#destructible environment

OverBlood 2

The original OverBlood was a fairly short, experimental attempt at doing this new “survival horror” thing in the style of early 3D adventure games. It had a simple story it told with some limited cinematic flair and had very bare bones gameplay and mechanics. It wasn’t something many remembered for flattering reasons, its lasting legacy being funny, out of context lines and a grown man crying to the heavens over his little robot friend being broken with dramatic strings cue in the score. Very goofy, and little else, its one notable accomplishment being a survival horror game made up almost entirely of 3D areas instead of relying on image backgrounds. OverBlood 2, released just two years later, was an environmentalist epic inspired by Final Fantasy VII, used a style of gameplay that up to that point only existed in obscure western PC games like System Shock while mixed in the foundations of their adventure game roots, and still found time to swerve into flashy anime nonsense in the final act. There is at least an hour of cutscenes in this game, if not more. You can visit shops to buy bazookas, go to the random store that sells a 30,000 credits costing Japanese katana with Stalin decorated window glass, and hang out at a movie theater to learn about in-game lore. Also, there is a cyborg dinosaur and it is remarkably unimportant. Things had changed.

Worms Clan Wars / Worms Battlegrounds

Worms Clan Wars could perhaps be compared to Worms World Party – a small update from the previous game featuring a bigger focus on multiplayer. While its additions are, to its credit, far more substantial than World Party, Clan Wars is best seen as a refinement on the previous game and its bounty of new ideas. That said, there’s been more than enough improvements made that it wouldn’t be a mistake to pick it up even if you have Revolution in your library. So long as you find a deep discount for it, at least.

Nightmare Reaper

What even is Nightmare Reaper. Like, what is this. When the boomer shooter revival hit, you probably expected things to stay mostly nostalgic, tired and true formulas with some updates here and there. Project Warlock did this, DUSK did this, ect. Enter Nightmare Reaper, a little game that has been in early access for a few years that has finally reached full release at 1.0 and about a billion new features. It is a large beast that uses roguelike elements without going full roguelike. The classic FPS formula with about a hundred asterisks. A looter shooter where instead of minor number changes, you can potentially get a double barreled shotgun that spews exploding fire balls that turn every single room into a wildfire. It is a lot.

It might also be one of the most innovative and downright thrilling FPS games to see the light of day since ULTRAKILL first appeared with episode one.

Hakaiou: King of Crusher 

(WARNING: This review spoils the ending of Hakaiou: King of Crusher, as part of the overall thematic analysis. If you’d prefer to go into the game blind, avoid reading this review.)

Hakaiou: King of Crusher is a fascinating game. On the surface, it seems very much like a typical example of bakage: a competently designed game that’s more memorable for its bizarre concept and imagery. You play as a salaryman who gets bitten by a bug, becomes consumed with rage, and rampages through Tokyo and New York as he gradually transforms into a Godzilla-styled monster. Its premise is hilarious, but the execution is only so-so. However, on further inspection, it’s possible to view it as a game where all its ideas, strengths and flaws are in the name of exploring a singular theme: the folly of trying to find true, selfish freedom in life.

Tank Battalion / Battle City

From the late ‘70s to the early ‘80s, commonly dubbed the golden age of arcade gaming, Namco found its footing by publishing Space Invaders-inspired shooters, Galaxian (1979) and its sequel Galaga (1981), to critical acclaim. Between these two titles, it also released Tank Battalion that mixes up the formula; instead of being stuck at the bottom of screen, you’re free to move around and dish out your bullets multi-directionally on the battlefield, essentially taking nascent form of arena run-and-gun (though it still uses one joystick and a button, as opposed to the twin-stick setup found in games like Robotron: 2084). The name might not ring a bell, but many of the NES owners will be familiar with its revised port on that system, Battle City, which is much better known than its arcade forebear – and for good reason. 

Tank Force

It would take another six years until Namco put out the next installment in the series, developed exclusively for arcades. The last game to be powered by Namco System 1 (which housed some of the late ‘80s hit titles like Dragon Spirit and Splatterhouse), Tank Force adopts the framework established in Battle City and ups the ante exponentially. 

Phantom Dust

Yukio Futatsugi has had a really strange career. He’s shown extremely impressive creativity, but he’s tended to stick around major gaming corps instead of going on his own. When he did help found a new company called Grounding Inc, they stuck to more humble download only titles instead of anything ambitious or costly. Panzer Dragon will remain his greatest accomplishment the way things are looking, but there are a few who would argue otherwise. If you want some full on Futatsugi, some real uncontrolled gaming strangeness, you need to look at the one game he directed for Microsoft before leaving to start Grounding. What you will find is truly unlike anything else out there unless you’re willing to dig in the deep mines of obscure PC indie gaming – and this got a full on remaster! This is Phantom Dust, a game that defies any clear genre, though the initial concept was something like a trading card game like Magic The Gathering meets the one-on-one action battle game Virtual-On. 

Spec Ops: The Line

There are only two truly notable games in the Spec Ops series, the first and the last. Spec Ops appeared in the gaming world with Zombie Studios’ Spec Ops: Rangers Lead the Way, one of many tactical shooter franchises to appear in 1998, and one of many who fell to the grueling realism of Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six. The game got an expansion pack and a sequel from the studio in 1999, while a total of six (!) budget titles from smaller studios (including Runecraft, creators of that hit classic Barbie Super Sports) released from 2000 to 2002. The budget game garnered no fanfare or critical praise, and the franchise quickly vanished, only popping back up for a short blip when Rockstar mentioned rebooting the series when they gained the license, only to abandon the idea.