Icewind Dale II

Developer: Black Isle Studios
Platform: Windows
Release: 2002
Genres: RPG

Icewind Dale II was the last game built with the original Infinity Engine (one of my personal favourite game engines of all time, along with the Ultima VII engine).

Basic Plot

The game is set in the Northern part of Faerûn, focusing on the city of Icewind Dale.

The player party are a group of mercenaries who arrive at the town of Targos to help defends against an assault by goblins. They defend the city and begin an investigation into the Legion of the Chimera; an army of outcast races and religious factions terrorising Northern Faerûn.

Ultimately the player's goal is to resolve the conflict between the Ten Towns and the Legion of the Chimera and bring peace to the North.

Gameplay

Icewind Dale II is a top down role playing adventure game set in the Forgotten Realms universe using a variant of the D&D system.

The player takes control of a party of six characters, all of which are created and customised by the player. This is different to the Baldur's Gate series where (in single player) you created a single character and met additional characters throughout the game who could join you.

Character Creation

Being able to create a completely customised party is both a blessing and a curse. It's great for being able to choose exactly what character classes and stats you'd like each team member to have. When I played Baldur's Gate I sometimes created a multi-player game and copied my save-game file across to single player just so I could have a customised team. 

On the other side of the coin, because your characters are custom made they don't have a back-story linked in with the game world (well not *really*) and they aren't voiced like the party members in Baldur's Gate. To me this was a drastic change in the dynamic of the game; the humour and light-heartedness of Baldur's Gate was gone, instead you felt more alone in the game.

The other big change in the game mechanics since Baldur's Gate was the skill system. Whereas Baldur's Gate handled a lot of skill and stat changes automatically behind the scenes as you levelled up, in Icewind Dale II you had a lot more choices to make when you levelled up. Not only did you allocate stat points and choose skills and spells, but there were also "feats". I personally found this to be a burden I didn't enjoy, I longed for the simplicity of Baldur's Gate.

There were additional options for character creation as well including "sub" races such as Drow if you chose Elf, and sub-classes such as a Priest of Illmater rather than a generic priest.

Fighting a Frost Giant

Positives

Any game that uses the Infinity Engine is fun. The combat and skill progression is satisfying and engaging.

Negatives

The story isn't nearly as strong as it could have been. I've had two big attempts to complete this game and both times I've run out of steam due to the lack of story to carry me through to the end.

The skill system wasn't as satisfying. It wasn't obvious which skills to pick or what the outcome would be down the line, and it added additional complexity where it wasn't required.

A party in town.

Memorable Moments

I've played this game twice and gotten quite far but never managed to get to the end.

Hugo III: Jungle of Doom

Developer: Gray Design Associates
Platform: MS-DOS
Release: 1992
Genres: Adventure, Parser, Text-based

It's been far too long since I've had time to write up on this blog. Life is busy with a baby and a full time job, and on top of that I'm working on a game development project of my own called Broken Planet. Check out our progress on our website:

www.brokenplanet.co.nz

We're also writing tutorials about how to get into game development, especially about how to use the Unreal Development Kit.

Back to the game!

Plot

If you've played the original Hugo's House of Horrors or Hugo II: Whodunnit? you'll be familiar with the format. You play the take the role of the protagonist Hugo, and your objective is to obtain an antidote to save the life of your girlfriend Penelope (who's been bitten by a spider).

Gameplay

All the Hugo games are text based parser adventures. The player experiences the game through a 2D side on view of the character and his surroundings, and the game plays out through a series of "rooms" or areas.

To interact with the environment the player types in commands, for example "Look in draw" or "Pick up hammer". A lot of the commands require carefully examining the scene around you to figure out what to interact with, plus a healthy amount of guesswork.

Positives

Decent story and cohesive world.

In the final game in the trilogy the developer brought in a graphical artist to help with the scenery which was actually the reason it was set in a jungle; the artist (Gary Sirois) was particularly good at drawing vegetation.

An example of Gary Sirois' vegetation artwork.

Negatives

Too hard, frustrating beyond belief in an age where there wasn't internet to use Uncle Google to help you.

Memorable Moments

Trying to work out what to do with a bouillon cube, a term I'd never heard of before. I now know it's just a stock cube... ugh...

Max Payne

Name: Max Payne

Platform: PC

Developer: Remedy Entertainment

Release Year: 2001

Basic Plot

You play as Max Payne, a DEA agent and former NYPD cop with a murdered family that broods over your head. You and your 9mm Beretta start unravelling a drug crime ring that ultimately leads you all the way up to the top.

What's its deal?

A 3^rd person shooter told as a black noir graphic novel with Matrix-style action that put the actual Matrix games to shame. This was THE action game of its time.

Gameplay

The gameplay was kept simple: over the shoulder camera, run around shoot bad guys, collect guns and ammo. The twist was that Max could go into bullet-time. Bullet-time made time slow down Matrix style giving Max the edge in gun battles. This was done so well that during bullet-time you could actually see each individual bullet flying out from the muzzle flashes of guns. The sounds of the action unfolding would be drowned out to distant echos by the thumping of a heartbeat. It was like the opening scene of the Hurt Locker but 10 years earlier. Of course the best use of the bullet-time were Max's 'shoot dodge' moves – Max diving through the air, spitting hot lead in super slow motion. Jizz. Shoot dodge moves made this game. Nothing was quite as satisfying as using a shoot dodge to jump into or out from cover. It made every gun battle in the game seem like a John Woo masterpiece. 

