3DO Reviews S-Z

Typical of the 3DO, this first-person shooter combines full-motion video (FMV), live acting, and first-generation 3D graphics. In each of its ten missions you fly over locations around the globe to wipe out invading aliens. Shock Wave's intro mixes FMV graphics with live actors, and the production quality isn't bad. The dialogue is respectable but the actors seem to be trying a little too hard. The FMV is better than average, and the scenes of your ship being deployed to the Earth's surface look amazing. The first mission begins over open water as you approach the pyramids of Egypt. The bright colors look terrific and the steering controls are responsive. Shock Wave doesn't burden the player with complicated navigational controls. You can aim up or down, but your ship always floats a safe distance above the surface. You'll automatically glide over mountains but you'll need to avoid crashing into structures like buildings and pyramids. Fortunately the scenery tends to be sparse. Live actors periodically appear on your display to keep you posted on your progress and objectives. You can fly in any direction but the missions are very linear in design, and you'll incur damage if you stray too far off course. There are some interesting alien vessels to blow up including two-legged walkers, spider-like crawlers, and fish-shaped fighters. Your crosshairs turn red when an enemy is in your sights, making it easy to blast them with your rapid-fire lasers or guided missiles. Unfortunately there's no effective evasive maneuver, so you take a lot of damage while in the act of shooting. Upon losing a ship you'll have to restart the current mission from the very beginning - even if you reached the boss! Nooooo!!! Shock Wave's animation is impressive in the early going, but the frame-rate gets choppy later on when enemies congregate together. Likewise the scenery looks fine while flying over Egyptian Deserts and Peruvian mountains, but when you enter populated areas the houses look more like pixelated images stamped on the surface (which they are, of course). Las Vegas at night is monumental let-down, offering next-to-nothing in the way of eye candy. Shock Wave may have been impressive at one time, but over the years it's been reduced to a by-the-numbers shooter. © Copyright 2012 The Video Game Critic.

The first Shock Wave was a serviceable first-person flying shooter and this sequel expands its scope quite a bit. There's a lot more variety and storyline, yet the game retains the same brand of alien butt-whipping. Shock Wave 2 begins with a sinister intro depicting alien space pirates and a ragtag band of mercenaries wearing baseball caps and Hawaiian shirts. The CGI effects used to render the aliens and robots are not the least bit convincing, but they do have entertainment value. You can now select the order in which you play the missions, and in addition to flying you get to man turrets and drive hovercraft. These add variety and their control schemes are easy to grasp. The explosions are more elaborate than the first game with flying chunks of debris and enemy ships that crash-land when damaged. The frame rate is smooth at first but becomes dodgy when a lot of stuff is going on. Instead of linear missions, most feature wide-open levels that force you to hunt around for your objectives (with the help of a scanner). The game is held together by a sophisticated menu interface composed of cryptic buttons and panels. It's hard to navigate and the so-called "help screen" is worthless. In fact, I think I need a help screen for the help screen! Not all missions are of the "kill everything" variety, and you'll need to watch briefing videos to determine what you're expected to do. At first I thought this added depth was a great idea, but then I found myself getting pissed off when I couldn't figure out what the [expletive] I was supposed to do! You need to be a dedicated gamer to enjoy this game. Shock Wave 2 expands upon the premise of the original but its bloated interface and mysterious mission objectives may prompt a lot of gamers to just say hell with it. © Copyright 2012 The Video Game Critic.

