Anyone who remembers the show 'Liquid Television' on MTV should remember the animated short called 'Aeon Flux.' It was a short cartoon (later spun off into a short-lived series) with a scantily clad woman running around dishing out a mean dose of whoop ass. That being said, we haven't heard much about this show for years, and now they are making a major motion picture based on it. Of course, with any kind of major movie, there comes a video game, and thus the Aeon Flux game was born. However, this game is not just a copy of the movie, like most of the other video games based off movies are. This game actually picks up where the animated shorts left off and the game ends right where the movie begins. Brilliant, if you ask me. To get the full story, you have to watch all of the short cartoons, play the game, and go see the movie. Now that’s marketing.

Aeon Flux is being developed by Terminal Reality, who brought us games like 4x4 Evolution and BloodRayne. Aeon Flux is based on the movie, and not the animated shorts. What this means is the graphics are up to par with current games. If you watched the animated series, you would know that the animation was not very advanced for its time. Aeon has been changed to match her movie counterpart Charlize Theron. She comes with a very wide array of moves, particularly in combat. The basic controls involve a combination of weak and strong attacks. Aeon also has a plethora of ranged weapons to choose from.

As far as movement throughout the game, she can perform amazing acrobatic moves such as running along walls, jumping from poles, and hanging from just about anything. Her movement is very fluid and fast paced. You have a style gauge that will increase the more you hit the enemy. Once your gauge is full, you can perform special charged attacks on the enemies that will send them flying. Another very interesting feature is Fatalities. Just like in Mortal Kombat, when the enemy is just about dead, you can perform a finishing move on them. Instead of being just for show like in MK, these fatalities will actually reward you with bonuses, like health regeneration or style bonuses. In some cases, this is needed in order to progress through the level.

All the fatalities are done in slow motion, which makes nice eye candy, but I would think it may get annoying later on in the game. Aeon Flux will also have a mechanical ball that she can “jack” into and control. Some of the puzzles in the game are going to require this ball. You can only control the ball for a certain time limit before it explodes, but there will be battery powerups in strategic locations to avoid that catastrophe.

The detail that was put into each level is amazing, and a lot of the levels have objects that are interactive and often required to be used to solve a puzzle or damage an enemy. The puzzles in the game are very intuitive, sometimes requiring objects or devices in the area to solve them. In the end, Aeon Flux looks like a very entertaining game and one that I am definitely going to have to check out. Look for it in stores in November 2005. *