Remedy Entertainment also had the genius idea of adding a 360 degree camera pan (ala the 'Matrix' shot) whenever you paused the game. Hotkey that shit because you were only appreciating half of the game if you didn't regularly pause the action in the middle of a shoot out to take in the view.

With minimal puzzles or sub-quests this game was all about the shoot 'em up in the best possible way and lots of different ways. You ended up with shoot outs in apartment buildings, bars, snowy rooftops, warehouses, ships, mansions, factories, government facilities, skyscrapers and more against enemies that ranged from punk dealers and gangsters all the way through to special forces.

The story was solid. DEA agent investigates drug ring which unravels all the way up (or down) to top level government corruption which also ties in with the murder of his family. Bravo Remedy. But a standing ovation for whoever sacked up during a meeting and said “We're turning all the cut scenes into a black noir graphic novel”. What a gamble that was at the time and what a pay off. The developers nailed the black noir genre and modernised it which fueled the game's gritty, brooding crime underbelly tones. Special mention to the fantastic voice acting too which without, would have made the comic panel cut scenes cross over to cartoon tackiness.

Memorable moments

Replaying the game over and over again on harder difficulties and then replaying the best shoot outs within the game over and over again, pausing several hundred times to take in the 360 camera pan. Shooting your way out of the mansion level was a personal favourite.

Positives

• The action in this game was un-fucking-believable at the time
• This game was more Matrix than the woeful Enter the Matrix game. Even if ETM hadn't been a pile of turds I'm sure Max Payne would still have been better
• Excellent story told through a graphic novel voiced by a Bogart-esqe Max Payne
• Amazing replayability esp when you factor in the countless mods that people made for it on PC
• Good, lengthy game.
• The pause button. I used that button more than a horny 16 year old watching Basic Instinct

Negatives

• the 'dream' levels at the start of each chapter got a bit tiresome
• Everyone who was playing it giving you their 'how multiplayer would work' theory.
• Max's “I'm DEAD!” face looked a bit, um, constipated.

death face

Extra comments

This game was amazing. It was years ahead of its time and took artistic risks that paid off big.

They completely fucked up the movie they made of this game (with Mark Wahlberg). They tried to change the story. JUST USE THE STORY THAT IS ALREADY THERE. Goddammit, the comic panels from the game are LITERALLY THE STORY BOARDS you morons.  

Hugo II, Whodunit?

This was the sequel to the infamous parser based aventure game Hugo's House of Horrors. It wasn't a game I played a lot of, in fact I believe I lasted about 30 minutes before I gave up, but it doesn't matter how big or small the impact on my life, every game must be remembered!

Developer: Gray Design Associates

Platform: MS-DOS

Release: 1991

Genres: Adventure, Parser, Text-based.

Plot

Rather than playing as the protagonist from the original game, Hugo, you play Hugo's girlfriend Penelope (whom your goal is to rescue in the original game).

This time, Penelope must investigate the mysterious murder of Uncle Horace which coincided with the sudden disappearance of Hugo.

Penelope, with what looks like a bird of some kind.

Gameplay

Hugo II, Whodunit? is a text based parser adventure. The game is not purely text based at all, instead the player is able to move the protagonist around the various rooms and areas of the game using keyboard controls. Commands are entered manually to interact with the environment. For example:

"Kick bird"

... might, if you were lucky, interact with the bird in the above screenshot in some way. There were some basic rules about how you entered commands, but sometimes it ended up being a guessing game to figure out what something was called. For example; in Hugo 3: Jungle of Doom there was a part where you had to pick up a bouillon cube, but in New Zealand I'd never heard of that term before, we just call it a stock cube. Needless to say I had to scour the internet using my dial-up speed connection to find the answer.

The game progresses by Penelope solving a variety of puzzles and mini-quests to make her way through the game, unlocking new areas, and ultimately solving the wider story arc.

Looking at this room I'd be trying commands like "open draws", "look on desk", "open door", "sit on chair", that kind of thing.

Positives

Reasonably strong and interesting story.

I like the idea behind the game mechanics - you have to really think as a detective to solve the puzzles. It's tricky going to various areas, and drawing connections between the various objects and environments you find. This was the ancient precursor to what L.A. Noire tried to do.

Negatives

Too hard. There's a fine line between making a challenging game, and making a game where the player has to take wild guesses to progress. The latter isn't something I'm personally interested in.

Memorable Moments

I remember the precise moment when I thought "this is just ridiculously difficult and unsatisfying  I'm not going to torture myself any longer by playing this".

Age of Mythology

I was never terribly excited by the Age of Empires series, and when I first heard about AoM I wasn't convinced, but it turned out to be the primary RTS game  played between StarCraft and Starcraft II, and I had a lot of good times playing this with my friends.

Developer: Ensemble Studios
Platform: PC
Release: 2002
Genres: Real time strategy (RTS), mythological

Plot

The setting was the ancient era, when the empires of Egypt, Greece, and the Norse dominated the planet. The single player campaign had a specific storyline which was extended in the expansions Age of Mythology: The Golden Gift (free to download) and Age of Mythology: The Titans.

