1997

Grand Theft Auto (GTA)

Description

In Grand Theft Auto, the player takes the role of a small-time criminal trying to make it big with the mob. Stealing cars, doing jobs for the gangsters and behaving generally anti-social are the way to success.

The action moves through six levels spread over three different cities, each based on a real US city: Liberty City (based on New York City), San Andreas (based on San Francisco) and Vice City (based on Miami). To finish a level, a certain score must be reached. Stealing cars and crashing into traffic, driving over pedestrians and killing cops all raise the score, but the big points are made through jobs. Answering phones or entering special cars brings mission assignments, from simple “ditch-a-hot-car” jobs to supporting bank robberies or carrying out assassinations. Completing a mission will raise the score substantially and also increase the score multiplier, so that completing the next felony will gain even more points.

Criminal behavior comes with a price of course: if policemen witness a crime, the player’s wanted level rises. At the lowest level, a single police car might give chase, whereas at the highest level whole car squads hunt the player, the police set up roadblocks and shoot to kill. The only way to evade the cops is to find a respray shop and get a new paint job with new license plates. This costs money which is deducted from the score, however. But even dying or being arrested are not the end. The player has several lives, and ending up in jail simply results in being stripped of all weapons and armor and the score multiplier being lowered. …

Twisted Metal 2

Description

Twisted Metal 2 (known as Twisted Metal: World Tour in Europe and Twisted Metal EX in Japan) is the second and most successful game in the vehicular combat series, Twisted Metal. It was developed by the game studio SingleTrac, published by Sony, and released in 1996 for PlayStation and Microsoft Windows.

The Microsoft Windows version features slightly cut-down graphics compared to the PlayStation version but doesn’t require a 3D accelerator video card. It also features multiplayer mode over a modem line or Internet.

Two years after its release, Twisted Metal 2 was re-released as a PlayStation Greatest Hits game, however under the developer 989 Studios instead of SingleTrac. It was also released for download in Japan and North America on the PlayStation Network in 2007.

In concept, Twisted Metal 2 is a demolition derby which permits the usage of ballistic projectiles. Players choose a vehicle and an arena—or a series of arenas in the story mode—to engage in battle with opposing drivers. A variety of weapons are obtainable by pick-ups scattered throughout the stage. The objective of the game is to be the last remaining player. Two player duel mode makes a return from the first Twisted Metal, and a co-operative mode allows players to fight through tournament mode with a teammate. However, there is no ending if the game is completed in co-operative mode. …

Oddworld – Abe’s Oddysee

Description

Abe is a Mudokon, a member of a once prosperous race which has now been enslaved by the Glukkons, forced to work in their huge corporations. The food factories have found a new type of meat, delicious to all the inhabitants, though no one knows the recipe. Following his stomach, Abe eavesdrops on the corporate leaders’ conversation, and makes the most frightening and disgusting discovery: his own race is that secret delicious food.

Alas, Abe has been spotted, and the guards are marching towards him. He must escape, but he can’t leave his friends to the mercy of the Glukkons and their henchmen. He must rescue as many as he can, and tell the world the truth about what he has found out.

Abe’s Oddysee is the first game set in the fictional Oddworld universe. It is a platformer with puzzle-solving elements, focusing on the portrayal of a weak, underpowered character in a grim and hostile world, who has to rely on his cunning to outwit enemies and overcome hazards. Abe is almost completely helpless: he cannot use weapons and is usually instantly killed by his brutal enemies if he confronts them directly. For this reason, most of the game involves careful exploration, timed movement, sneaking, and outsmarting the foes through various means: throwing stones to confuse them, luring them into traps, etc. Abe can run, jump, climb, tiptoe, crouch, and roll; in most areas these actions are essential to his survival. A few stages involve Abe riding a large animal known as Elum. …

Hexen 2

Description

Hexen II is a dark fantasy first-person shooter (FPS) video game developed by Raven Software from 1996 to 1997, then published by id Software and distributed by Activision. It is the third game in the Hexen/Heretic series, and the last in the Serpent Riders trilogy. It was later made available on Steam on August 3, 2007. Using a modified Quake engine, it features single-player and multiplayer game modes, as well as four character classes to choose from, each with different abilities. These include the “offensive” Paladin, the “defensive” Crusader, the spell-casting Necromancer, and the stealthy Assassin.

