Genre: Action, FPS
Perspective: 1st-person
Gameplay: Shooter
Setting: Sci-Fi / Futuristic
Published by: Domark Group
Developed by: Domark Group
Released: 1994
Platforms: SEGA Genesis / Mega Drive, SEGA CD / Mega-CD
Since the advent of DOOM for IBM PC, every new DOOM similar game is taken to compare with this standard of the genre. But, although for SNESa released a pretty decent and almost uncut version of DOOM, for a slightly inferior "Super Nintendo" for a number of parameters SEGA Genesis such a feat is hardly possible. And yet, to each self-respecting owner of the sigepodobnoy prefix probably first-hand known in 1994, a little-known company Technopop with the participation of Accolade product, code-named Zero Tolerance, which has already been described in the 26th issue of the magazine. Despite the small size of the game screen and the planar construction of stages, the dynamism and reality of what is happening, "Zero Tolerance" is not much inferior to all the beloved "D", although it is not competitive in matters of animation, detail graphics and musical accompaniment. So, it turns out that the same year two more veterans of the gambling business, Domark and Acclaim, carried out another project of the game "action movie with a view from the eyes1", which for several reasons was not so popular in the market of mega-games. Perhaps this description will restore justice, because, in my opinion, Bloodshot is not only in no way inferior to its rival, but it even surpasses something, at least, by complexity.
Control keys
Gamepad - move forward, backward and turn to the side.
A - opening the door in the visibility zone, 'is performed when the button is released.
A + sideways - step to the side without turning, irreplaceable in combat movement. To make a step just to the left or to the right, rather than diagonally, disable the menu item diagonals.
B - shooting from the chosen weapon (it is better not to use the turbo-button).
C - change of weapons, if there is an alternative.
Weapons
Almost all weapons in the game generate laser charges of varying power. In parentheses, after the name, ammunition is indicated and, where possible, the number of shots required to defeat the player (in the case of a multi-barrel weapon, provided that the volley is fully hit). Reference information on the number of trunks and the following enemies can be found in the next issue of the magazine.
MTX 9X1, explosive grenade with radio control. The genius, in the opinion of the creators, is a weapon, yet it is unnecessarily tricky to manage. In the heat of battle, you somehow forget that you do not have to press the turbo button, but the usual one, and let go, only when the released grenade-disk reaches the enemy. The charges (7 pieces) generated by the explosion caused by the radio are scattered at a wide angle, but the shot is equivalent to five standard charges. But ... Weak rate of fire and small ammunition - only in the hands of a well-aimed arrow this "mortar" will bring the expected effect.
GRENNA-KIL, grenade launcher. Grenades fly a fairly long distance, but be careful not to shoot near the target - an explosion can also hurt you. And do not expect to receive a bonus ...
MegaFluxll. "local reactor". The most powerful weapon, it is found only in hiding places on the last levels. Like the BFG-9000 in the Duma, it is a weapon of mass destruction, inflicting heavy damage to all enemies in the zone of defeat. But the proximity of infernal rifts can also damage your health.
LOCKON ZERO ONE, blaster with a laser sight. Charges of average power from this gun will find their own goal, if it does not move too fast ...
6K WEAPONEX, plasma torch! The power of this gun is due to the high penetrating power of the charges it produces. A calculating player can hit the enemy through the walls and bodies of other fight participants!
r40-40, semi-automatic pulse rifle. Weak, but quick-fire weapons with a small degree of scatter of charges.
RB101, deflector of "elastic" charges. Long-playing fireballs from this gun bounce off the walls, but not from the enemy.
s60-60, plasma rifle with a wide zone of damage. A quick-fire weapon, due to the scatter of charges, is capable of attacking several enemies simultaneously.
As the name suggests, this "exhibit" shoots three charges at a small angle at the same time. The effect is the same as that of s60-60, but more noticeable and reliable.
Enemies
From level to level, you will be greeted by increasingly sophisticated types of enemy vehicles. Here is their incomplete list. In parentheses, after the name, the average power of the guns is indicated (how many volleys of them are required to defeat the player) and armor (the number of hits from the standard laser) of the enemy.
Android, a two-legged erect robot. There are three types: The first shoots something spiked, with a pause after hitting. In the later levels, there are more identical robots with more (about 9) armor. The second is armed with a standard laser. He, if you're lucky, you can take one shot. Bonus for them usually do not give.
