Review: Jurassic Park Interactive

Jurassic Park Interactive comes from Universal Interactive Studios as a tie-in game for the hugely popular 1993 blockbuster, based on Michael Crichton’s titular novel. Playing someone trying to rescue the lost crew of the movie on Isla Nublar, you must guide them to safety and then hack into Dennis Nedry’s security minigames to evacuate them.

Upon beginning the game, players are given a lovely view of the island from the film. However, you quickly find out that the short snippet of film at the start is all you will end up seeing of familiar sights of Jurassic Park. There is no Sam Neil, no Laura Dern. Instead we get a fat guy that kind of looks like Wayne Knight and a bunch of generic actors that look nothing like the people they are supposed to be portraying. These actors are seen in brief cutscenes in between stages and that is about it.

You select from a series of places on a map of Isla Nublar that will trigger a stage. There are three methods of gameplay here. The first being riding in a Ford Explorer away from a t-rex, shooting dilophosaurus in the jungle with a taser gun (despite shotguns being available) and being chased through a maze by velociraptors. These stages are quick enough to fun the first couple of times but they quickly become repetitive. The raptor maze *should* be the most fun but it’s a very tired experience with little content and it’s very easy to get killed by a raptor. Additionally, the dilophosaurus stage can become incredibly tedious if trees keep getting in the way of your shots. Finally, the t-rex stage is not surprisingly, the best. You drive down the road attempting to avoid fallen logs and other cars in the way and it’s a very simple experience. However, it’s fun and straightforward and it’s easily the best looking stage as well.

Playing through the aforementioned stages, however, is not the only way to progress through the game. While your primary goal is to get all of the survivors to the dock, you also have to get them some help. How do you do that? Hack into Nedry’s security protocols! How do you do that? By playing knock-off Galaga. There really wasn’t any imagination put into these little mini-games and although it is consistent with Nedry’s style that he would lock out potential hackers with gimmicks, they are just variations on Galaga, Asteroids and other 80’s arcade games. This shows a distinct lack of imagination and despite being delayed, this is still all they could come up with.

Even with being entirely underwhelmed with the mini-games presented to the player in Jurassic Park Interactive, I don’t hate this title. The presentation is pretty endearing and the stages you play through are not poorly designed or unplayable, they just lack anything that makes them stand out from other games. The corridor crawling raptor game is a cheap Wolfenstein 3D style stage with no gunplay, just running and locking and unlocking doors. That said, it looks great and shows off some decent texturing and very little texture deformation. The raptors look sharp and the frame rate is pretty smooth. The dilophosaur stage, again, looks good. It’s sharp, sprite scaling is nice and it’s a very smooth experience. The t-rex stage, however, is fantastic. A moody fog effect and detailed textures make for some awesome atmosphere in such a condensed experience. It’s a tense stage, made more so by the look and feel of it.

It’s funny that I found so much to say about Jurassic Park Interactive when there is very little actual content on presentation. It’s a multimedia driven experience that lacks the punch of a licensed cast but still manages to cram some enjoyment onto the CD. Bland mini-games were obviously added to pad out the experience and although they are kind of fun, they are also just generic knock-off versions of popular arcade games from the 70’s and 80’s. Do they push the 3DO? No, they don’t. The actual stages, however, do show some impressive development chops with the texturing, mood and atmosphere all being pretty good. There’s just such a lack of content that Jurassic Park Interactive fails to remain an engaging game over a long period of time and honestly, I will never pick this up again as there are much better games out there.

Review: Alone in the Dark 2

Alone in the Dark 2 is one of very few survival horror games on the 3DO. As a watershed moment in the evolution of the genre, Infogrames brought us a very simple but ultimately absorbing and forward thinking adventure in the shoes of the venerable Edward Carnby in the form of Alone in the Dark. How does the sequel fare, however?

