Pax Corpus
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 Running also doesn't work, because my heroine, who was actually going to be Æon Flux, jumps very agile through the air after she's been struck down by enemy projectiles. I just can't take it and want to go away! But the lazy developers have provisioned and won't let me escape." - A journalist for the German Video Game magazine MAN!AC, who covered the game in the Hall of Shame featurette about bad PlayStation games.
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Pax Corpus is an Action-Adventure game by Cryo Interactive released for the PC in October 1997, and on the PlayStation in March 1998.
Development
Development of the game originally began in 1996 under the name "Æon Flux" and was going to be published by Viacom New Media. It was going to be based on the "The Demiurge" episode of the show, and had first appeared at E3 in the same year, with Æon Flux creator Peter Chung on hand to promote it, and commercial advertising was even included in the 1996 VHS release of the animated series.
Viacom New Media would merge with Virgin Interactive midway through the game's development. The merger would ultimately lead to the cancellation of Viacom's in-development games and subsequently leave Cryo without the rights to use the Æon Flux property. In mid-1997 the Aeon Flux video game rights were acquired by GT Interactive. The game's assets were not lost however, but were reworked into this title, having been stripped of all copyrighted association with Æon Flux. This game does retain many obvious similarities to the original animated series. Specifically, parts of the plot are similar to "The Demiurge", and many design details bear a striking resemblance to examples found in the show, e.g. Kathlee, the female protagonist, wears a purple and black outfit not unlike Æon's.
Why it Sucks
- A very paper-thin and disjointed story about a female scientist having created a mind-control device that can lead humanity into destruction.
- Horrible graphics, featuring dull colors, blocky and undetailed character models, slow animations and very poor level design.
- Even worse FMV sequences with bad frame rates and no lip-syncing of characters.
- Dull and uninspired voice acting.
- The soundtrack is mediocre.
- The game itself feels like a poorly made Tomb Raider knockoff.
- Ridicolous and very unnecessarily-long loading times.
- Broken controls with delayed firing and awkward jumping.
- Terrible platforming as a result of the awkward jumping: The 2nd level in Mission 4 for instance is full of platforms that are next to impossible to make, in which you can always easily fall to your death and start over from the beginning each time.
- Boss battles that range from confusing to just downright easy: For instance, the torturer that you face twice in the 2nd and 6th levels in the prison (Mission 2) respectively is almost impossible to defeat. To defeat him, you must shoot at him once while he deflects your shots and then he will bullrush towards you while you run straight past him, which sometimes does not always work, as he will spot you and start chasing you. Once you successfully ran straight past him, you must quickly turn around and shoot him in the back to hurt him before he reaches the wall and turns around to deflect your shot. You must shoot him in the back three times with your standard blaster to advance. Kiana Soro, the main antagonist that you face in the first of the three final levels in the game, is ridiculously easy to defeat. When she's about to land as hinted by the explosion sound effect, do a backflip (Down + Jump) and then fire a rocket (if you have one, otherwise fire 5 blaster shots) at her to put her down easily.
- The 2nd level in Mission 4 as mentioned by the terrible platforming, is by far the worst level in the game because of this fact, but also because it's also the longest level in the whole game. You have to lower four platforms using the four clones that you've picked up near the end of the 1st level in Mission 4, while you also have to shoot at the buttons at those green clocks at the end of each path for your respective clones to make the time stopper appear that you pick up. Next, you have to open the doors for your clones to the Pax Corpus room to destroy the first of the two Pax Corpus units that you must destroy in the game, by shooting the panels that are beyond the very long jumps that are next to impossible to make, while at some panels, you have to face drones which shoot at you.
- Unless you are playing the PC version, the PlayStation version uses passwords rather than Memory Cards, meaning that you cannot save during and in-between levels! You are only given passwords each time you complete one of the five missions in total!
- Lazy localization: The German texts are full of errors and typos: For instance, Password is "LOSUNGFWOT instead of PASSWORT" and Locks are called ZIELFASSUNGEN instead of Schlösse.
- Unsatisfying ending.