The campaign follows the Greek hero Arkantos who begins his journey in the city of Atlantis. He is set the task of returning the favor of the god Poseidon to the Atlantean people. Along with Ajax and Odysseus he is then instructed to aid Agamemnon in the Trojan war, where the infamous Trojan Horse is used to penetrate the city defences.

After several skirmishes against the Trojans, Arkantos takes his fleet to Ioklos to be repaired but on arriving finds the port is under attack. The centaur Chiron takes them north to rescue the prisoners who are being forced to dig a hole to the Underworld by the cyclops warlord Gargarensis.

Arkantos and his men enter the Underworld where Gargarensis is trying to batter down a door. Gargarensis is stopped before the door can be broken down, but the way out is blocked trapping them in the Underworld. The dead aid Arkantos and take him to the temples of the three major gods. There, Arkantos prays to Poseidon asking him to aid in their escape, but is refused. Instead, it is Zeus who listens and helps them escape.

Upon escaping they find themselves in Egypt where they get drawn into another conflict. Set has killed the god Osiris, and is in league with Gargarensis. Amanra, a Nubian mercenary, plans to find the body parts of Osiris to bring him back to life and Arkantos agrees to help her.

Arkantos

While sleeping, Arkantos is met by the god Athena who reveals Gargarensis' plan. He is favored by Poseidon and has been tasked to break the gates of Tartarus to free the Titan Kronos (whom Zeus imprisoned in the past). There are three gates; the one near Ioklos, one in Egypt, and one in the Norse lands.

Arkantos and Amanra are able to find the body parts of Osiris and bring him back to life. In return Osiris destroys Gargarensis' army and Gargarensis flees to the Norse lands.

In the North our heroes are tricked by Loki into bearing the banner of the enemy giant Folstag instead of one to help unify the clans, and the Norse become hostile towards them. They are aided by the Valkyrie Reginleif to find Gargarensis at the Tartarus Gate. On the way they are waylaid by Fire Giants and Chiron sacrifices himself to save them. Finally, Odysseus confronts Gargarensis and executes him.

Arkantos sails back to Atlantis but when he arrives he realises the head of the giant is not Gargarensis at all, as Loki has tricked them once again. Instead, Gargarensis is alive and is in Atlantis opening a final Tartarus Gate. Poseidon has taken control of a statue in the city and is protecting him.

With no way to stop him by force, Arkantos builds a wonder to Zeus and asks for his blessing. Zeus grants him awesome power which allows him to enter the temple, defeat the aspect of Poseidon and defeat Gargarensis. The temple and the entire city collapse under the ocean, Arkantos is buried along with it.

As reward for his actions Athena brings Arkantos back to life, and makes him a god.

The Norse dragon Nidhogg, summoned by using a mythic age god power (see below).

Gameplay

Age of Mythology is a real time strategy game set in the ancient world, combining the mythology of ancient Greece, Egypt, and Norse mythology.

There were two primary aspects to the game; the single player campaign which contained 32 scenarios, and multiplayer and skirmish games.

The campaign was the most in-depth and the longest campaign from any Age of * games to date, with a rich storyline which contained both a decent plot and good characters. I thoroughly enjoyed the campaign as I felt like I went on a real journey. It was an excellent way to introduce the game mechanics, and I feel with the campaign alone it would have been worth the money I spent on buying the game.

Most of my time playing this game was multiplayer LAN with my best friend Rowan (DRTsorak from Viva la Dirt League).

One of the things that made this game different to StarCraft was the way maps were handled. Maps were not necessarily "static" in design, there was an element of randomisation about them between different games. The number of spawn locations and the amount of resources on any given map depended on the number of players in the game. I quite liked that mechanic in one way; it meant you had a varying game experience with the same "map", but it was also frustrating at times when I wanted the map to be shaped and organised a certain way but I couldn't guarantee that it would turn out that way when we started the game. One specific example of this was spawning locations; in a 2v2 VS the AI sometimes you would not spawn together, but on opposite sides of the map (in contrast to Starcraft II which handles this well). This forced us to re-create and quit games often just to get in a good spawning position.

Unlike Age of Empires the unit composition for each empire was entirely different. The three primary "races" were:

• Greek: Strong and expensive units. Had the most "traditional" game mechanics. Gained favour by villagers praying at temples.
• Egyptian: Weaker but less expensive units, gained favour by building monuments.
• Norse: Powerful forces who gained favour by engaging in warfare.

I really liked this aspect of the game; it meant there were three entirely different styles of play available. I personally loved playing Greek, particularly Hades for a couple of reasons. Firstly, there was a Greek bow unit which could level buildings very quickly... I loved those and would spam them in most games. Additionally, there was a god power which opened up an Underworld Passage. This allowed you to transport units across the map and was ideal for engaging an enemy from behind their defences.

The resources were slightly different from Age of Empires, most notably there is no stone in the game. The resources were:

• Gold; Gathered by mining gold veins or through trading. Trading was done by sending a trade unit from a trade post to any town centre on the map - and could be used to gain infinite resources. Trading was essential in the latter parts of the game when other sources of resources dried up. The Norse had a "dwarf" builder unit who was specialised at mining gold quickly.
• Wood; Gathered by chopping down trees.
• Food; Gathered by killing animals or gathering fruit and vegetables, but farms become a source of infinite food as the game progresses.
• Favour; Used to create mythical units. Each race had their own unique method of obtaining this.

