Ah, Trespasser. It's a game so remarkably different that it forces you to make a decision, whether for or against, but few can be left completely neutral. It's a game you have to love or hate, despite yourself.
Trespasser is a radically different game. It is a first-person shooter to be sure, and has many of those elements within the game. However, this seems to confuse people. This is not an action-oriented game. Unlike Half-life, you aren't running around dark corridors on your toes, never sure what will be around the next corner. Half-Life is a great "game" and incredibly fun to play, but Trespasser is more of an experience, an artificial "reality."
In Trespasser, you will find a world far more believable then in any other game. The physics are astounding and very life-like. The levels are very detailed, Unreal doesn't have anything on Trespasser when it comes to the outdoor environments and the shear number of object which dot the landscape. And the designers took great care with the details use in each level. Walls look old and musty, paint has chipped away over years of neglect, the water ripples when objects are thrown in.
The AI is also quite revolutionary. Each type of dinosaur has its own behavior patterns, and each individual dinosaur behaves differently then others of its kind. Depending on their "emotions" they might attack right away, cautiously approach, try circling around, or even try scaring you away. The AI works well, drawing the player into believing that those dinosaurs on the screen aren't mindless enemies who'll simply run at you until you kill it. These are animals, while not as bright as a human, they are trying to figure out how they can get their next meal.
But it isn't all great. It isn't an action-orientated game, and if that's your fancy, you'd best look elsewhere. It is far more about experiencing and exploring the world that is opened up before you, not about killing everything that moves. It is also a buggy game, and while the patch fixes most of it, its a 36 MB download. Some players have commented on the large number of crates lying around, however there are in fact not much more then in Half-Life. The graphics aren't the best ever seen, but then Half-Life proves it isn't the quality of the graphics, but how good the game is. And when it comes to the puzzles, the game designers really threw in the towel, many levels are completed simply by finding the exit, without any particular puzzle to solve. But in some ways this makes it more open ended. The player is free to explore, to wander around and try everything. It is not a game that you beat, but more a world you experience. Many gamers simply don't have the time it takes, or the patience to play that sort of game, which is too bad. It they could, they may just find Trespasser to be refreshingly different and one of the most innovative games they've played in a long, long time.