Definitely not as well. The original Alone in the Dark was certainly rough around the edges as it was released at a time where embarking on 3D adventures was difficult because it was a path not taken. Polygonal graphics at this time were more suited to games like Shockwave and other space games as it doesn’t take a lot of polygons to render a box and some laser decals. Infogrames went as far as rendering entire people and monsters in a complicated perspective that had never been embarked on before and this is why I enjoyed the original so much. Alone in the Dark was never particularly scary to me as I was growing up, with more complicated horror games like Resident Evil and Silent Hill taking that crown. It was, however, a good game. It seemed that way. It had a unique control system and some good atmosphere. Unfortunately, that did not translate to the sequel.

In Alone in the Dark 2 Carny investigates the disappearance of a little girl named Grace Saunders. He finds, however, that his latest adventure is a more jaunty affair with less of an emphasis on horror. I hate to say that this is where the series began to take a turn for the worse but there really is very little going on here that will actually scare you.
Unlike Alone in the Dark, the sequel is a more gun heavy, combat filled experience. Gunplay is favoured over the cautious pace of the original game and I feel that it somewhat ruins the atmosphere that the game does exude. It doesn’t help that Carnby’s control scheme has not improved all that much and although the locations in the original game worked with Carnby’s clunky, sub-screen driven control scheme (giving you the option to push, fight etc.), the more open areas and combat emphasis of Alone in the Dark 2 don’t.
Additionally, players must actually play as Grace Saunders later in the game and it’s downright tedious. Playing as Grace is tense, but irritating and although it takes a step back into feeling more helpless, it will frustrate you ultimately dampening this enjoyment.

Graphically, Alone in the Dark 2 has not improved in 2 years. It looks slightly sharper than it did on DOS but I would have liked some texture mapping to characters, improved animation and a better frame rate on 3DO. We got none of this, in fact the frame rate seems worse on 3DO than it does on DOS, fluctuating wildly, seemingly for no reason. This, coupled with the naturally clunky nature of the controls, makes Alone in the Dark 2 somewhat of a chore to play.
Environments do look good though and the atmosphere that made the original game so memorable is certainly there. The underground sections look particularly brilliant but with such bland characters and erratic frame rate, the game suffers considerably.

I really wanted to like Alone in the Dark 2 as it presents another step in the evolution of one of my favourite genres of video game; that of survival horror. However, it presents a step in the wrong direction. The game de-emphasises horror in favour of zombie gun battles, atmosphere suffers because of this and it also highlights how inadequate the control scheme is. I have no issue with “tank” controls as I highlight Resident Evil 3: Nemesis and the brilliant Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare as some of my favourite games of all time, Alone in the Dark 2 simply adds a clunky control scheme onto fundamental failings that make it difficult to recommend.

Review: PO’ed

Developed by Any Channel and released in 1995, PO’ed has you taking on the role of a ship’s cook (bringing back memories of Under Siege?) who has to defend himself against alien attackers after his ship crashes on a mysterious planet.

Gameplay in PO’ed is difficult to explain. If you’ve ever played Duke Nukem 3D or Quake on Sega Saturn, powered by Lobotomy Software’s Slavedriver Engine then you might have some idea about how it feels to play this game. Control is incredibly fluid and realistic with your character turning in a fashion that feels natural. Movement is a little slippery but it effectively conveys a sense of momentum that modern games even strive to provide but fail to. In many ways, the way PO’ed plays is a hallmark in first person shooter design.
The 3DO controller is the perfect home for such an accomplished game as the shoulder buttons provide strafing for you and the comfortable D-Pad allows you to navigate with ease.
Although the gameplay in PO’ed is fantastic, it takes a little while to get used to. Momentum based movement is a little challenging to get the hang of at first, but with persistence you will look at FPS titles with a more conventional physics system (or none at all) as positively primitive after playing this game for a while.

Gunplay in PO’ed is fairly engaging with some interesting weapons like a Missile Cam and a default weapon of a frying pan that gradually grows in power as you take damage. That said, the frame rate does tend to dip at times and that makes strafing around enemies and firing at them somewhat difficult when it spikes down suddenly and you’re contending with enemies and an erratic frame rate. It’s not something that entirely ruins the experience, but it is something to bear in mind.
The enemies you will be firing at in PO’ed are strange and inconsistent in design. At times you have walking butts that, immature or not, are unarguably creative and later on you have generic aliens. When jetpacks come into play things get a little more interesting but enemy design is certainly a little bland.