I didn't like the favour generation method of the Greek race; having to use up villagers to get favour seemed like a waste, and I often ended up using mostly non-mythic units.

A Greek army

As I've hinted earlier, there were several categories of units:

• Mortal/normal units; Most units in the game.
• Mythic units; Powerful mythical units which cost favour. For example; Centaurs.
• Heroes; Unique anti-mythic units who were powerful and super efficient at killing mythic units.
• God-power Units; There were various units which were created by casting a "god power" (explained below). In particular the Son of Osiris and the Norse dragon Nidhogg.

Another major layer to the game were the god powers. Just like Age of Empires the tech paths in the game were broken up into ages:

• The Archaic Age
• The Classical Age
• The Heroic Age
• The Mythic Age

Each age unlocked new buildings and units. At the point at which a new age became available the player was given a choice between two minor gods. Depending on their decision, different powers and units were unlocked. This allowed you to modify your strategy mid-game in terms of the tech path you wanted. Each age also unlocked a single god power as well.

God powers were unique abilities which could be used one or more times during a game, but once they were used up that was it. They were generally powerful buffs or attacks which could be used to give yourself an edge at a certain moment in the game. Some examples of god powers:

• Lightning bolt; An archaic age god power (Zeus) which could be used to kill a single unit. This was interesting in that it could be used to kill a scout in the early parts of the game, or it could be saved up to wipe out a powerful unit later on.
• Healing spring; a Norse classical age god power which placed a healing spring on the battle field to regenerate all of your biological forces. It was a double edged sword - whoever controlled the ground around it took its power, so if an enemy came and held that spot they could use the healing spring against you.
• Son of Osiris; an Egyptian mythic age power which summoned the Son of Osiris, a powerful unit who could blast a chain lightning arc at enemies. He was immensely powerful and could turn the tide of any battle, but could not be healed.
• Meteor; summoned a metor storm over a certain area of the map doing massive damage to units and buildings alike, although with some randomness to where it hit.

God powers were an awesome mechanic; with careful use they could be made to turn the tide of a game in a moment.

Another interesting mechanic was that the primary building which provided additional supply to your army, the town centre could only be built on certain pre-set locations around the map. This created an element of territory and map control in any game.

Depending on the scenario you were playing victory was obtained by one of multiple ways including destroying all enemy structures or building a wonder and holding it for a certain period of time.

Meteor god power hitting a town centre.

Positives

Diverse and interesting units, the game mechanics overall were rich and interesting. God powers were a lot of fun. Lots of challenge - try taking on an AI at the Titan difficulty.

Fun campaign with a good story and great characters.

Negatives

Something about the flow of the game didn't work as well in player versus player games as StarCraft. I can't describe why, it just wasn't as good.

Randomised maps could be a pain, player spawn position also difficult in multiplayer.

Memorable Moments

We mostly played games against the AI. Our eternal goal was to take on a single AI at the Titan difficulty. Not only did a Titan AI get given a huge boost to economy (they got more resources from every activity) but they were just relentless and smart. We did beat the AI on a few occasions, but it was always a fun challenge.

I played Hades in almost every game... I found some units and god powers I liked, and just ran with it. I loved the Earthquake god power, it was easily the best at taking down enemy buildings. And those crossbowmen who could take down buildings quickly were godly (Gastraphetes).

Space Hulk

The cover art always looked so bad-ass. I love how it looks like he's shooting off to the wall for no apparent reason.

Space Hulk is a video game based on the 1989 board game with the same name developed by Games Workshop. To be brutally honest I didn't play this game much - it was too confusing for my small mind to work out; but when I read the game manual it always made me excited about it again.

Developer: Electronic Arts
Platform: PC (MS-DOS)
Release: 1993
Genres: First person shooter / tactical

Basic Plot

Space Hulk is based on the Warhammer 40,000 universe. The player takes control of a squad of Space Marines as they roam through huge derelict spaceships called "Space Hulks" fighting alien Genestealers as they go.

The rough plot is that these Space Hulks are infested with Genestealers. The ships drift in and out of another dimension called the "warp" and the Genestealers invade any planet that the ship crosses paths with. Sworn to protect humanity, the genetically enhanced Space Marines board these Space Hulks and eradicate all Genestealers on board.

Terminator View Screen

Gameplay

Space Hulk is a first person party-based combat game.

The gameplay is divided into two sections:

• The Terminator View Screen provides a first person view of each of the space marines in your squad.
• The Planning Screen gives you a top down strategic view of the map, and allows you to give orders to your marines from that perspective.

Each map begins with your squad starting at one location. On the map, Genestealers will continually spawn from a set of areas throughout the ship. The objectives for each map are either to eliminate all of the Genestealers on board, or to retrieve an object of some kind.

Although the combat is real time, the player is able to pause the action in order to give orders to their squad whenever they choose (which is similar to the mechanics of Baldur's Gate).

One game mechanic which was purposely implemented was the contrast between the heavy and slow moving Space Marines, and the quick and agile Genestealers. Giving the player's characters such as flaw creates a real tension within the game, and the game has been praised for the atmosphere it helps to provide.