With its "official Advanced D&D" seal, you would expect Slayer to stay pretty faithful to the board game - and you're right. In fact, its oversized 58-page instruction booklet reminds me of a hardback D&D rulebook with its pages of tables, illustrations, and even a monster guide. I always liked playing D&D with paper and dice and chips and beer, but there's something to be said for seeing its fantasy world visualized. Slayer's intro really gets you psyched up as you watch a mysterious figure disappear into a dark fortress as an organ plays a haunting refrain. A first-person adventure, the idea is to conquer dungeons by collecting items and hacking away at monsters. Each stage is a series of corridors and rooms with a distinct style of music and scenery. A small window at the bottom of the screen maps your immediate surroundings, but the full map is only accessible via the pause menu. The creatures are illustrated with so much detail and texture that they almost look 3D from a distance. Among the creeps you'll face are goblins, trolls, mushroom men, worms, red slime, elementals, and ghosts. Fighting monsters and collecting items is fun. Melee isn't hard once you get used to charging in to attack and immediately pulling back (rinse and repeat). Your inventory screen depicts a body diagram that makes it easy to manage your armor and items. One peculiar aspect of the game is how have both "hit points" and "food" meters to maintain. Slayer was pretty advanced for its time, but the game has not aged well due to its poor controls. Your movements are jerky and inexact, making it tough to line up enemies and doorways. The right trigger is used to strafe, but it's also used to look up and down, and that's problematic. Thank goodness it's impossible to fall into pits! The dungeons tend to be flat labyrinths with each room looking like the previous one. Scattered portals transport you from place to place, making it hard to maintain your bearings. The minor-key electronic score sets an ominous tone, but after looping a few times it can get annoying. I have to give Slayer extra credit for letting the player save his progress at any time via the pause menu. And if your system's internal memory is full, it's no problem, because the game even provides a mechanism to clear out old files! Slayer shows its age in the control department, but this is still very playable dungeon romp. © Copyright 2009 The Video Game Critic.

Dragon's Lair rocked the arcades in 1983 and I still remember people crowding around the arcade cabinets just to get a glimpse of its slick, full-screen animation. The laserdisc phenomenon was short-lived however, as its novelty had waned by the time Space Ace arrived in 1984. Fast forward ten years and both games were being sold at full price on the new generation of CD-based consoles. That just goes to show how far ahead of technology curve these games were. Of course, gameplay was never their strong suit. Space Ace doesn't have much of an introduction. Some dork and his hot girlfriend are being attacked on an asteroid in outer space, and the action unfolds so fast you might not know what's going on. A rock will flash (if you're lucky), indicating you need to jump towards it, and you have a fraction of a second to respond. If you're too late you'll watch an animation of the blue space villain taking pleasure in your demise. You get five lives but the checkpoints are so spaced out (no pun intended) you'll often need to repeat the same sequence of moves. It's more a matter of memorization than skill, and watching the same scenes over and over is irritating. Beeps provide audio feedback, and you don't get penalized for early moves; just incorrect ones. Space Ace remains appealing thanks to the entertaining, whimsical animation of Don Bluth. The scenes are bursting with color and the characters animated with style and humor. Unlike other CD systems of its time, the 3DO could render these scenes in their full-screen, full-color glory. Unfortunately frames of animation were lost, making the game even harder to play. The audio is strong with amazing robotic voices and zapping sound effects. You'd expect the home version of an arcade game to come with a slew options such as enabling clues or adjusting the difficulty, but nope! Considering Space Ace was never that great of a game to begin with, this barebones edition is a very tough sell. © Copyright 2019 The Video Game Critic.

There's an interesting concept buried in this game, but I'm not sure it's worth exploring or should remain buried. Space Hulk appears to be another generic first-person shooter on the surface, but it also contains a healthy dose of real-time strategy. Playing the game involves directing a squad of well-armored "terminator" robots on a series of missions through monster-infested labyrinths. Successfully completing these missions requires issuing specific orders to each robot such as follow, advance, retreat, cover, and open door. Although these are issued via an overhead map, you can take direct control of any robot at any time, causing the screen to switch to a first-person view. With this point of view, you can move around freely and engage in shooting or hand-to-hand combat. I spent a good portion of the game playing from the map view, manipulating robots as if they were pieces on a board. Space Hulk's graphics are exceptional, showing off the 3DO's ability to render rich textures and realistic lighting. As you roam the hallways, the doors and walls look nearly photo-realistic. Unfortunately, the frame-rate is lousy, and consequently navigating the hallways is more awkward than it should be. The well-designed creatures look fearsome (especially up close), and blasting them results in a generous amount of blood sprayed over the walls. I gave it a chance, but to be honest, Space Hulk is not my kind of game. I like the concept of issuing orders to the other robots and working as a team, but that's easier said than done. The game favors strategy over mindless shooting, and there's a major learning curve involved. In addition, the robots move slowly, and the gameplay seems to drag at times. I was able to complete some of the early missions, but as the objectives grew more complex, Space Hulk started to give me a headache. Only the most patient gamers will be able to fully appreciate this one. © Copyright 2005 The Video Game Critic.

