Apocalypse

Apocalypse Brand : activision Weight : 4 ounces Doomsday is steadily approaching the planet Earth; it is a time of war and hatred, a time where madmen rule the streets. The madman in this case is the Reverend and his Four Horsemen: Death, Plague, War, and the Beast. Together, they have initiated a reign of terror upon the world, glorifying and helping the planets demise. The question is who the heck is going to stop these terrorists Players assume the role of Trey Kincaid, a nano-physicist played by Hollywood action star Bruce Willis. And darn it if he isnt the worlds only hope; he has been called upon to defend the world, destroy the Four Horsemen, and thwart the Reverends plans.Review Apocalypse is an ambitious project. Activision set out to make a shooter with a very action movie-like quality. Figuring that theyd need a big action-movie guy involved to really make it fly, they got Bruce Willis on board. His face was scanned, and his voice was recorded for the project, the theory being that Bruce would star "in" the game. The original plan was to have Bruce play your sidekick, a guy that would run around and back you up while you shot up the place. But as the development time dragged on, the conclusion was drawn that people dont want to be alongside Bruce. People wanted to be Bruce. So the sidekick idea was scrapped, and instead you take on the role of Trey Kincaid, scientist-turned-outlaw. The games changed perspective may have been a good idea at the time, but it also caused the games main problem. Since all the voice work was written to work with Trey as your sidekick, it all sounds like hes talking to someone that isnt there. Plus, what was left in really isnt very good. Most of the phrases really lack feeling, and theyre mixed horribly. It sounds like they just trapped Bruce in a bathroom with a mini-tape recorder and got him to read the script. Also, the lack of variety (youll hear "Open up a can of whoop-ass" and "Ooh! I... feel... gooood!" more than a few times) leads you to believe that most of the voice work was unsuitable after the transition. And since getting Bruce back in the studio was probably impossible (hey, Bruce is a busy guy), were left with whatever quotes they could salvage from the existing audio. The gameplay is surprisingly fun for a shooter of this type. The controls are set up in a Robotron or Smash TV-like setting (analog is a must here), but the game has a running and jumping atmosphere more along the lines of ASC Games One. For a 3D game with a lot of jumping, the camera does a pretty nice job of presenting the action in an easily viewable fashion. But it isnt perfect. The White House level is the biggest offender. The perspective gets in the way of your jumping quite a few times in that level, causing more than a few deaths when you think youre judging the distance properly but miss a platform by a long shot and die in the lava. But overall, the gameplay is really intense, although the game as a whole is really quite easy. The last two levels of the game are reasonably challenging, though. The game has got a nice graphical look to it, with occasional panning cameras and nice perspective changes. It really gives the game a very dynamic feel. The games frame rate tends to fluctuate a little bit, but it remains fast enough throughout the game, right up until the final boss. The final boss stage has some serious slowdown problems, which in turn cause some poorly judged jumps, which in turn cause needless (not to mention extremely annoying) deaths. Other than the poorly executed Bruce Willis speech, the games sound is nice. The fire and explosions give the game the feeling of a real battlefield. The whoosh of the flamethrower is especially nice. The music is also well done, including a track by Poe (thats how long this game has been in development. When they first ann

Apocalypse