The streets are decayed and filled with crumbling buildings and fires that rage unchecked. Hideous creatures skitter across the ground, attacking any life sign that they stumble across. The world is in need of a hero, someone to stand up against the threat and reclaim that which has been lost. That hero is…Dirt? Don't let the name fool you, cause this woman is packing some serious heat, and she is a threat to be reckoned with.

The first thing I was drawn to was Dirt herself. Though we have gotten better in recent years with strong, female characters, there still isn't an overabundance of them, with the only real standbys still being Samus Aran and Lara Croft. Along comes Dirt to throw her name in the pot, and she makes for an interesting character visually. Dirt was created with what was described to me as a modern punk style to give her that "real pissed off girl" look. For men, she is stylish and sexy, with her pigtail like hairstyle, belly revealing shirt, and low hanging pants that reveal a thong that rests on her hips. For women, she looks to be a strong representative, as yes, she proves she can be sexy, and the cute little bear backpack (it is alive!) gives her an innocent schoolgirl look, but the way she sports her shotgun and other various weapons and mental powers proves she is more than simply a pretty face.

As Dirt, the player will defeat hordes of hideously mutated insects, parasites and super intelligent black operations commandos as she sets about to rescue her friends. Dirt will unravel new and popular conspiracy theories, and all the while she will be discovering her shadowy past and unlocking the powers that it contains. The original story will be based around popular conspiracy theories featuring such intriguing locations as Area 51, Groom Lake, Hanger 18, a Truman Show-esque New York film set and 32 other levels. Various cinematic cutscenes sprinkled throughout the game look to tell the story of Dirt in an engaging way.

With an action heavy oriented game like this, one would hope that there would be plenty of ways to dispatch the numerous enemies, and Dirt doesn't look to disappoint. For starters, Dirt will be wielding over 20 various weapons with accurate modeled bullet reflection and penetration thanks to Nu Generation Games' V-Bullet System. The weapons range from the typical real life weaponry of 9mm pistols and military semi and fully automatics, as well as a few unique weapons like the Pheromone Sprayer, Rail Gun and the mighty Graviton Gun.

Besides the gun toting action, Dirt is also enhanced with various mental abilities – over 10+ devastating special moves for both offense and defense – like Telekinesis (throw things with your mind), Pyrokinesis (burn baby burn…disco inferno), Ghost Walk, Shield, Spin Accelerator, and Super Dodge. Another mental ability that I personally got to see in action was a manual bullet Dirt could control, which allows the player to fire a special bullet, and then the camera cuts to directly behind the bullet, where the player can then manually steer it so that it hits its target, which could be somewhere like around a corner the player wouldn't be able to hit otherwise. Though the move was difficult to control, it still looked interesting from a visual and gameplay perspective, so I hope the final game gets the controls tweaked perfectly.

Dirt also contains some lite RPG elements, which offer an unobtrusive player enhancement system that rewards the player for playing as they want to by using either stealth sharp shooting, exploration, special tactics or all out gunplay. Basically, the way it appeared to me, the player won't be forced to go into any character creation screens to add points to various abilities to improve themselves, but rather, kind of like the Elder Scrolls series, the character will automatically improve and become adept at one kind of play depending on what the player's style is.

Coming to both the PS2 and PC, Dirt looks to be on the right track, as Dirt appears to be an interesting blend with a compelling conspiracy theory storyline and female protagonist driving the game, and gunplay and mental powers backing it up.

Originally called "Origin of the Species"