Iron Angel of the Apocalypse: The Return (3DO)

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goldenband
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Joined: April 8th, 2015, 10:29 pm

Iron Angel of the Apocalypse: The Return (3DO)

Postby goldenband » August 3rd, 2021, 10:16 pm

I've been playing a lot of 3DO lately, and thought I'd post some brief notes about one of the latest games I've beaten, Iron Angel of the Apocalypse: The Return.

I've talked about Iron Angel of the Apocalypse before, and last month I finally got around to playing this sequel, which is much more of a standard FPS. The second game upgrades the frame rate but loses the atmosphere, with tedious stage design and dull gameplay.

I don't like to be negative about a game where the designers clearly looked out for the player. Load times are low, save points are copious and saving is quick. And they tried to throw in variety, albeit in the form of totally perfunctory rail shooter and "FMV dodge-'em" levels. But the game just lacks cohesion, the combat is super-basic, and too much of the level design is either tedious or illogical.

For example, at one point you reach an area that simultaneously introduces two new weapons, the Plasma Gun and the Megaplasma Gun. The problem is, the second one completely obsoletes the first -- you can only carry one of the two, and you have absolutely no reason to get the Plasma Gun when the Megaplasma Gun is available and offers infinite ammo refills.

Anyway Iron Angel of the Apocalypse: The Return isn't a terrible game but it could have been so much more, and the loss of the game's arthouse atmosphere is a real shame. Still, I think the Critic should definitely review both games, as they're at least interesting and are also 3DO exclusives!

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On the 3DO tip I also beat the Japanese-exclusive Montana Jones, but I've posted about Montana in the Reader Review forum, since I wrote a full review for it.

(Oh, and I beat Rise of the Robots too, but the less said about that the better. Horrible, horrible game -- the designers should be ashamed to show their faces in public.)

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Re: Iron Angel of the Apocalypse: The Return (3DO)

Postby VideoGameCritic » August 8th, 2021, 4:25 pm

Thanks for the insight about the Iron Angel games. I always wondered what those were all about. Are these related to the Flying Nightmare games?

goldenband
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Joined: April 8th, 2015, 10:29 pm

Re: Iron Angel of the Apocalypse: The Return (3DO)

Postby goldenband » August 8th, 2021, 7:06 pm

VideoGameCritic wrote:Thanks for the insight about the Iron Angel games. I always wondered what those were all about. Are these related to the Flying Nightmare games?

Not as far as I know, no -- they're self-contained in their own Tetsujin world, somewhere between FPS, dungeon crawler, and arthouse film. (Tetsujin is the Japanese name for the series.)

I think Flying Nightmares is more of a military flight sim, isn't it? The only one of those I've played much on 3DO is VR Stalker, which is playable but pretty barebones.


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