Genre: Shooter
Developer: Psygnosis
Publisher: Psygnosis

Microcosm opens with a rather stunning FMV intro, and this quality follows through to the in game visuals. In this title, you fly through the body of a human being, and the various anatomical parts, such as artery walls and muscle tissue, are all pre-rendered at a remarkably high resolution and fly by at a fast clip as you play the game. Unfortunately, the character and enemy sprites lack any sort of detail, and the projectiles fired by these actors are only small blips of color.

There are really only three sound effects in the entire game, as is common in many shooters, and those sound effects become old quickly. The music is absolutely bizarre, a sort of a cross between the "Toys R Us" theme song and the cheesy techno you hear in the informational science videos shown to school children. A great sound track is almost requisite to the creation of a good shooter, and this game really and truly lacks it.

The controls are simple; the camera is centered behind your character as he flies through the stages, and you move your character around the scene to dodge elements of the pre-rendered terrain and the shots from the baddies. While moving around, you can shoot and use special items. Unfortunately, it's impossible to detect enemies coming up from behind you, and the frenetic pace and narrow passages of the game levels make survival for any amount of time almost impossible.

This game reminds me a lot of the more modern "Panzer Dragoon", in that you move around the screen blasting at baddies while the terrain and camera twists and turns, forcing you along its dizzying path. Unlike "Panzer Dragoon", the enemies are not well designed or creative, and it is nearly impossible to dodge their projectiles. The visuals are pretty enough, but the sound and dreadfully difficuly gameplay make for a vanilla shooter done bad.