The campaign, which involved a squad of marines investigating an emergency beacon, included 21 missions. There were an additional 30 tutorial and standalone missions to play.

Planning Screen

Positives

I love the Warhammer 40,000 universe and this was a pretty decent attempt at transitioning it into a video game. It had a great atmosphere, 

Negatives

TOO. HARD. If you play modern first person shooters then you may want to re-think whether this game is for you. It had a very basic view screen for each squad, quite small, and movement was limited to 4 directions (you couldn't just "look around"). And you had to keep track of up to 5 different marines at one time!

Memorable Moments

I was about 10 years old when I tried to play this game. Every single time I tried to play my entire squad would be dead before I could work out how to do anything. It was a very tricky game and required a combination of quick reflexes and good strategic thought. I'd be keen to play the board game some time.

Half-Life: Opposing Force

Half-Life: Opposing Force is the second expansion to the original Half-Life. Like Half-Life: Blue Shift it tells the same story from a different perspective, this time from the viewpoint of a US Marine sent in to deal with the incident.

Developer: Gearbox Software & Valve Corporation

Platform: PC

Release Year: 1999

Genres: First person shooter.

Basic Plot

Whereas in the original Half-Life you play from the perspective of a Black Mesa scientist, Gordon Freeman, and in Half-Life: Blue Shift you play from the perspective of a Black Mesa security guard, Barney Calhoun, this time you follow the same events from the perspective of US Marine Adrian Shephard.

The initial objective of the game is to go into Black Mesa and neutralise the entire facility after a scientific mishap opens up a portal to another dimension. This is an interesting perspective, as these same marines are enemies to both the protagonists of the other two games in the trilogy.

Shephard is isolated from the rest of his squad early in the game, and ends up having to work together with survivors in the Black Mesa Research Facility to escape the complex (which is a nice story item; considering he is initially on a mission to kill everyone in the complex and leave no trace of the event).

On his way through the complex he travels to the other dimension, Xen, and finds himself in the middle of a worldwide invasion. The alien Race X invade the complex through the open portal, and indiscriminately eliminate all human and Xen life forms they come across.

He discovers that black operations are planning to set off a tactical nuclear weapon in order to contain the invasion, by eliminating the entire complex. Shephard manages to defeat several black operations personnel and disarm the bomb before it goes off.

In the final boss fight Shephard defeats a gene worm, a massive alien creature which is facilitating the Race X invasion. However, after that success he is captured by the G-Man, who "detains" him for future analysis. Black Mesa goes up in smoke as the nuclear device from earlier is set off.

One of the new weapons, with an NPC allied Us Marine helping you out to the left of the screen.

Gameplay

Half-Life: Opposing Force is a single player first person shooter. It uses the same game engine (GoldSrc) as the original Half-Life game, which in itself is an extension of the Quake game engine.

As with the other games in the "trilogy" (by this I refer to the three original games which tell the story of Half-Life from three different perspectives) there is consistent use of in-game cut scenes to give an almost cinematic feel to the game experience.

Some of the other features which make this game different from the original:

• Some new and upgraded weapons, especially alien weaponry. I found the weapon composition of this expansion the most satisfying out of all three games and got a lot of satisfaction out of trying out each new weapon I came across.
• Throughout the campaign Shephard comes across scattered US Marines who have also become isolated from their squads. These soldiers will follow Shephard and provide assistance (which is a very simple beginnings of the mechanics used in Star Wars: Republic Commando):
• Soldiers provide extra fire power.
• Combat medics provide healing from both the player and other friendly non-player characters.
• Engineers are capable of removing blocked doors and other obstacles.
• Additional enemies are included in the game.
• An extended look at the story of Half-Life with additional back story.

Survival in the game involves a combination of good aiming and dodging (generic first person shooter skills), conservation of ammunition, and puzzle solving. More than anything else the Half-Life games provide you the feeling of being inside a movie.

The gene worm

Positives

Very good story; I really liked getting different perspectives on the same event. It didn't become repetitive, the way they told the story meant it was a new experience each time which built up the gravitas of the story as a whole.

The gameplay was slick and enjoyable moment to moment. There was just the right amount of tension at times, and then areas where danger was temporarily lowered to give the player a moment to catch their breath.

Negatives

For me; there were none. This was my favourite game, I even preferred it to the original Half-Life (I know, heresy!).

Memorable Moments

Crazy alien weapons, wasn't there an alien electric eel gun which could fire electric sparks? I loved the disorientation of travelling to the Xen dimension too. It was just the right amount of it; a fine line which I felt that Crysis tried to ride, but went too far.

Streets of Rage II

Name: Streets of Rage II
Platform: Mega Drive (Genesis if you're 'merican)

Developer: Sega

Release Year: 1993

Basic Plot

Adam from SOR1 has been kidnapped by the crime lord “Mr X”. His friends (you) must battle through the hordes of gang baddies to rescue him.

What's its deal?

It's a Double Dragon style beat 'em up.

Gameplay

Streets of Rage II kept the same 2D side-scrolling style of beat 'em up gameplay as SOR1 but had so many improvements. The graphics were significantly better and the soundtrack was AMAZING.

