Path: news.uh.edu!barrett From: steve_cutting@guru.apana.org.au (Steve Cutting) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.reviews Subject: REVIEW: The Chaos Engine, CD32 version Followup-To: comp.sys.amiga.games Date: 14 Apr 1994 21:30:29 GMT Organization: The Amiga Online Review Column - ed. Daniel Barrett Lines: 187 Sender: amiga-reviews@math.uh.edu (comp.sys.amiga.reviews moderator) Distribution: world Message-ID: <2okcll$nq@masala.cc.uh.edu> Reply-To: steve_cutting@guru.apana.org.au (Steve Cutting) NNTP-Posting-Host: karazm.math.uh.edu Keywords: game, shoot-em-up, arcade, CD-ROM, CD32, commercial Originator: barrett@karazm.math.uh.edu PRODUCT NAME The Chaos Engine, CD32 version BRIEF DESCRIPTION 1 or 2 player run-around shoot'em up game with a top-down view and 8-way scrolling. AUTHOR/COMPANY INFORMATION Name: Bitmap Brothers/Renegade Address: C1 Metropolitan Wharf, Wapping Wall, London U.K. E1 9SS LIST PRICE I don't know the list price, but I paid 19.99 U.K. pounds for it from a mail-order company. HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS CD32 (PAL or NTSC) Television or monitor 1 or 2 control pads (or Amiga joysticks) COPY PROTECTION None that's noticeable to the user. REVIEW The plot behind this game is basically the same as every other shoot'em up ever released. There's a big nasty doing big nasty things and it's your job to stop them. In this case, the "nasty" in question is the Chaos Engine, a powerful machine that's gone haywire and is generally causing a nuisance to everyone. When you boot up the game, you get a short animated intro explaining all this, and it's backed up by a full CD soundtrack with narration. Very nice indeed. Now on to the game itself.... When you start the game, you can select between 1 or 2 player modes. In the 1 player mode, the second character is controlled by the computer, so you always play this game as a team even if no humans want to play with you. :-) At this point, you can restore an old game by entering a password, or start a new game. I'll talk about the password system a bit later. When you start a new game, you are presented with a character hiring screen. You start off with a certain amount of money and must hire a character to use. There are 6 characters in all, each having individual strengths and weaknesses (strength, speed, etc.) and special abilities. With that done, it's off to take on the nasties. The game is split into 4 worlds, each with 4 levels. The action is viewed from above and at an angle which lets you see the front of the characters and nasties. Your job is to kill as many nasties as possible and find your way to the exit of each level. Before you can get out, though, you must activate "nodes" that are scattered around the levels. These are tower-like things, and you activate them by just shooting them. Once you've activated all the nodes, the exit (or exits) will open. On most levels, there's actually more than one exit, and each one will cause you to start from a different place on the next level. When you shoot a nasty, it'll leave behind a coin which you can pick up and add to your bank balance. There are also coins laying around on the ground to be picked up. Other things you can pick up include: weapon power-ups, keys that open doors and secret passages, food (for restoring energy), extra lives, etc. etc. There's more than one way of finishing most levels; in fact, there are often alternate routes which lead you to heaps of bonuses (and usually a swarm of nasties as well)! :-( At the end of every 2 levels, you are taken to the Shop screen. Here you can buy all sorts of goodies to improve your characters' performance. Things you can buy include: health, speed, weapon power-ups, lives, special weapons, and more. The end of the last level takes you to a showdown with the Chaos Engine. (Surprise, surprise. :-)) When your game ends, you are given a password which allows you to restart at the beginning of the world that you were up to. The way this password works is bit different from other games, and it is great. When you restart with a password, you start at the shop screen with the total amount of money that you had collected during the last game. You can then re-buy all your weapons etc. or choose to buy something else instead. This is great because you can try different tactics: for instance, starting with heaps of lives, or starting with MEGA guns. :-) DOCUMENTATION The CD sleeve contains a brief introduction to the game. Full instructions are provided on the CD in English, French, German and Italian. They are very nicely presented as a series of pages which you flip through with the controller. LIKES Superb gameplay. This game just feels great! This is a game which has been thoroughly play-tested, I simply cannot fault it in terms of playability. The password system is the best I've ever seen. The 2 players' characters can walk through one another. While this isn't exactly realistic, it does make the game more playable. The background graphics are excellent. They have enough detail to make them interesting, but not enough to make it difficult to see what's going on. The sprites are nice and colourful. The 6 player sprites look great, they're really well drawn and each have their unique character. Also, the introduction animation is quite good (although short). The CD music tracks on the title and between-level screens are fabulous. Also, the CD sound effects during the game are very well done and add lot of atmosphere. Music in the game itself is Amiga-based, but is still very atmospheric because it changes depending on where you are in the level. For instance, as you approach the exit the music builds up to make it a bit more tense. Sound effects are also excellent. The nasties have all sorts of weird (but appropriate) noises, and there's a bit of speech too. Basically, the overall look and feel of this game is superb. DISLIKES AND SUGGESTIONS The action does slow down noticeably when there are a lot of objects on screen. This suggests to me that the programmers have just added the new AGA graphics to the code from the Amiga version, instead of re-writing it for 68020/AGA. I expect that adding some Fast RAM would help, as would running the game on the A4000 CD32 add-on. As neither of these exist right now, I can't try them, but I assume the game will make use of extra speed because the Amiga version did. The game doesn't use the full PAL screen. PAL users can force it into NTSC using the boot-menu though, and it then fills the screen. BUGS The game occasionally freezes for an instant. I think it might be when it's changing CD tracks. This does not affect gameplay at all though: it's hardly noticeable. VENDOR SUPPORT An address is provided for support, but unfortunately not a phone number. I have not needed to contact them as yet. WARRANTY Unknown. CONCLUSIONS In my opinion, this is one of the CD32's best games to date. I already had the Amiga version, but for me the CD32 version was still a must-have, even though it has no extra levels. If you're a CD32 owner who hasn't played the original Amiga version, then get this game! If you had the original Amiga version, then get this game anyway! A lot of people whinge about CD32 games which are ports of Amiga titles, but I'm not complaining when the games are this good. The Bitmap Brothers have taken a classic Amiga game, enhanced the graphics/sound, and produced a classic CD32 game. I'd give it about 90%, and a bit more if it didn't slow down. This review is freely distributable. Just leave my name in :-) 10/4/1994 Steve Cutting e-mail: Steve_Cutting@guru.apana.org.au --- Daniel Barrett, Moderator, comp.sys.amiga.reviews Send reviews to: amiga-reviews-submissions@math.uh.edu Request information: amiga-reviews-requests@math.uh.edu Moderator mail: amiga-reviews@math.uh.edu Anonymous ftp site: math.uh.edu, in /pub/Amiga/comp.sys.amiga.reviews