Armored wretch, also shoots thorny charges.
A cyborg on a flying platform. It uses the same method of attack, but at the same time it smeared a rare
Muscular two-legged cyborgs. Though armed with a cannon, they prefer to generate a sort of ricochet'ovskih charges by a relief belly. In addition, use a protective field that reflects all charges, except grenades and plasma.
The most powerful robot, depicted on the cut scene, can be nice to patch an awkward player. Apparently, each of its three parts is considered a game as one robot. Over time, you will learn how to use ordinary weapons to rake in a single heap of flesh and metal with a whole bonus! But it is better, of course, for this case to use a cannon more ...
Robot class BATTLETECH! Armed with spiked charges and a standard-power grenade launcher. The best tactic of battle: to entice the enemy to the column or door and stand behind it. A stupid piece of iron will sort itself out for spare parts.
Plasma robot. Nothing special.
Security droids.
Fly around the trunk of the reactor, attack infrequently. It is easier to destroy if you shoot along the tangent to the orbit.
The trunk of the reactor.
Shoots often, randomly.
Gameplay
The plot of the game resembles the one for the first mission of Zero Tolerance: there is an object in space, crammed full of evil alien war machines, and you are a unique kamikaze paratrooper, capable of storming an object and thereby preventing alien invasion of the Earth. Not the least role is played by the presence on the alleged battlefield of a nuclear reactor. But there is a difference: you do not need to destroy all military equipment (although it is desirable), just get to the nuclear reactor and ... blow it up! In the prehistory it is promised 1 b of reactors, but in practice to complete the game the described operation will have to be done 12 times. The memory is not enough? Oh well, even dozens of levels are enough for you for a long time. After all, on the way to the goal are not hordes of half-dead "aliens" and one-eyed shooters, but a division of selected armored hulks, a considerable part of which are steeper than any of the bosses of "Zero Tolerance"! But even this obstacle fades before the death race to survive through the dark corridors, when the alarm rings in your head and the clock counts down the last seconds left before the explosion of the doomed ship ... If you do not manage to reach the exit gateway, the mission will have to be carried out anew, as in the case , when life ends, which in the beginning is given only three. Already from the initial menu you can understand that you can play Bloodshot together, and not through some kind of an adapter, but on one screen, using the second joystick! In this case, the screen is divided in half vertically, but the review while for each player remains quite sufficient for combat - the playing field occupies almost the entire screen. Except for the top lines in which the following information is displayed: collected keys, available weapons, the amount of energy for current weapons and the number of remaining lives. With a single game, you can simultaneously carry nine units of keys and weapons, in the two player mode this number is reduced to six for each player. At the edge of the screen there is a scale of oxygen stock, it is its value decreases with each injury received by the player. For the mode of duel (VS battle), you are offered three special levels. On each of you with the enemy, you start the game at opposite ends of the labyrinth, where different weapons are scattered in unchanged places, additional oxygen cylinders (a quarter of the initial volume), mines and "drums".
The latter are also mines, but they explode from the impact of the laser charge. After the death, you continue the game next to the last "drum" you exploded. A player who is close to the "place of recording" during an explosion or attacked a mine will suffer damage equivalent to three to five hits of a standard weapon. By the way, the stock of this weapon is infinite, and to defeat the player requires 16 hits. The characteristics of the rest of the available arsenal can be found in the section "Armament". Each of the three labyrinths has a certain cycle (and maybe not one), allowing experienced fighters to pursue each other for a long time in a very limited space. Moreover, in the third zone there are two caches. The first of them is behind the door opening with a yellow key, and contains 4 piercer'a, and the second - in a caddy, whose walls are painted red. One of the walls is a disguised door, press A and ... choose! As they say, every creature on a piece, and a couple of mines among all this arsenal. The player who has thrice hit the opponent wins in a duel. After death, the victim is transferred to the starting position, the collected prizes are not restored. Playing in the Start Play mode (press Start in any of the menus) starts for one player, but at any time by pressing the Start button on the second joystick you can connect to the assistant's battle. With well-coordinated work, two barrels, of course, can facilitate the battle, but for this, the skill of both players must be above average: after the mission, both fighters must reach the lock in time, and the unchanged number of prizes and continuations will have to be divided into two. Well at least, that the charges of one fighter do not harm the other (grenades do not count). Another disadvantage of the doubles game is the lack of a bonus scale.