"Hey, haven't you heard the news? Interactive live video is the future of video games! Everybody knows that!" What you have just read was not a dramatization. Believe it or not, this was the conventional wisdom of the game industry in the early 90's, and that explains why we have embarrassments like Space Pirates. Judged on sheer cheesiness alone, it's hard to believe that this was produced in the 1990's. It more closely resembles one of those low-budget music videos from the early 80's. Space Pirate's shallow gameplay involves aiming a cursor and shooting at live-action "space pirates" that jump out of the scenery. You can also use a light gun if you own one of these ultra-rare 3DO peripherals. As you might imagine, the production values are rock bottom and the acting is so awful that it's almost worth watching. The general quality would suggest the footage was filmed by high school student in a rented warehouse, and the acting skills are a notch below those you'd witness at a neighborhood haunted house around Halloween. And here's a big surprise: the gameplay absolutely sucks. You don't have much time to react to the action onscreen, but once you've been through a scene, you know where the people will pop out. I don't know how this plays with the light gun, but I found the controller pad to be pretty [expletive] sorry. Making matters worse, each time you mess up some old man rags on you about how you let everybody down. [Expletive] you! At least I'm not stuck in some crummy FMV game! Topping things off, it's downright disconcerting when the evil villain says "winners don't do drugs!" during the intro. Wait a second - since when do we listen to the bad guys? Does this mean we should do drugs? Mixed messages like this are what put teenagers on a path to drug addiction, crime, and despair. Fortunately, no teenagers actually played this game, because their were too busy playing good games on their Genesis and Super Nintendo systems. © Copyright 2005 The Video Game Critic.

Readers who think I hate PC gaming will be interested to hear how much I enjoyed playing Super Wing Commander. Ported from the PC, this first-person space shooter leveraged all the technology of its era including pre-rendered cut-scenes, digitized graphics, and an epic musical score. You play the role of a novice pilot on a large vessel called the Tiger Claw. In the lounge area you'll converse with fellow pilots with distinctive personalities. Their illustrated faces are static except for moving lips and eyes. It looks unnatural as hell - but kind of funny. Their over-the-top ethnic accents suggest that they hail from around the world. Each mission is preceded by an elaborate flight preparation sequence which shows your pilot being fitted with armor and transported to his ship via a series of automated contraptions. It's fun to watch! After launch you'll experience a brand of space shooting that feels like an evolution of Star Raiders (Atari 2600, 1982). Your cockpit view is loaded with gauges and screen displays, and your hand can be seen gripping the flight stick at the bottom of the screen. The dogfighting action is fun thanks to red brackets that highlight enemy ships and blue brackets that indicate allies. A handy arrow in the center of the screen directs you to the nearest enemy if they happen to be out of view. I like the idea of fighting alien ships as a team, and you can even convey orders to your wingman like "form up" or "attack my target". It's exciting to hear both your allies and enemies over your radio ("I shall eat your heart!") The ships are nicely rendered with large, scaling digitized sprites. You're armed with both guns and missiles, but they tend to be fairly weak and their sound effects muted. It's not uncommon to have your weapon systems knocked out early, forcing you to limp through the remainder of your mission. Destroying an enemy is satisfying thanks to a brilliant explosion followed by chunks of pixelated wreckage. Unfortunately, when battles get intense the frame-rate tends to stutter badly, sometimes pausing momentarily. During lulls in the action a handy autopilot control lets you effectively fast-forward to the next encounter. The control scheme is an issue, as the game was clearly designed for a keyboard and not a seven-button controller. I'm glad the back of the disk case has a quick-reference guide, because it's hard to remember the button combinations. Between missions you can view your rankings and save your progress. Super Wing Commander is a little rough around the edges, but I enjoyed its brand of space combat a lot more than I thought I would. © Copyright 2011 The Video Game Critic.