Graphically, few games are as impressive as PO’ed on the 3DO. Reflections, slick texture mapped environments, inventive vertical game design, it’s all here. The verticality of some levels is purely breath taking and coupled with the long draw distance you really feel like you’re playing a game that truly shows how powerful the 3DO is. I remember reading an article a while ago that featured an interview with Any Channel developers who explained that this was their roof for the 3DO. They used a lot of programming trickery (using lists to efficiently manage geometry calculation) that the Playstation couldn’t actually do, so it was harder for them to port the game to the Playstation than it was to develop it in the first place.
Whatever the case may be PO’ed leads the pack of graphically advanced 3DO games with Killing Time, Bladeforce, Need for Speed, Road Rash, Starfighter and Deathkeep in tow.

Sound design is fairly generic with some 90’s feeling rock tunes accompanying the game which I always really enjoy. The feel of music from the 90’s is something that is hard to describe as it takes the best things from the 80’s and modernises them just enough to create a real sense of engagement with the source material. Once you hear a searing guitar solo, synthesised wood block or flute then you immediately know what the concept is.

PO’ed is undoubtedly one of the best 3DO games ever developed. Unparalleled vertical gameplay, ingenious level design, engaging combat and a jaw dropping 3D engine overshadow issues with enemy design and frame rate to create an experience that really leaves an impression on anyone who sits down to play it. Highly recommended.

Review: Foes of Ali

Like a punch to the head, Foes of Ali comes swinging at you from EA as the 3DO’s premiere 3D fighter. Chronicling the career of Muhammad Ali, players are able to recreate his most famous fights to some degree and throw some punches as the greatest himself.

Select options or review historical perspective.

To say that you will be recreating Ali’s most famous fights is a bit tenuous as you will find out when you boot up the game. After selecting “Career” mode, players are able to fight all of Ali’s most famous foes in chronological order. It’s really quite interesting to hear Tim Gammon telling you the history of the fights when you ask for some historical perspective pre-fight and players are given background on the fighting style of each pugilist.
Upon beginning the fights you begin to notice that they’re all basically the same. While fighters all look different and act slightly different you’ll find that the same strategy applies to every fight; mash buttons. They become tiresome after a while as you haphazardly mash buttons and attempt to actually employ features in the game like faking only to find that they basically don’t work. All that works is mashing and hoping that the Joe Frazier look-a-like in front of you kisses the mat before your thumb has to endure 10 rounds of pure muscle tearing button pounding.
I didn’t really feel like Muhammad Ali while I was playing Foes. The incredibly agile footwork and devastating hooks of the champ has been reduced to awkward circling and impotent jabbing. Hits lack impact and you feel overwhelmed at times by the competence of the AI while you struggle to respond with your own awkward combinations. The game is fun to a degree. When you lash out and manage to nail your opponent in the face with a wicked combination and follow up with a gut punch, it feels quite satisfying. However, this satisfaction dwindles quickly when you realise your hundred punches to your opponents head means very little, however a couple of punches to the stomach can knock them out. It’s bizarre and inconsistent.

Graphically, Foes of Ali is something of a showcase. High polygon models marry with excellent particle effects and blood decals on the mat while the game zips a long at a respectable clip.
Textures are fantastic with every fighter looking very convincing and animating fairly well. Textures are incredibly crisp, clean  and detailed and when you begin to notice subtle graphical effects such as your vision blurring when you take too many hits to the head, or your eye being blacked out during a fight you really appreciate the attention to detail in the graphics engine. The 3DO is a very powerful platform and games like Foes of Ali really show how graphically competent they are.