The great thing about SOR2 was the variety of attacks each character had at their disposal. There was of course the regular button mashing combo and jumping kick that you find in any of these types of games but Sega added much more. For example there were in fact 3 different ways to execute a jumping attack. Add in throws, grabs – and lots of options once you had grabbed an opponent, dash attacks, charged attacks, reverse attacks and more. The sheer number of options of which you could kick the crap out of gang punks kept the game from getting stale. There were weapons you could pick up (knives, poles etc) and even though different characters handled these weapons slightly differently they lacked the variety and using them became boring very quickly. Every time I picked picked up a knife I'd find myself throwing it away as quickly as possible just so I could get back to using my mitts. It was ALL about the hand to hand. So very satisfying.

The move commands were all the same for whatever character although the moves those commands produced were specific to the character which meant you could switch between characters easily and not have to start learning their shit from zero.

Axel and Blaze were 'on their own' with no support from the Police this time round which made you feel more like a renegade and the whole mission more dangerous (said the 12 year old playing in his lounge) as a result the special attack from SOR1 (where the Police car came and fired a bazooka and cleared out the enemies on screen) was taken out. Instead, each character had 2 special attacks of their own – one, for when they were surrounded that cleared enemies immediately on both sides of your character and one that was directional which did more damage but only to one side. However using either of these new special attacks used up a bit of your health causing you to only bust them out when you really needed them making them very satisfying to use (nice one Sega). This was taken out for SOR3 which ruined these attacks ('nice one' Sega).

One of the greatest strengths of the game was the characters you could play as. Each had their own style, strengths and weaknesses. They all had a ranking for their strength, technique, speed and jump (jump was a negligible attribute – no one ever died because they couldn't jump high enough).

AXEL: From SOR1. Had a fantastic array of techniques and skinny jeans. The 'cool' choice.

BLAZE: From SOR1. Had all her attributes perfectly balanced. Blaze was also the type of character that you and your mates would 'totally do' when you and your mates were 12 and talking about 'hot video game babes' during sleep overs.

SKATE: Adam's younger brother and the annoying 'young and hip' character who had rollerblades (groan). Fast but very weak and um, dope y'all.

MAX: A professional wrestler who just happens to be Axel's friend (how CONVENIENT). Tries to maximise (no pun intended) his exposure by wearing his actual wrestling costume in a street fight. He was strongest character in the game and the slowest (despite the lightning bolts on his tights).

A nice little touch was that each enemy had their own name and life gauge so you could put a name to the face you were destroying and toy with them on the brink of death.

Memorable moments

Being psyched up by the kick-ass techno soundtrack. Unleashing Max's thunder tackle special attack on 8 punks who have unluckily grouped themselves together. You're so dead.

Positives

• the variety of attacks at your disposal gave the game longevity and rewarded you being a better player.
• The soundtrack.
• graphics were a HUGE improvement from SOR1.
• Naming each enemy.
• Hits felt hard.
• Seriously, the amount of attacks you could do was far beyond anything else out at the time.
• Killing those annoying pricks on the motorbikes.

Negatives

• Finding a player's best move could have you relying on it a bit much (Grand Upper!).
• I know it couldn't work with the story but would have loved to have seen what they would have done with Adam had he been a playable character again.
• Skate.
• Max's backstory.
• Those annoying pricks on the motorbikes killing you.

Extra comments

This was easily the best in the series. SOR1 was a little too basic and SOR3 was just, just, they just didn't get it. Felt too cartoonish, light and tinny.

Stephen's Thoughts
I never played this game but loved the original, and it's on my list of games to write about! Loved it.

Counter-Strike: Condition Zero

Counter-Strike: Condition Zero is a single and multi-player player extension of the popular team based multi-player on-line game Counter-Strike.

Developer: Valve Corporation, Gearbox Software, Ritual Entertainment, Turtle Rock Studios
Platform: PC
Release Year: 2004

Basic Plot

The original Counter-Strike did not contain a single player mode of game play, so this was new for the franchise. The original release came with a campaign called Tour of Duty. The plot loosely bound together various multi-player missions together into a basic story, utilising computer controlled team mates to simulate the team based mechanics of the on-line game.

Gameplay

In a nutshell, Counter-Strike: Condition Zero (referred to as CS:CZ) is a single and multi-player team based first person shooter. If you have never heard of the original game or simply want a re-cap on the mechanics of the game you can see my previous blog post here.

I'll talk about the mechanics of the single and multi-player aspects of the game separately, but there were also some game-play mechanics related to both.

Most obviously, the player and weapon models were re-worked for this game to be more detailed than the original game. It still used the same underlying engine (GoldSrc).

Single Player

The single player campaign simulated some of the experiences you might obtain during the multi-player part of the game but from the perspective of the Counter-Terrorists. Despite being single player, the game is heavily team-based and involves working together with a team of bots to achieve victory on each mission.

As the player progressed through the missions they were able to unlock new maps that they could play on, but most importantly could obtain more effective bot team mates to carry with them as they went.

The objectives of each mission were the same as multi-player, a combination of:

• Defusing bombs
• Rescuing hostages
• Killing enemies

Playing through campaign provided a new player a decent introduction to the skills they might need to play against real players on-line.

An example of the updated game models.

