CyClones

DOSBox, CyClones (1994) game

You could do a lot worse if you're looking for a first person shooter to play that costs nothing, than have a go at this. After trying out various genres on DOSBox, I fancied an FPS, just to see what was possible back then. While it could never compete with the seminal experiences I had with such greats as 'Goldeneye 007' and 'Perfect Dark' on the N64, or 'Metroid Prime' and 'Turok Evolution' on GameCube, it was a good-sized game with twenty-one levels of varying environmental style (to a degree - more on this later), some fairly enjoyable weapons, and… not much else. The game's story I never really followed with my full attention as it was presented in text that was very militaristic in format, speaking to you as the walking weapon that you are. I read it all at the start of each level, but precious little stayed in my mind, and as every level was pretty much the standard formula of these kinds of games (shoot nasties; pick up items to progress), it wasn't necessary. So I never really felt the impression of one lone drone on its own against an infestation of evil, that was so well done in 'Metroid.'

If there was a game I could compare the experience to, it would be 'Hitman 2' on the 'Cube. Why? The irritating controls. I'd never played an FPS in the 'pure' way of mouse and keyboard before, and maybe I didn't find the right setup to best feel the control, but for whatever reason, just as 'H2' was an enjoyable game, taken down a few pegs by ill-designed control methods, I would have enjoyed the game far more if I'd been able to have the precise and perfect response I had with the Nintendo Controllers while playing shooters on their systems. What may be a realistic addition, in the unreliability of your weapons, proved thoroughly distressing on multiple occasions as I found the mouse changing to movement when I was in the midst of pitched battle, meaning my gun would either stop firing, or keep firing and use up more ammunition than necessary! It was like my gun jammed, and in this futuristic weaponry, out of place. And yet I'm sure it was just my control that was at fault, not a deliberate in-game malfunction designed to set you on edge.

Other irritations were that the cursor turned pink whenever you touched the edge of the screen, and because you were always looking for hidden doors discovered by your cursor turning pink, you were forever having to stop and check if you'd missed something, or you might well miss some because you assumed a false alarm! The hidden doors could be a bit of a pain, as progression too often relied on locating these, and searching for them could get boring, especially as some of the later levels were quite maze-like. I will give them this credit, though: with relatively small resources and power for the time this came out, they still managed to pull off varied environments which used topography to good effect, whether that were slopes or multi-levelled areas. The first level you're out in the open with a starry sky above you, and you traverse all kinds of internal locations, from stone-hewn caverns of varying hues, to high-tech alien facilities, to swampy or slimy areas, to places of wood or metal or alien surfaces. So you don't get tired of the visuals except for the fact that it's all in a very blocky style, laid out in squares and rectangles, but that's to be expected given the time it came out.

Okay, so control far from ideal, visuals pretty good, how about the sound, so integral in creating mood? Another negative for me, I'm afraid, with 'music' that is truly terrible blinky-blorky and interminable, unchanging from level to level. As much as I tried to turn it off, it didn't seem to be affected, which could be annoying, but the sounds of the weaponry were reasonably meaty until you got to later levels where your suit has upgraded nicely (a la 'Metroid'). Oddly, the fact that you have a more powerful arsenal at your disposal doesn't mean a meatier sound: to begin with your default, non-ammunition weapon is a sabre glove with two nasty spikes, which makes a nice slashing noise through the air. Later you get a whirring power saw, buzzing with teeth. But you finish up with 'enhanced fists' which zap an enemy into vapour with one handy slash. The difference is, no matter how much more powerful and empowering it is, it sounds like a zip being pulled or a faulty firework poofing on the ground. And instead of holding a meaty rocket launcher, by then you have a tiny little box held in the palm of your hand that sounds like a stapler being fired across a classroom! Again, the sound is the only thing at fault here, the weapons are reasonably varied and good to use.

I played the game on 'Medium' difficulty, the default choice I always make (it should give enough challenge not to dissuade you from completion, and if you like it enough you still have the harder difficulty to play). If it weren't for the controls I'd say it would have been a lot closer to easy, as there are plenty of medkits, shields and ammunition to pick up, usually behind hidden doors, but also in the general areas you explore. I wouldn't say it was too easy, but I didn't find it tough, and that goes for the final battle with the Mother creature, too. All you need do is shoot the 'barrels' holding up her forcefield a few times, while also being wary of approaching enemies, and then you can rush to the escape pod by the side and you're done. Not that I was expecting a vast boss creature like 'Zelda' or 'Metroid,' but I was surprised it didn't take many attempts to defeat. Still, the size of the game meant it was more than a short-lived experience, and certainly gave you enough time to get into it, and appreciate the changes as you progressed. The enemies weren't bad, with the robotic Johnny 5 things on tracks, and the flying drones, among the more difficult to take out, though most opponents were standard run-and-gun sorts, before enemy AI had reached a level of deviousness I'm more used to.

The other thing is, you can save at any time, there are no rushes to get to the next save point as your health depletes, which can create some great tension. It was a useful function, but the downside was that you couldn't revisit any levels at all as you could only have one save file, overwritten when you saved. Not that it was such a well-designed game that you'd want to revisit levels as you might other games, but it would have been nice to have that option - perhaps you wanted to explore something you didn't have time to before. This is only a small criticism, however, and for the most part I would say this is worth playing. It may not have provided the challenge in quite the way I expected, and battling controls drags it down a point, but within the limitations of the time, blocky sprites, and not exactly pushing the genre (except for the power of flight, which may well have been a new level of freedom at the time), it remained something I wanted to reach the end of. But on the other upgraded hand, I wouldn't likely return to try the next difficulty level.

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