Sound, on the other hand is incredibly uninspired. Generic rock music plays over the menus without any quotes or sound bytes from Ali himself while Tim Gammon tries to keep your eyes happy with his entertaining voice and inconsistent commentating during bouts. Occasionally the crowd will chant as well but it is very uncommon. Foes just doesn’t sound good.

I really, really wanted to love Foes of Ali and thought it would be a game I could use to show people little hidden gems on the 3DO that tends to be overlooked. All you get in Foes is a very inconsistent game that features short bursts of fun amongst mostly baffling game design. Punching is all over the place with seemingly random damage being done to an opponent, footwork is awkward and totally ruins the illusion of being Muhammad Ali and every fighter is virtually identical in practice. The graphics engine is fantastic, but that only does so much to distract from the absolutely lackluster gameplay. The greatest? Perhaps the greatest missed opportunity.

Review: Gex

Released in late 1994, Gex is probably one of the most memorable 3DO games ever released and one that got the honour of being released on other platforms. Many players know the game from the Saturn or Playstation, however it was the on the 3DO that the game debuted. Was it a worthy mascot game though?

The story to Gex is pretty bizarre. Gex himself is a gecko that is addicted to television. After his father dies in a space shuttle explosion, he consoles himself by watching T.V, when his mother takes his T.V away he runs away from home. After living on the streets for a while, Gex inherits money and ends up moving back to Maui and buying a mansion. Rez, the overlord of the Media Dimension wants to use Gex as a mascot and after the titular gecko swallows a transmitter, Rez pulls him into the Media Dimension. So, it’s safe to say that the story is totally nonsensical, however if you want to get pedantic about story details try analysing Super Mario Bros. it makes just as little sense.
This story is a pretense to let players explore several styles and genres of television ranging from horror to kung fu before facing off against Rez.

Control is very good, with Gex being able to jump, stick to walls and ceilings, whip with his tail and run around causing lizard mayhem. An issue I have though is how huge Gex is. The lizard is fairly big on the screen, taking up a lot of space in the playable area. This makes it fairly easy to get hit by enemies. A big plus for Gex is in its powerup system. Players can eat icons located

DYNO-MIIIIIITE

around levels that imbue Gex with various abilities that he can use to overcome his foes or get through levels faster. For instance, he can swallow an icon that allows him to shoot electricity out of his mouth. In most platformers, this power up would be replaced by another when you collect it. However, in Gex, you are able to stack power ups on top of one another. This means that you can be running 100 miles per hour through a level with electricity belching out of your mouth. It becomes very satisfying when they begin to stack and it is one thing that sets the game apart.

There’s only one way out of this!

Another thing that sets Gex apart is level design. Because Gex is a gecko he has sticky paws and can climb walls and ceilings with ease, meaning levels will often play out vertically as well as horizontally as you would expect in a standard platformer. This allowed Crystal Dynamics to hide powerups and remotes in various places that you have to seriously consider. Do you climb down the wall to see if that really is a pit, or a convenient hiding place? This can often mean crawling into spikes or environmental hazards however, so exercise caution.
Levels are quite varied and don’t simply rely on Gex’s crawling gimmick. In one level you must ride a rocket to your goal, before the concept is switched up and you have to stick to the side of another. At times, it’s very inventive and satisfying. That said, often you will find Crystal Dynamics prefered to rely on trial and error to proceed, placing enemies just off-screen so that they hit players before they even know they are there.

I mentioned remotes before. Player progression through Gex is dictated by how many remotes they have collected. Often, these are well hidden in levels and require players to really scour every wall if they manage to notice one just off-screen. Remotes to access different worlds are hidden in others and require players to not only search for standard remotes but also these. This is in addition to save tapes that are hidden around. If players don’t find these, then they cannot save. There is a lot going on in Gex.

The kung fu world is consistently visually appealing.