Improvements from Hexen: Beyond Heretic and Quake include destructible environments, mounted weapons, and unique level up abilities. Like its predecessor, Hexen II also uses a hub system. These hubs are a number of interconnected levels; changes made in one level have effects in another. Furthermore, the Tome of Power artifact makes a return from Heretic.

The gameplay of Hexen II is very similar to that of the original Hexen. Instead of three classes, Hexen II features four: Paladin, Crusader, Assassin, and Necromancer, each with their own unique weapons and play style. …

Age of Empires

Description

Age of Empires (AoE) is a history-based real-time strategy video game developed by Ensemble Studios and published by Microsoft, and the first game in the Age of Empires series. The game uses the Genie Engine, a 2D sprite-based game engine. The game allows the user to act as the leader of an ancient civilization by advancing it through four ages (the Stone, Tool, Bronze, and Iron Ages), gaining access to new and improved units with each advance.

Originally touted as Civilization meets Warcraft, some reviewers felt that the game failed to live up to these expectations when it was released. Despite this, it received generally good reviews, and an expansion pack, titled The Rise of Rome, was released in 1998. Both the original Age of Empires and the expansion pack were later released as “The Gold Edition”. A sequel, Age of Empires II, was released in 1999. Age of Empires: Definitive Edition, a remastered version of the game, was released on February 20, 2018.

Age of Empires requires the player to develop a civilization from a handful of hunter-gatherers to an expansive Iron Age Empire. To assure victory, the player must gather resources in order to pay for new units, buildings and more advanced technology. Resources must be preserved, as no new resources become available as the game progresses; for example, trees that are cut down will not grow back. …

Tomb Raider II

Description

The story of Tomb Raider II surrounds the mythical “Dagger of Xian”, a weapon which was used by an Emperor of China to command his army. By plunging the weapon into its owner’s heart, the weapon has the power to turn its bearer into a dragon. The last battle fought with the Dagger ended when the warrior monks of Tibet removed the knife from the Emperor. The Dagger was returned to its resting place within the Great Wall.

In the present day, near the remains of the Great Wall, Lara Croft investigates the legend of the Dagger. She is attacked by a thug who claims to work for Marco Bartoli, a Venetian Mafia leader who has an obsession with the ancient lore. After travelling to Venice, Lara makes her way through Bartoli’s hideout and an opera house where Bartoli’s men are plotting a heist. Lara follows Bartoli aboard his aeroplane, but she is knocked unconscious.

The plane lands at an oil platform. The cult of Xian have killed the rig’s staff and are carrying out excavations on a sunken ship called the Maria Doria, a luxury ocean liner which was owned by Marco’s father. When Lara regains consciousness, she retrieves her weapons and makes her way through the oil rig. She learns from an imprisoned Tibetan monk, Brother Chan, that the shipwreck carries an ancient Tibetan artifact called the Seraph. Lara dives alongside a submersible, arrives at the shipwreck, and retrieves the Seraph. …

Resident Evil (1997)

Description

On July 24, 1998, when a series of bizarre murders occur on the outskirts of the fictional Midwestern town of Raccoon City, the Raccoon City Police Department’s S.T.A.R.S. team are assigned to investigate. After contact with Bravo Team is lost, Alpha Team is sent to investigate their disappearance. Alpha Team locates Bravo Team’s crashed helicopter and land at the site, where they are suddenly attacked by a pack of monstrous dogs, killing team member Joseph Frost. After Alpha Team’s helicopter pilot, Brad Vickers, panics and takes off alone, the remaining members of the team (Chris Redfield, Jill Valentine, Albert Wesker, and Barry Burton) are forced to seek refuge in a nearby abandoned mansion.

Depending on which character the player assumes control of, either Chris or Barry are separated from the rest of the team during the chase and do not make it to the mansion. At this point, the team decides to split up to investigate. Over the course of the game, the player character may encounter several members of Bravo Team, including Enrico Marini, the captain of the S.T.A.R.S. Bravo Team, who reveals that one of Alpha Team’s members is a traitor before being shot and killed by an unseen assailant. The player character eventually learns that a series of illegal experiments were being undertaken by a clandestine research team under the authority and supervision of biomedical company Umbrella Corporation. The creatures roaming the mansion and its surrounding areas are the results of these experiments, which have exposed the mansion’s personnel and various animals and insects to a highly contagious and mutagenic biological agent known as the T-virus. …

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