The Chaos Engine

 

Amiga 1500/1200, The Chaos Engine (1992) game

Not one of the games I'd played before, which is a surprise as I discovered it worked on my A1200 so I'd have thought I'd have tried it out back in 2010 or whenever it was we last got the boxes of Amiga games down, but I was under the impression it didn't work. Needless to say, it did, and I was at last able to experience one of the famous titles of the Amiga's later period of the early-90s, and one which had a very good reputation. I'm not a lover of shoot'em-ups, although I prefer the ground-based variety to flying through alien hordes or whatever, but the genre was never going to be one of my favourites. Saying that, I quite enjoyed 'Alien Breed II' and was very satisfied to have finally beaten it a few years ago so I was up for this challenge in a similar vein. It was both easier and tougher than I thought: on the easy side it's actually very short with a mere four Worlds consisting of four levels within each, making a total of sixteen. It sounds a lot, but they weren't massive environments and you could bash through them in five or ten minutes depending on how careful you were to explore and search out the best route. Not that there was a lot of that either, but occasionally you had to make a choice on whether to go down one path or another and repeating levels to discover the most profitable or easier way to the exit door was part of the tactics.

As you can tell from the fact there are exit doors it was very traditional old-skool gaming fare: picking up collectables, blasting enemies, traversing an environment. It was surprising there were no end of level bosses to fight, though in my case I never much enjoyed that side of games, certainly the 2D ones, so it wasn't something I missed. They made up for it by having the Chaos Engine itself at the very end of the last level be a tough challenge, though like most things it was as much a case of knowledge being power as player skill, dexterity and reaction speed. That last battle took me a few days to finally conquer, partly because it was a challenge, but also because you have to get through the four levels before it each time. At least the entire game wasn't required to be completed every sitting, you're awarded a password at the end of each World, making things a lot easier than they might have been. It's not the end of the story, however, as you have to be sure to have a good run when you get to the password screen because it's unique to not only the mix of characters, but also all your stats, so if you have few lives and energy you may as well go back to the previous password point or the beginning, otherwise it's an uphill struggle.

I liked that aspect, there was a definite necessity of using tactics to progress through the game, pacing yourself and conserving what resources there were or health you had, a balance between searching and finishing the level rather than simply rushing round blasting - at least, unlike 'Alien Breed,' you're afforded unlimited ammo, one less thing to worry about. It encourages exploration so you discover the desirable coins, power-ups and extra lives that will ease you through the journey a little, but at the same time you had to be wary of how much you put your character in harm's way within that exploration as health costs money to replenish, food cans being relatively scarce. One of the good points is that every two levels you're given the chance to upgrade certain attributes such as overall Skill (which allows you to extend the limits of health and speed), or add extra lives, or, importantly, upgrading your weapon or special abilities. Finding the right balance is important and makes life easier down the line, and I enjoyed that side of it, not to mention the fact it means you really need to be hoovering up as much stuff as you can - again you really have to be careful not get drawn in, rushing over to grab a coin from a defeated foe only to find another one right behind that damages you.

The story itself wasn't perhaps the best implemented, action the important thing here, but it's something to do with a guy in the last century (so presumably the 19th Century...), who created a machine that did bad stuff to time and space... how? No idea, nor what that image of a mechanised Tyrannosaurus Rex was all about in the opening sequence, but it doesn't seem to matter much. The key part is you get to choose out of six characters to play as (I chose the Navvie, not for any good reason, just ended up picking him, although I selected the Thug as my assistant since he seemed quite lumbering and I had a better chance of grabbing the goodies more often!), with different weapons and strengths - I must say I liked the art style a lot, especially the intro shots of the characters, but the environments were also well drawn, even if they only had four different themes and they weren't generally very colourful. I'm sure the game has even more going for it with two human players, though I only played the single-player. Sometimes I found the companion controlled by the computer to be a touch annoying, not shooting when I wanted him to, or getting in the way and injuring himself (so I'd need to waste cash on health or lives for him when it came time to spend the money), or putting me off as he'd follow me and might get damaged as he didn't look out for himself well enough. Cleverly, the Wisdom attribute really did make a difference so later on he'd be making more effort to avoid being killed, dodging enemies, etc.

For the most part the levels weren't too taxing once you knew what you were about (even if the rapid pressing of the fire button so much wasn't good for the Joystick!). The final level was, appropriately, the most difficult, saving up as many lives as possible, edging through the previous three, then doing the same in that one, except you get to the point where you're almost guaranteed to lose a life on each of the two topmost generators since you have to destroy them from the front, but there are only approaches from the side, and four electricity balls that follow you. I tried drawing them off, but they kept respawning, though I was able to get it done in the end, then you're thrown into the battle against the machine, simply having to blast as much and as quickly as you can hammer the buttons because you're being blasted yourself, but you take out the energy bar and you think it's over... And then there's a new energy bar and even more dangerous shots pushing you back! With three good lives you can win, and that's how I was finally successful.

If you really wanted to you could probably play the game through as each of the six characters, and with five different companions for each of them, a lot of replay value if it was a game you loved, plus it was sharp and smooth, a technically accomplished design. Music was a bit forgettable within the levels themselves, and as I say, I was surprised it was so short (only when reading the back of the box did I realise the fourth World was also the final one, expecting at least seven!), and there were a couple of questionable bits (the Preacher's bio says beware his 'perverse nature' (!), which isn't a very positive representation; and the fact yin-yang symbols were presented as good things you wanted since they'd save your position in a level suggests some kind of agenda), but in general it's difficult to fault. In some senses it is basic, the puzzles of where to go and what to do aren't too taxing, and it is a bit linear aside from the options to hunt for other, more favourable exits (there were often areas I couldn't work out how to get to, so the game does have its secrets to search out for the dedicated). It held up well for a game I had no prior connection with to carry me over the threshold with nostalgia, and I'd say it's about as good as 'Alien Breed,' though that was tougher (less easy to win through to passwords), not necessarily a good thing. I can imagine going back to this one in years to come, maybe to try a different character, possibly to go for a higher score (though scoring has never been one of my gaming draws, one reason I'm less keen on shoot'em-ups in general), it's worth running through: it guided it's disks to my drive. It will be remembered.

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