Graphically, I have mixed feelings about the game. Crystal Dynamics asked for the help of outside artists to create assets for Gex and it shows. The art direction in the game is often inconsistent, but still good in its own way. If you don’t know this, then you’d assume it was intentional, to provide players with a somewhat irreverent atmosphere. There is a little backround scaling in Gex, but very little advanced special effects or polygonal integration. There is some right at the end of the game but it is disappointly absent.In any case Gex is a vibrant game with very appealing graphics and an exceedingly well animated protagonist. Enemies have a lot of personality and even if they are inconsistent, you could consider that part of their charm.

If you want a good soundtrack, this is the game to get. Bar the Cemetry, every world in Gex features really well arranged music and appealing sound effects. Gex himself is voiced by Dana Gould, who is a popular stand up comedian and wrote for the Simpsons for several years. His quips are quite endearing and only when they are chained back to back multiple times do they ever get annoying. Some are a little cringe worthy, but generally the things that Gex say can be quite amusing.

Gex is a fairly solid platformer. It has small issues with spotty level design that relies on trial and error a little too much and Gex himself being somewhat of a big target for enemies, but the fluid control and good challenge make up for any shortcomings and provide players with a very satisfying experience that is both visually appealing and easy on the ears. Highly recommended.

Review: Starfighter

Starfighter on the Archimedes.

Starfighter was originally released in 1994 for the Acorn Archimedes. The Archimedes was a popular home computer in the late 80’s and early 90’s that sits alongside the ZX Spectrum and Amstrad CPC as childhood favourites of those who grew up in Europe in the early 90’s.
The original Starfighter was a fairly impressive game, featuring huge 3D maps and texture mapping while other fighter simulations at the time tended to stick to flat shaded polygons. While it’s an impressive game, Starfighter does seem somewhat dated when viewed through a modern lense. Luckily, we got a port to 3DO in 1995.

Detach from the mother ship and wreak havoc.

Starting as an ace pilot thrust into the experimental Star Fighter…fighter, you are tasked with engaging in combat with opponents based on the ground, the air and even in orbit while executing maneuvers with your fellow pilots. As soon as I found out you could fly with other pilots, I was very excited. While Starfighter isn’t necessarily a simulation game, it utilises elements of simulation such as issuing orders to your fellow pilots.
The Starfighter ship is very versatile, but does take time to get used to. Accelerating with the A button, you then control altitude with the up and down keys. Banking left or right requires you to roll your fighter and then push up or down, which takes a little time to get used to.
To contend with your enemies you have access to air to air and air to ground missiles, lasers and multi-missiles which are like a cluster bomb. Your laser is generally fairly impotent but is good in a pinch and you will find yourself relying on your missiles a lot. This will mean running out of missiles. Well, how do you end up replenishing your missile collection? You collect crystals. This was a strange design choice, as the original game on Archimedes allowed players to earn money and replenish supplies by purchasing them. I would have much preferred this as it would have forced players to think about how they approach missions more, strategise before hand and buy to accomodate your needs.

Descend from the heavens with guns blazing.

Mission variety is fairly engaging and has you taking on enemy installations, satellites in orbit and squadrons of opponent fighters while fighting on your own or tracking down friendly units with a very accessible 3D map to enlist. Friendly units can be ordered to fly defensively, fight aggressively or simply fly in formation to provide you with support in situations that would otherwise lead to imminent demise. The game becomes very challenging later on and getting used to fighting in formation is very important if you want to do well in Starfighter.

Crisp textures, beautiful particle effects, great geometry. It’s all here in Starfighter.

The graphics in this game are incredible. It’s not even an argument that Starfighter is probably one of the best looking games on the 3DO. A slick frame rate marries with rich, detailed textures and solid geometry to provide players with a very appealing game. Particle effects are perfectly executed and are used as exhaust or explosions or bombs exploding in the environment around you. The beautiful, unique horizon gives way to a subtle transition into the upper atmosphere of the planet while transparent explosions, lasers and particle trails from missiles stream by you. Starfighter is a beautiful looking game and sits with PO’ed as one of the best looking games on the console.