Multi-player

The multi-player game functioned the same way the original Counter-Strike did but with the addition of new maps, weapons, and player models.

The multi-player part of the game never took off, and most players continued to play the original game after release.

Positives

It was a nice idea; to put a single player perspective to the game, provide a way for new players to learn the basics without being reamed by real players on-line, and to add some additional back story to one of the most successful games in history.

Negatives

The most memorable part of the game was how buggy it was. I gave up on the single player campaign after two attempts in which my save game got corrupted or part of the game glitched out and I was unable to proceed. As a bit of back story:

• Development initially started in 2000 by Rogue Entertainment.
• Later that year Rogue Entertainment went defunct, handing over development to Valve.
• Valve handed development over to Gearbox Software (who developed Half-Life) so they could focus on Team Fortress 2 and the new Source engine.
• Gearbox over-hauled the game to contain updated models and new weapons, but they missed their late 2002 release date and the development was handed over to Ritual Entertainment.
• Ritual Entertainment completely re-started development and created a 20 mission single player campaign, and focusing on developing an updated AI system for bots, due for release in early 2003.
• Valve released Ritual's version of the game to reviewers, but it received a rating of only 60%, so they scrapped all of Ritual's parts of the game and handed over development to the newly created Turtle Rock Studios.
• Turtle Rock Studios took over from where Gearbox left off, and the final 2004 release was primarily focused on the updated models and weapons, as well as AI, but also included 12 missions which were left over from Ritual's development period.

It's no wonder the game was so buggy, with such a delayed development with so many vendors involved. For those of you interested, Ritual Entertainment's single player campaign was eventually released as Condition Zero: Deleted Scenes.

The multi-player aspect of the game didn't take off either. It didn't add anything significantly interesting to the mechanics of the game, and people preferred the tried and true original (plus it was less buggy).

An in-game cut scene from the single player campaign.

Memorable Moments

Like I said, I tried to play this game twice but the bugs prevented me from being able to complete it - very frustrating. I was pretty excited to try it out, as Counter-Strike was the most important game for me when I was at university, something I played many hours of every day.

Duke Nukem II

Duke Nukem II

Platform: PC (DOS)
Developer: Apogee
Release Year: 1993

Basic Plot

It is the year 1998 and the evil Rigelatins are threatening to overthrow the Earth! As part of their dastardly plan they kidnap Duke during an interview (for his new book Why I'm so Great) to use his mind to help them plan their invasion. Instead, Duke escapes, and saves the world once again.

Gameplay

Duke Nukem II is the sequel to the original platform game of the same name and features an enhanced game engine.

For anyone who is not familiar with the Duke Nukem franchise, the game is a parody of itself; it is the quintessential mindless violent 2D platform action game. The character of "Duke" is cheesy and over-confident, and at least initially the whole package of the unashamedly cheesy action game was a hit with fans. The game has a nice blend of humour but is genuinely a fun game to play as well.

Gameplay is fairly similar to other 2D action games:

• Travelling through a series of levels defeating enemies.
• Picking up new weapons:
• A flame thrower was his default, which was able to shoot through walls and boost him into the air!
• The laser gun (my personal favourite) could shoot through anything, slaying multiple enemies in one shot.
• A rocket launcher was the final weapon.
• Also picking up power-ups including rapid fire, health kits for health (or points), and a cloaking device for temporary invincibility.
• Key cards needed to be obtained to progress through levels, which was a very over-used mechanic in platform games at the time.

The ultimate goal is to beat your way through each level and fight the alien boss at the end.

The visuals were smooth and quite beautiful for the era.

The flame thrower could be used not only to attack enemies, but also boost yourself into the air.

Comparisons

Duke Nukem II fits into the "second generation" of platform games, competing alongside classics such as:

• Sonic the Hedgehog
• Alex Kidd
• Super Mario World
• Commander Keen
• Jill of the Jungle

Comparitively, the Duke Nukem series was the one to contain satirical humour - it was an analysis of the genre as a whole and of computer game culture.

In terms of game mechanics it was quite a plain and uninventive game, even for the time. The opposing example would be Sonic the Hedgehog which re-defined a new style of fast-paced platform game which focused on agility and accuracy.

Positives

Light hearted and fun platform game, especially good quality for a PC game (at the time consoles had the pick of the games, and PC games were lagging behind).

Negatives

Linear story, uninventive game mechanics, not a game which made a big imprint on me as a child against a back-drop of other industry-shaping games which overshadowed it. I also never "got" the humour of the game in a way that some other people apparently did, it wasn't my personal taste.

Memorable Moments

I remember clearly the laser gun; it was the most satisfying weapon in the game. Nothing better than slicing a whole line of enemies with a single shot.

X-Men: Children of the Atom

Name: X-Men: Children of the Atom

Platform: Arcade (then PC)

Developer: Capcom

Release Year: 1994 (PC 1997)

Basic Plot

Magneto is on Asteroid M and the X-Men need to... actually just add in any plot from an X-Men game here. Loosely based on Fatal Attractions. It doesn't really matter.

What's its deal?

It's Street Fighter with X-Men characters.

Character select screen

Gameplay

It's a one-on-one 2D fighter from the good ol' days before team tag combos and 3D blah blah blah.

