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extremely fun, though challenging, little action game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: July 12, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Oh geez, how do I even BEGIN writing a review for a lost Playstation game called Apocalypse? First of all, let's get a few things straight- this is a 3rd person shooter game, and (ignoring the control set-up) the game looks and feels *exactly* like MDK (another action-packed 3rd person shooter for the Playstation). I mean, the two games feel so much alike with the identical graphics and the same kind of occasional slowdown problems, it's almost hard to believe nobody has mentioned the comparison before.

The one difference between the two games is that in Apocalypse, you have to actually use four different buttons on the Playstation controller to fire your weapon (by the way, your main gun has unlimited bullets which is very convenient). Each buttons fires your weapon in a different direction. For example, to shoot enemies that are located to the left of you, you have to hit the Square button. Enemies to the right of you- Circle button. Enemies behind you- the X button. Finally (the button I personally use the most) the Triangle button to take out the bad guys located in front of you. From a shooting-forward view, the game is exactly like MDK.

I read all the reviews I could find for Apocalypse on the internet before buying the game, but I had NO idea just how many enemies each of the 11 stages would have. We're talking about a LOT of enemies (such as giant tanks and laser beam shooting robots) that are simply COVERED in each of the 11 stages to the point where many times the levels are too crowded to even walk past them! Luckily, the slowdown isn't too bad, though it happens sometimes. It's completely forgivable though. Honestly, when seven or eight robots are running in your direction at the same time, you'll probably be begging for a bit of slowdown.

I really love the soundtrack. We're talkin' hard rock tracks (since action games NEED energetic music, after all) that normally fit in with the background setting of each stage quite well. When in a cave level, the music doesn't rock very hard and instead sets a necessary dreary mood. On a street level, the rock turns into heavy metal, becomes faster, and definitely rocks the house down. Speaking of the street level, my favorite part is when you're walking either down the street or along a building rooftop and you come across a giant TV screen which shows a band playing music. The stage music then changes to whatever kind of music you happen to be hearing on the TV screen. One TV screen showed a music video of a band playing a punk rock/grunge rock song. I really liked this idea. It gave me the impression that I was in a shopping mall or a carnival- places where activity changes suddenly, when walking only a few feet away. Really cool idea.

The thing that makes Apocalypse such a challenging game are all the platform jumps you have to do. Sometimes the character you control gets really small when the camera pans out, and sometimes this happens at the *exact* moment when an important jump to a platform is needed. In these situations, there's always a chance you won't be able to see what you're doing and your character won't make the jump, and die. Fortunately, I haven't come across anything as annoying as the jumping in the bridge level of the original Crash Bandicoot, for instance. If you've never played that game, BOY was that level a total nightmare! You were required to land safely on top of these little pieces of wood barely holding a bridge together. Yikes!

The challenge in Apocalypse definitely goes up once you arrive to Level 6. This is when some very careful platform jumps are required in order to access an upper section of the stage, and progress forward. No doubt you will fall off a few times before getting it right. Luckily in this level, you don't die if you fall off (well, for the first set of platforms) and you land on some solid ground that's directly below you.

However once you reach Level 8, you REALLY need to pay attention to what you're doing or else you won't land safely on any of the many platforms and instead you'll go straight into the lava. By the way, there's moving platforms and revolving platforms. Once you reach Level 8, there's actually enemies standing on the moving platforms and shooting in your direction, making the difficulty go through the roof.

I think the thing that REALLY gets to me about the occasional frustration factor of the game is how sometimes it appears that you're lined up exactly right to jump to the next platform, only for you to apparently be way off and then fall down into nowhere and die. This happens frequently in a few places and it's really not fair. It makes you think "What the... how did THAT happen?" Luckily you can save your progress after each level you complete (thanks to a memory card) and I believe you always go back to 4 lives after a "Game Over" screen.

The fact that health packs and weapons are located everywhere makes the game feel less frustrating. Oh, and if I haven't mentioned it yet, the weapons in this game RULE. They are really cool-looking. The flamethrower totally rules. Everything in front of you burns immediately when firing that weapon. There's another weapon that's a giant purple lightning strike thing. It fires across the room zapping all the bad guys. Those are just a few. Awesome weapons overall.

I really love the sound effects in the game. Your main character says a lot of funny things, and I really think he's saying the "sh" word in one instance. I don't think a game company would normally allow that kind of language in a video game, but apparently they got away with it here. The enemies also have their fair share of exciting lines (and often times, funny) to make the whole experience more interesting. Unfortunately, the zombie level isn't anywhere as cool as the zombies found in the Resident Evil series. They're just small little creatures that break apart into green balls once you kill them. Aw, man!

I should also note that using a regular Playstation controller is probably the best idea. An analog stick may make certain platform jumps much harder than they need to be compared to a regular controller. That's just my preference, though.

I love the level designs. I wasn't expecting so much creativity. Besides the street and cave levels, you have a graveyard and a lava-facility kind of place. Nice variety.

Yet ANOTHER forgotten little action game for the Playstation gaming console. I love it, and the challenge doesn't prevent me from giving the game a perfect score. For the great price, it's totally worth owning.

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