The first time I played Virtuoso I thought it might be the greatest game ever. You play the role of a fictitious rock star blasting aliens on Mars with dual pistols! This is a third-person shooter with some pretty amazing digitized monsters. Your leather-clad headbanger sports long blonde hair and you only see his face when he backs up to a wall. The spiders, robots, and wasps look pretty cool, and even better when they explode into meaty chunks. Virtuoso does a lot of things right. Holding in the fire button lets you unleash rapid-fire bullets and ammo is unlimited. Other controls let you strafe, rotate 180 degrees, and even unleash smart bombs. There are three stages and I was pleasantly surprised to discover they are selectable! Mars is a hellish environment not unlike Doom, and its Robocop-style robots look positively badass. Haunted House sounds exciting but I could never even get out of its hedge maze with its runaway giant snowballs and maniacal snowmen. The marine stage is even tougher and you'll be lucky to make it off the beach with giant crabs nipping at your heels and kamikaze sea gulls smacking you in the face. As you play the game the flaws begin to pile up. There's a lot of fog which limits your view, and when a swarm of enemies appear the framerate goes to hell. Turning is easy in open spaces but clumsy in narrow passageways. That's because your guy tends to automatically "hug" the wall, sending the camera out of whack. Your "radar" display is only available part of the time and enemies have a tendency to attack from behind. The soundtrack consists of generic head-banging guitar tracks that sound like they were recorded in somebody's garage. Still, Virtuoso is a fascinating slice of 90's culture that's fun to play for high score. I suspect collectors will enjoy it if only because it veers so far off the beaten path. © Copyright 2014 The Video Game Critic.

Super Wing Commander must have sold like hotcakes, because Heart of the Tiger boasts some tremendous production values. The game comes spread over three CDs, each loaded with a generous helping of live-action video. I realize video is frowned upon in many gaming circles, but the clips in Wing Commander 3 (WC3) are actually very compelling thanks to an all-star cast. Many of the characters are played by recognizable actors, with Mark Hamill (of Star Wars fame) leading the way. Even without the theatrics, this is a superb first-person space shooter that nicely builds on the foundation of the previous game. The frame-rate is dramatically smoother, the action is faster, and the controls are more responsive. Your weapons are much more effective, leading to shorter but more intense battles. It's fun to gang up on enemy ships, and when you take down a massive capital ship the explosion effects are pretty awesome. Between missions you'll converse with other people on the ship, and there's plenty of gossip and drama. Apparently some don't appreciate the fact that you've chosen a wingman of the same species as the enemy (a cat-like version of Chewbacca). Super Wing Commander III is a strong 3DO title, but it can't quite shed its PC roots. I found myself constantly peeking at the quick reference sheet containing over 30 button combinations. It's hard to remember special commands like releasing a decoy (R+C), toggling your cockpit view (pause+B), or engaging autopilot (L+B). Direct communication commands have also been incorporated into the scheme, complicating matters further. In one early mission my wingman Hobbes was shouting, "I am ready to engage!" and while being pelted by enemy fire I'm screaming, "Attack! Attack you stupid [expletive] bastard!!" There's no pause function (that button is used for about five other things) so it's hard to locate the proper command in the heat of battle. Still, Wing Commander 3 is enjoyable once you finally get comfortable with the controls. On the downside, the game crashed on me once (memory allocation error), and the video clips become a bit monotonous after a while ("That's some pretty slick flying sir!"). It clearly had to be shoehorned onto the 3DO, but Wing Commander III is an engaging science fiction epic that's a real pleasure to experience. © Copyright 2011 The Video Game Critic.