Today I played Xybots, a -get this- 1987 third person shooter from Atari! The first 3rd person shooter I've seen on the list and from what I gather, one of the first PERIOD.
you play as a dude named Major Rock Hardy or Captain Ace Gunn (depending on if you're playing first or second player) Your job is to kill robots roaming through narrow corridors.
This game is YEARS ahead of its time. Implementing two factor movement for the first time in a shooter like this. The normal joystick moves your character left right forward and back, but rather than turning and facing the direction that you press on the joystick, your character strafes left and right. The joystick was built so that it can also rotate left and right to turn your character. This makes movement and shooting a million times more fluid than we've seen in other top down run and guns. This control scheme also meant that I actually had to map the game to a game pad in order to play, which is always fun.
So enough gushing over the innovation and the controls, how's the game? Well, honestly, amazing! I was SO skeptical when I first looked into a corridor third person shooter. We've seen similar corridor style games in Ulima and Dungeon Master, both of which were very clunky and often hard to navigate. While this is still clunky as fluid 3D environments were still their infancy, the fact that you actually move within each "square" rather than pressing a single button to move to the next one feels much better than previous games.
Another great thing about this game is its upgrade system. Basically, you can collect money throughout the level and use that money after you beat the level to buy upgrades for your character. This is the first time I've seen something like this and it's something that's still used to this day in lots of games across many genres, it adds another layer of strategy and decision making.
If I did have a gripe it would be that I'm not a huge fan of the constantly draining energy in a maze game. Your life continuously drains unless you either finish the level, or find more energy in the form of a powerup scattered throughout the maze. the powerups are too few and far between. I often had trouble finishing even the second level due to my life draining and being unable to find the exit or more energy. This causes me to not want to explore the level and just race straight to the exit, despite all the goodies and munchies that might be laying around.
Overall though, it's a solid game, if you're a fan of third person shooters, or shooters in general and are in the mood for something a little retro, this will absolutely scratch that itch.
Next up: Sid Meier's Pirates!
No comments:
Post a Comment