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If you are - like me - a fanatic freak to the world's best hi-tech dungeon Hired Guns, then read this review carefully. I think that this game should enchant all lovers of rapid firing guns and dungeons combination.
This game is the 3rd part of the Black Dawn saga, the trilogy developed by the Black Dragon group. In fact, the game has 4 parts, but the last one - Black Dawn VI (?): Hellbound is not the direct sequel of the saga and is independent to the story.
Main menu of the game. The story is recommended!
I played a shareware version, which is distributed on 2 floppies. Disk 2 contains the beautifully written story, which shall get you into the atmosphere. To the very dark atmosphere indeed. In short: after the total defeat of alien invaders in Black Dawn II you were betrayed and imprisoned again. You successfully escaped and freed another 8 prisoners. You have one goal: to find a planet Kane, where you were imprisoned previously and which is full of demons, mutants, various androids and creatures. You should chase your worst enemy here - traitor Nick. To complete the game you must battle through 20 (shareware version, more in the full) fortresses of evil and, of course, survive. Which is not easy. The whole story is presented as a book, where you can read, turn pages and search for details. Is based upon a sci-fi novell Black Dawn by Kev Murphy and Legions of Dawn is its last part.
The game itself is on disk 1 and partially on disk 2. At the beginning of the game you have to choose your hero from 9 possibilities. Each character is different - has different skills, weapons and amount of money. You can get a lot of additional information about these people, if you want to read them, but they are not important for the game. Now authors (as well as me) recommend to turn the lights off and volume up. Young children should go to bed. Now the game can start.
9 prisoners escaped, one of them will be our hero.
Action begins. On the first level you can choose is the cemetery or the underground complex. I choosed underground. The game has been loading for a short moment and then I appeared in the (very) dark corridor. I got hold of a weapon and started to search a labyrinth. The first thing I found was the computer in the wall. This is the only way you can trade your equipment. There is a really huge amount of items, each with its special name and price. When you want to know what an item good for, you have to find it out on your own, but usage of most of them can be figured out at first glance. You have some money from the start, but the main income comes from the bags of credits
that you can find in the game. So I left the network and started my journey through the corridor to the dark. After few corners I met the first door, or better say - electronic barrier (there is the difference, because through the door you can't see) and the first corpse behind this barrier. Dead bodies are important in this game, because you can search them and find some equipment, weapons or useful keys. It is also possible to put useless items to them, because the only other way to remove then from your inventory is to sell them in the terminals. And terminals are rare and your pockets aren't inflatable. Another interesting thing I found was the locked iron door. Because I am the skilled player, I have prepared to fire before I opened the door. Immediately after the locks were activated, the big mutated dog has attacked me and started to bite me. I killed him by a few shots. Just behind him, the extra-terrestrial in the green spacesuit was lurking in the dark. Was a little tougher, but died as well.
Aaah - another corpse! Let's search its pockets!
The aim of each mission is - similar to Hired Guns, for example - to proceed into the exit. Together with various creatures you can meet traps, locked doors, secret rooms as well as energy rechargers and teleports. I liked things like glass walls, that weren't to be damaged by any fire-arms, but it was possible to break them using hammer or light-sabre and which covered another corridors and rooms. The whole game is very scary, creepy and depressive. Its atmosphere is supported by horrible dark, that rules the whole planet and especially the underground passages and also the sound effects, which are the mixture of silent rumble of the wind, roars of distant thunders and - of course - close enemies. I must say I felt quite depressed and helpless at the beginning of the game. Without any map or compass, any armour, with weak weapons and the death behind every corner. This all is upgraded step-by-step as you progress the game and just before the completing I had an equipment of the light tank. Enemies are really disgusting - especially the big crawling beast with the blue shining eyes at the end of the first level scared. It scared me to death.
Labyrinths are flat (no stairs), but a little confusing and sometimes it is not clear where you made a mistake, when all enemies are dead, all switches turned but the last door just before the exit refuses to open. The result is the pointless searching of the empty level and sadly - sometimes the mission restart. You can save your game after the completing of each level, you have 5 slots to save.
Oh dear, why the mappers are so expensive...?
Now something about the technical aspects of the game. Graphics - as I previously written - is carefully depressive, drawn in dark shades of the dark colours. Only things, that are bright, are the electrical bolts and the shining eyes of aliens in the dark. There is a lot of sounds in the game and they fit perfectly. Songs are only three - intro, win and game over - but all are very good. All movements - your and your enemies as well - are smooth and fluent. You can control you move via a mouse or the keyboard, which is faster and more comfortable.
Although the whole game is written in AMOS, it is very well written and looks professional. And prepare yourself, that after you finished all 20 levels of shareware version, you will want to play the full game.
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The graphic level is very high. although the game is dungeon, there are some animations (clouds and aliens are moving etc). Everything is very dark. The beasts are really disgusting in their attack-stage!
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There are a lot of sounds - each creature, weapon or action has its own. And atmospheric sound of wind and storms are very impressive.
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This is a game for techno-dungeons lovers. High experience in the alien world. Tons of weapons. But sometimes level design degrades it a little.
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| Enjoyable at all matters. Not as good as Hired Guns, but very good though. It is something between HG and Bloodfest. |
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