When I got up this morning, Zax was the first thing on my mind. While hanging out with some friends at my favorite arcade, all I could think about was how many hours it'd be until I could play Zax again. I kept myself from eating just so I could play it a little bit longer. Believe me when I say that I love to eat and never avoid a meal unless I have an important reason. I consider Zax to be that important. If that doesn't categorize Zax as being insanely addictive, nothing does.

The adventuring part of Zax comes in the form of exploration. There are more than 100 maps to explore, which is great, but don't be misled: the maps vary in size and can take as little as thirty seconds to complete (even less in some cases, since some maps don't even have an enemy to kill or a Crystal to find). But most, especially the average sized caves, will take you much longer than that.

Several of the caves are littered with Mystic Beams of Light. The Mystic Beams usually block off a large portion of the cave and surround any important items. If you try to cross the beams, your shield meter will be drained, and if you don't have a shield, Zax will be severely damaged. The only way to get past the Mystic Beams is by using the Reflective Staff, which, not surprisingly, is also hidden in a cave! After acquiring the staff, you must place it in a Plate of Focus to redirect the beam. Your job here isn't done though. Multiple Reflective Staffs are required to redirect the more complex beam formations.

Weapons, shields and healing items are vital to Zax's success. Unlike the first-person shooter that inspired Zax, however, you can't simply pick up a new weapon every time you take down an enemy. Instead, you'll have to generate your artillery using the Material Converter inside the Zelon. But you can't generate a Semi-Automatic Pistol if you don't have any minerals. Collect some Ore and Crystals, head back to the ship and see what's available. Anything on the list can be generated, assuming you have enough minerals. Most enemies that you kill leave behind blue orbs that refills your standard weapons' ammo canister, but all other ammo must be generated.

Zax is yet more proof that the arcade industry is no longer needed. Games like War: Final Assault and The Grid only allowed for up to six players at a time, and that's only if every arcade was willing to spend $20,000-$30,000 to get all six machines (most were only willing to buy two or three machines). In Zax, up to 16 people can duke it out in a Deathmatch, Capture the Flag or Salvage King battle over the Internet or a local area network. Everyone's got a PC, and almost everyone can run Zax. Since you only need to pay a one-time registration fee of $20 to subscribe to the GameSpy Network (a free trial is available for thirty days), aside from the cost of the game itself, Zax is the cheapest arcade game ever made. To put things into a better perspective, I spend more than $30 every time I go to GameWorks, and generally I end up using all of my credits on the same game. Two trips to GW = a lifetime of Zax. It's sad to see the arcade industry go, but it will surely live on through the Internet and awesome multiplayer games like Zax.

Gameplay: 9
What's not to love about Zax? Playing Zax for ten minutes is more exciting than most action games are from start to finish. Ten minutes is never enough though, which means you'll likely end up playing Zax all night. Looking back on the games of yesterday, it's the ones that kept me up all night that I enjoyed the most.

Graphics: 6.9 
Zax may not be as flashy as Quake, but it's still a great looking game. Everything looks like a CG movie; the backgrounds, trees, spaceships, characters, etc. The animation is superb, and aside from my lagging 56k modem, I never noticed any slowdown.

Sound: 7.5
Zax has a good, atmospheric soundtrack that really sets the mood for this action-packed game. The voice-overs are also well done.

Difficulty: 7
Easy, Medium and Hard level difficulties make Zax accessible to all gamers. The easy level difficulty isn't too easy, a definite plus for hardcore gamers who don't have much experience in this genre. But it's challenging enough to keep FPS veterans from beating it too quickly.

Concept: 8.9 
JoWood Productions has created another sub-genre, one that should appease gamers of all tastes. As good as Diablo is, I never had the desire to play it nearly as much as I do Zax. The same could be said for Quake III: Arena, Unreal Tournament or any other FPS released in the past few years. I hope JoWood takes the Zax series even further by bringing it to Sony's online gaming network for the PlayStation 2. That way all gamers could experience the joy of Zax, not just PC gamers.

Multiplayer: 9
True story: I sent an e-mail to all of my friends last night and told them to go out and buy Zax immediately so we can play online. I think word of mouth is Zax's biggest asset in the sales department. Any gamer who becomes enamored with this game will undoubtedly tell everyone he/she knows and encourage them to get Zax as soon as possible. If every game was this fun, publishers would no longer need to advertise because the constant praise it received from gamers would be enough to sell it.

Overall: 9
Fast, non-stop action. Awesome, intense battles. Killer multiplayer experience. Tons of replay value. I could use every review cliché in the world and still not be able to sum up Zax's greatness. Still not convinced? Download the demo at Zax-Game.com and begin your hunt for aliens today.