Starfighter seems to be getting harder to find in good condition recently so I would highly recommend picking it up for your 3DO. Don’t bother with the ports on Playstation or Sega Saturn as they were quick, rushed and Akklaim did not treat the source material with any sort of respect or care. The original on Archimedes was fantastic and the port to 3DO only improved the game further. While I don’t particularly agree with some of the changes that were made to the game, Starfighter is just a fantastic experience.

Review: Escape from Monster Manor

Imagine it’s 1993 again. Summer CES comes around and you’re lucky enough to be able to go. You pack your camera, hopefully some extra clothes (if you’ve ever traveled on a plane you’ll know how nice it is to be able to change once you reach your destination) and head on over. Amongst Sugar Ray Leonard playing Super Nintendo against a kid and giant Sonic the Hedgehog signage littered around the show floor, you aim to visit the 3DO booth.
Upon arrival you’re greeted with this:

That would have blown my damn mind out of my skull. Call the janitor, my brain is on the floor. Fast and fluid 3D action, that’s what I wanted to see. I’d played Wolfenstein, I’d played Catacombs and here’s a high colour, full frame, fluid 3D shooter on the 3DO.

Now, I was 4 when the 3DO reached market so I wasn’t even aware it existed, however I know the appeal of playing a genuinely unique first person perspective shooter on a console would have been overwhelming. I imagine I would have been about the same, playing some PC titles but favoring my consoles. So, if I was on the fence about the 3DO before, CES would have made me lay down money then and there for one.

Fast forward to launch. There’s some dispute about whether Escape from Monster Manor actually did launch with the console or it was a launch window game, let’s just say it was a launch game. You bring it home and pop the game into your console and then there it is: Virtual Reality. Well, it might seem quaint by our standards but Escape from Monster Manor was impressive for a few reasons.

You play an adventurer trying to reassemble an ancient amulet used to protect the world from darkness that was pulled apart by a bunch of greedy idiots. This caused a bunch of ghosts, zombies and various other spooks and spirits to appear. Using your trusty ghost gun you have to reassemble the amulet and escape.

Escape from Monster Manor immediately endears you with excellent narration by Les Hedger and smooth, full frame introductory video. Starting the game you find yourself in a Wolfenstein style first person horror shooter that really evokes feelings of classic haunted houses like the Haunted Mansion. Gameplay is smooth and responsive, with enemies being surprisingly varied for such a simple engine.

Combat is made engaging through some enemies only being vulnerable when jumping in the air, while others will become stronger as you gradually kill more enemies. This, to me, is like an early attempt at scaling difficulty which is quite progressive for 1993. Other than that the game is a bit of a key hunt, requiring you to hunt high and low through every corner of the map. This does become a little tedious when maps start getting more complicated towards the end of the game and enemies gradually get stronger. You will inevitably die a fair few times, even if you consider yourself to be great at video games.

There is no on-screen display either, which is quite jarring considering that when games go HUD-less today it is considered innovative and edgy; Leo Schwab did this in 1993! Your hand slowly decays as you take damage and a small red meter on your gun reminds you of how much ammo you have remaining in your gun. Escape from Monster Manor might look simple in screenshots but it’s very deep for a “Wolfenstein clone.”

Graphically, I find Escape from Monster Manor to be very solid. Super smooth textures with little to no deformation, animated textures on walls, beautifully stop motion animated enemies and a consistent frame rate make the game look good. It doesn’t do too much that could be considered revolutionary but Escape from Monster Manor never looks bad, it never gave me anything to complain about. For that, I consider it a success.

I mentioned Les Hedger before. He was recruited internally to provide the voice for the narrator and does an excellent job providing a fun, tongue in cheek classic horror experience. The soundtrack is a little hit and miss, but it is generally pretty fun and spooky, and for that reason I enjoyed it.

Escape from Monster Manor is great. There is no doubt about it. It’s a really long game as well, that’s something I noticed. It will take you a fair few hours to finish it, and you will want to finish it. Rock solid gameplay, combined with really smooth graphics and a good soundtrack rounds out an overall excellent package. It’s a fantastic achievement considering it was developed in a few months and it laid a foundation for the amazing spiritual successor: Killing Time.