Due to the presence of heavy armor, most of the robots opposed to the landing have a clear lack of additional weapons and oxygen cylinders in the game. Fortunately, collecting these prizes on the battlefield is not the only way to get them. Look closely at the information board - under the indicator of the number of lives there are three lamps, to the right of them - a reduced image of a prize. The lamp lights up when the enemy is destroyed without losing oxygen and dies when wounded. If you light up three lamps, you will receive a bonus - a prize. The number of bonuses and destroyed robots is counted at the end of the mission and affects the rating at the end of the game. Prizes for the bonus are given in the following order: full charge with oxygen, cannon, key, lock-on, spray, piercer or full ammunition for all collected weapons, breaker, key, life, rapid, grenade, recharging, tri-bolt, key, life , kinghell, ammunition, after which the chain begins anew. In the "Zero Tolerance", transitions from floor to floor within the mission were left reversible, due to which the labyrinths acquired some three-dimensionality. In Bloodshot, such connections are excluded by the plot, but the system of locked doors and keys to them, in addition to the caches behind the false walls, brings an excellent "ferment" taste of this, let's say, "shooter". To facilitate orientation in the upper right corner on the map, a diagram of the neighborhoods is shown (the player is marked with a cross), it is especially useful during the final jogging mission. But the caches on it are not indicated in any way even after they are found: you simply go beyond the contour of the labyrinth. The card disappears when the weapon is changed and used. Some locked rooms can also be considered hiding places - access to them opens a special key, from the bonus chain! It's surprising that part of the keys on the levels is superfluous - they are removed from the inventory when moving to the next level. The paintings on the walls do not greatly diversify the game, although due to the increased screen sizes they are written out, perhaps, more colorfully than the ones in Zero Tolerance. And yet such pearls, like snipers on roofs or planets in the sky, you will not find here.
In general, the game occasionally causes an influx of claustrophobia - corridors for the most part narrow, arms and scuba diving paratroop now and then stuck in the corners, clinging to the walls. In short, lovers of vast spaces and foggy distances here have nothing to do. But the visibility is excellent - at a distance of the enemy's enemies are always visible (especially through the sight of the Lock-on), as well as the charges they generate, which, of course, dodge the easier, the earlier you noticed them.
Music in the game (where it is) I generally liked. Unfortunately, during the passage of the missions there is no music, instead of it a set of computer noises constantly sounds in the speakers. I'm not sure that the reason is an attempt to give realism to what is happening on the screen. Perhaps the full-scale noise support did not have enough resources of the console. Well, the digitized speech, namely - a couple of words and a few hoarse cries, does not go in comparison with the full voice monitoring of the "Zero Tolerance."
The next issue will list the bonus zones and features of the levels, and now - a few general tips for playing the game. Try to exterminate all enemies on the level, otherwise after the explosion of the reactors they will deliberately prevent you from reaching the exit. Light robots beat in groups, without interrupting the slaughter duels with heavy machines - more chances to get a bonus. Keep distance, in close combat use a powerful cannon or multiple barrels, take a quick-fire weapon to shoot fugitives. Mines can be neutralized by quickly stepping and running to the explosion. I advise you in advance to deal with the obstacles that block the passage - there will be no time to bypass them on the way back. Sometimes it turns out to lure the enemy's mines - the one, usually, from this immediately dies. By the way, as in the "Zero", the enemies come into battle only after you see them, but it's impossible to get to the rear either. A successful solution, simultaneously reducing the complexity of the game and the number of sprites, and hence the speed and memory used.
When the speed of the legs comes to the forefront, do not forget about the map, but it is better to keep the shortest path to the lock in the head. Unfortunately, the map can not determine which way the character is directed, and the site of visibility is too small. Better practice before the last blow on the reactor - go to the exit and back. Remember that in turns your character is very inert, start and finish these actions should be in advance. Try not to touch the walls and open the doors in time (only the partitions open with the key are no longer pushed). In particular, having got into the reactor room, open the inner door in advance and do not press on A until you pass through it outside - the doors of the compartments near the reactor have a locking mechanism, as in any gateway. And if you clamp the doors, you have to spend five seconds to release. Note that the A button in conjunction with the direction of the gamepad leads to a step to the side, and not to the opening of the doors.