" Those old rockers Queen venture into the computer games industry with an unusual 3D adventure packed with music, great graphics and lost of action. When I heard I was going to see Queen The Eye in development I wasn't quite sure just what to expect. Would it be some kind of platform game, with the members of the band involved in old fashioned ladders and level style gameplay, or perhaps a dull old multimedia CD-ROM with some lovely shots of the band and some lame interviews? Queen The Eye is in fact neither and actually hardly features the band at all, being based more around the band's ideas and concepts, as well as the many images created by Queen's 20 years within the music biz, producing imaginative rock music and videos. Their main appearance is via the remixes of many of their tracks, which the developers have used to create ambient background music for the game. The game is a kind of rock video brought to life, that places you as the hero and lets you loose in a rather strange Queen influenced fantasy world. Basically (even though the developers told me a much more elaborate and complex version of the plot) the game is set in the not too distant future, taking place in a post apocalyptic era where the economies of the world have collapsed into a brutal global recession. The surviving remnants of urban society are governed by The Eye, a piece of self-replicating biotechnology which is striving to ensure that the very roots of creative thought and action are burned from the memory of humanity. You are a bloke called Dubrock, who stumbles across some old Queen records somewhere (probably at the back of an old second-hand record shop). He's then found listening to this music and as this is such an evil crime - the poor chap's only trying to be a bit with it - Dubrock is punished and forced to fight in the Arena. Whilst he's fighting, he's magically teleported off to some assorted bizarre and strange Queen-related zones. The environments of the domains are The Arena, The Works, The Theatre, The Innuendo Zone and The Final Domain - each inspired by the visual imagery and iconography associated with several key Queen albums. Each Domain has its own secrets, cerebral puzzles and physical dangers to challenge the players, while Queen provide the background music. Whilst all this adventuring is going on, the hero is also being hunted down by 'Death On Two Legs' - apparently another Queen reference (unfortunately I'm not a Queen fan, so the references to songs tend to go over my head a bit). The action and adventure use a blend of puzzles and fighting. As you go through the game, you will encounter many other characters, learn about the magic and technology, and engage in combat. The fighting aspect isn't just straight hitting - there are a whole range of moves and weapons that you can use. Talking to the various characters, you must decide who you can trust and who's out to get you. Through all this you guide Dubrock using the cursor keys and a few others to duck, parry and generally sword fight. The light sourcing is excellent; there are often multiple sources (sometimes you are one of them) and these create excellent multiple shadows. The view is a three-quarter overhead view with hi-res texture mapped characters and there are 3D cinematic sequences using animation, motion-capture and film techniques. The music is location and content-based, and segues from room to room seamlessly. With 20 years worth of Queen's back catalogue to take inspiration from, the developers have remixed the tracks to create excellent background music for the game. This isn't just the mainstream stuff that Queen made in their latter years - some of it earlier, rockier stuff, which has been so influential on many acts today, is also included. Overall this looks set to be a bit of a first in many respects. There haven't been any games as of yet that have been based around the concept of a particular band's music. Even if you're not a big fan of the band, the idea behind Queen The Eye is at the very least intriguing - it looks like this title is shaping up to be a really involved adventure game. ".