The Chaos Engine [1] - the name of the game for the European market, developed by the British company The Bitmap Brothers and published by Renegade Software in 1993. A version for North America came out under the name Soldiers of Fortune . The game has a sequel called The Chaos Engine 2 , released in 1996. In Russia, the version for Mega Drive was distributed in a cartridge-box edition.
| The chaos engine | |
|---|---|
 Cover for a single-cartridge box version of the publication for Sega Mega Drive , distributed in Russia | |
| Developer | The bitmap brothers Abstraction Games (2013) |
| Publisher | Renegade Software Mastertronic Group (2013) |
| Date of issue | 1993 |
| Genre | Shoot 'em up |
| Creators | |
| Game designer | Simon knight Eric Matthews |
| Programmer | Steven cargill Mike Montgomery |
| Artists | Daniel Malone |
| Composer | Richard Joseph Joi brothers |
| Technical details | |
| Platforms | Amiga , Atari ST , Amiga CD32 , MS-DOS , RISC OS , Sega Mega Drive , Super NES , Mobile phone , Windows , OS X , Linux |
| Game modes | single-player , cooperative |
| Carriers | , and |
| System requirements | Windows Minimum:
Recommended:
|
Content
Story
Once, a time traveler went on reconnaissance from the future to Victorian England in the late 1800s. However, his technology fell into the hands of the royal society, led by the great inventor Baron Fortescue (his prototype was Charles Babbage ). He succeeded in his creation and created the Chaos Engine, with the help of which one could experiment with any substance, and even with the very nature of space and time. Unfortunately, the Chaos Engine seized power over the creator. From everywhere on the peninsula appeared monsters, robots and resurrected dinosaurs . Britain is becoming cut off from the rest of the world with the destruction of telegraph wires . Any ships sailing to the island are attacked. The British royal family, MPs and a small number of refugees manage to escape, bringing with them many scary stories. To save the peninsula, several mercenaries decide to enter the forbidden territory and stop the development of the disaster.
In the final battle, the squad defeats the mechanism, and then frees Fortescue (who had been the storyteller of the game all this time).
On Amiga, game events were described with text from floppy disks; on Amiga CD32, they were also described using animated scenes and voicing of author's text.
Characters
There are six characters to choose from in the game: Gentleman, Preacher (Scientist in the North American version), Navvie, Thug, Mercenary and Brigand. Each of them with its own unique abilities. The player chooses two of the six mercenaries who will take on the task of defeating Baron Fortescue. Game characters have various qualities that affect gameplay, such as speed and combat abilities.
In single player mode, computer artificial intelligence controls the second player, so the player will never fight enemies alone.
In North America, the character Preacher was slightly visually changed and renamed Scientist due to the position of the local publisher, who considered it offensive to have a priest killing people in the game [2] .
Gameplay
The player while on the levels pick up bonuses, gold and keys to solve puzzles and pass through the mazes. At the end of each even level, you can spend earned money on improving weapons, buying new items, improving health and other characteristics of the character.
Development
The development team included Steve Cargill, Simon Knight, Dan Malon, Eric Matthews and Mike Montgomery. Joi group created the title theme, and Richard Joseph (Richard Joseph, born April 23, 1953) worked on the rest of the musical component.
The game was inspired by the novel of Bruce Sterling and William Gibson The Difference Machine , which became the basis of the style and plot of the game [2] .
The game coder developed an allied AI, observing game testing of the game itself and coding based on the player’s behavior [2] .
Later, the game was ported to the console. To fit the soundtrack into Super NES audio memory, which was inferior in volume to the Amiiga series consoles, Joseph applied standard compression methods and placed only samples there, and the rest of the data was transferred to the main memory [3] .
Remake
The remastering version of The Chaos Engine , which was essentially a widescreen port from the Amiga AGA version (called the AA version) with the original intro and soundtrack, was developed by Abstraction Games and released for Windows , Mac and Linux on August 29, 2013. [4] All features of the gameplay, graphic and sound component of the original were retained. [2]
In the new version, there is the possibility of a remote game for two users via Steam , a global list of best results, and an additional option of two graphic effects: a softening low-resolution pixel graphics filter and bloom for individual parts of game graphics.
Ratings
| Reviews | |
|---|---|
| Foreign language editions | |
| Edition | Rating |
| Amiga format | 9.0 / 10 [8] |
| Amiga power | 9.1 / 10 (CD32) [9] 8.9 / 10 (Amiga) [10] |
| Amiga action | 9.2 / 10 [7] |
| Commodore User | 8.1 / 10 [11] |
| Egm | 6.8 / 10 (SNES) [5] 6.4 / 10 (MD) [6] |
Electronic Gaming Monthly gave Super NES versions 6.8 points out of 10 possible, calling it “good Technoclash and Gauntlet- style shooter ” [5] , Genesis version 6.4 points [6] . GamePro criticized sprites because of its too small size, which balanced the design work, eventually noting interesting gameplay, reliable management and good collective mode [12] .
Rewards
- SEGA Awards 1994 Best 3rd Party Game of the Year [13]
- Amiga Power 11th best game of all time [14]
- Mega 15th best Mega Drive game of all time [15]
Notes
- ↑ GiantBomb The Chaos Engine
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 Phil Locke. Creating Chaos (Eng.) // Retro Gamer : journal. - 2013 .-- December ( no. 122 ). - P. 71-73 . - ISSN 1742-3155 .
- ↑ Making Tracks: The Noble Art of Game Music (English) // Next Generation . - Imagine Media , 1995 .-- March ( no. 3 ). - P. 50 .
- ↑ Here's what the new Chaos Engine looks like . Eurogamer.net (August 30, 2013).
- ↑ 1 2 Review Crew: Soldiers of Fortune (Eng.) // Electronic Gaming Monthly . - Ziff Davis , 1994 .-- January ( no. 54 ). - P. 44 .
- ↑ 1 2 Review Crew: Soldiers of Fortune (Eng.) // Electronic Gaming Monthly . - Ziff Davis , 1994 .-- February ( no. 55 ). - P. 40 .
- ↑ The Chaos Engine review from Amiga Action 42 (Mar 1993) - Amiga Magazine Rack . amr.abime.net. Date of appeal October 16, 2017.
- ↑ The Chaos Engine review from Amiga Format 45 (Apr 1993) - Amiga Magazine Rack . amr.abime.net. Date of appeal October 16, 2017.
- ↑ The Chaos Engine review from Amiga Power 38 (Jun 1994) - Amiga Magazine Rack . amr.abime.net. Date of appeal October 16, 2017.
- ↑ The Chaos Engine review from Amiga Power 22 (Feb 1993) - Amiga Magazine Rack . amr.abime.net. Date of appeal October 16, 2017.
- ↑ The Chaos Engine review from CU Amiga (Feb 1993) - Amiga Magazine Rack . amr.abime.net. Date of appeal October 16, 2017.
- ↑ ProReview: Soldiers of Fortune (Eng.) // GamePro . - IDG 1993 .-- December ( no. 53 ). - P. 64-65 .
- ↑ No Business Like Show Business (Eng.) // GamePro . - IDG 1994 .-- April ( no. 57 ). - P. 8 .
- ↑ Amiga Power magazine issue 64, Future Publishing, August 1996
- ↑ Mega magazine issue 26, page 74, Maverick Magazines , November 1994