The first thing that struck you was how amazing the graphics were. The look and feel of the game was true to the X-Men 1991 comics run and the characters looked like they'd stepped right out of the comic panels (and animated TV series) and onto your screen. I love how they did not try to re-imagine the X-Men for this game or 'go in a new direction' and most likely fuck everything. No, you love the X-Men? Well here they are exactly how you have come to know and love them. Thank you Capcom. Thank you. The only exception to this was Sentinel, but they needed to make a new 'model' to fit on the screen and they made him badass so no harm, no foul.

Controls were exactly the same as SFII with 6 button attacks – 3 punches, 3 kicks. Special moves were your run of the mill 'fireball' and 'dragon punch' movements. Characters also had a 'rage meter' that would build up mutant energy during the fight allowing more powerful special moves to be unlocked including a powerful X attack. Again, these were all suited to the character so each one had their own unique play style. 

Even regular punches and kicks were suited to the characters eg) Cyclops' heavy punch threw out a small optic blast, Iceman's heavy kick threw up a wall of ice that could be used for offense or defence. The attention to detail was amazing. 

Iceman 'Arctic Attack'. Done real close, it destroys.

The 10 playable characters* were split between 6 goodies and 4 baddies:

• Cyclops: sit back and keep em busy with optic blasts; play to his strengths man. His super X power was (wait for it) a giant optic blast! although he did also have a less powerful one but it could be aimed and moved once initiated; you could also bounce it off the floor. 
• Psylocke: get in close and use those special attacks designed to link on from regular combos. She was a combo queen.
• Colossus: one of my favourites. Play him as a wrestler. His special X attack sucked (just did a big diving head butt) much better to use his alternative 'super armour' power where he took less damage and just walked through attacks. Nothing like seeing the big man charging through and taking a smack in the face just to get in close and pile drive the enemy.
• Iceman: a very versatile fighter. One of the most original special moves in the game was Iceman summoning a large ice boulder to drop down and smash on you. The cool thing about this power was it also could be used to shield you from projectiles if timed right.
• Storm: her punches were laced with lighting and her kicks with tiny typhoons. She could also fly.
• Wolverine: played like the brawler that he is. Lots of speedy hack and slash. His berserker barrage special X power looked pretty gruesome too.

• Silver Samurai: Had one of the coolest special moves where his movements would trail – kind of like he had 5 shadows that would copy all his movements exactly a half second after him. So hitting a guy once would actually hit him 5 times. Very cool.
• Spiral: I'm not sure why the hell they chose Spiral? You know, Mojo's number 2. Why not Sabretooth, Pyro, Toad etc? Oh well, she was the only character that could get a 6-hit combo from just using her heavy punch.
• Sentinal: AWESOME. Every animation for every attack was awesome, he looked like he was transforming all the time with rockets coming out of his wrists and mouth and thrust kicks and shit. His movements were heavy and you really felt like a ton of metal raining down techno pain on your opponents. He could even launch mini Sentinels that did an aerial bombing run. Yes, you read that correctly.
• Omega Red: If you mastered his coils, you were a force to be reckoned with. Having an option of 5 directions to launch a coil from (up, 45, straight, 45 down, down – last two need to be mid-jump) once it hit your opponent you had options. You could either just throw them around, drain their energy or drain a bit of their life.

*Ok, Akuma was also a hidden character but he can eat a dick. Piss off Akuma, you don't belong here. Don't you have like 500 other games to go and hide in?

Optic blasts Vs Rockets. Oh it's awwwn.

There were a few more game mechanics thrown in. Players could move around a little bit before the round actually started to vie for a good starting position. Every character could perform super jumps and dashes. Some stages had destructible floors eg) on Colossus' level you could smash your opponent through the street level and drop down into the sewers. Some characters had the ability to perform attacks on downed players – Wolverine could jump on top of a downed opponent playground-bully-style and punch them in the face with his claws. Colossus could pick people up from the ground and lift them over his head and then decide what to do with them.

There were two bosses. Juggernaut was the sub-boss and Magneto was the main boss. Once you finished the single player mode each character had their own little epilouge animation ala Street Fighter II.

Memorable moments

Probably having epic battles using Colossus. During his hyper-tackle move he is INVULNERABLE. I loved waiting for opponents to unleash their ultimate attacks and have Colossus just charge right through it taking no damage. Muhahaha eat it Magneto. Also Colossus Vs Juggernaut was always a big slug fest and I'll never forget the first time I picked up the Juggernaut over my head and then pile drove his ass. Good times.

Said Hyper-tackle.  Fav move in the game.

Positives

• Was true to the X-Men comics. Everything was honoured, no stylistic raping at all
• Was a damn good fighter, whatever your playing style
• Each character was unique giving you lots of replay value
• Looked amazing. Even the backgrounds were dynamic (danger room!)
• Seriously fun

Negatives

• Not enough characters! What? No Gambit!?

Extra comments

The success of this game lead to the start of the X-Men Vs Street Fighter series (which eventually led to Marvel Vs Capcom 3) Although they never made a strict sequel to this game which I would have loved to see. While these spin-off sequels were fun they lost the immersion into the X-Men universe and made the game more about wanky combos and underpowered special moves.

Unfortunately X-Men: Children of the Atom had a winning formula that no one used again – making it the Captain America of fighting games. Sigh.