Volume 1 Issue 3 August 2005 Serious Sam II - Hardcore Gamer

It seemed like VICE: Project Doom came out
of nowhere. A visual tour-de-force backed by
a twisting plot and astonishing game play, the
unassuming cartridge quickly lapped up its small
share of media coverage, then disappeared into
the shadows while lesser games stole the limelight.
Even if you were playing NES games at the time of
its original release, you may very well have missed
the boat. Now the game lines the bottom of bargain
bins everywhere. Well, it’s time for that to change.
A former mercenary with experience fighting in the
jungles of South America, Hart presently operates
some sort of private law enforcement agency. While
driving through the streets one day in his projectileequipped
sports car, he gets a message that a
crazed driver is terrorizing the freeway. Just like
that, he’s off on the chase.
a shootout with a boss vehicle that feels like a
more polished version of any gunfight in a vertical
shooter.
1991... BEFORE THE RISE OF CUBAN SAMMY
From there, you’re pulled back to the storyline with
an extremely competent cinema sequence. Words
are spliced around crisp frames of artwork with
small bursts of animation, and the text manages
to keep you hooked as it reveals the start of a
conspiracy theory involving the military. You’ll find
yourself completing one stage after another, just to
find out what happens next.
Those additional stages generally don’t take the
same form as the first one, either. In addition to
THOSE GREEN KUNG FU GUYS PACK A WALLOP
YOU ARE CLEARED FOR TAKEOFF
driving sequences, you’ll play through first-person shooting
segments (they’re on rails, so to speak, meaning all you do
is move the cursor around and shoot any goons that pop into
sight) and even some surprisingly polished action stages that
take place from a side perspective. It’s this last variation that
you’ll see most frequently as you run, jump, climb, stab and
shoot your way through incredible environments ranging from
jungles to labs to castles and more.
Though you might find yourself scratching your head over
how the NES managed so many atmospheric locales that
in many ways rival even those in later 16-bit projects, you
won’t be free to consider such questions for long. Instead,
you’ll find yourself a lot more active than was the norm for
any one of the game styles VICE: Project Doom presents.
Ledges crumble under your feet, birds swoop down from
jungle foliage, electric fish shower you with spread shots, and
numerous other monstrous apparitions do their best to keep
KNEEHIGH STRIPED SOCKS WERE ALL THE RAGE
you on your toes. Hart handles himself
just fine for the game’s duration, effortlessly
swapping his sword for a gun at the touch
of a button. With action so frequently frenzied,
anything less would be simply unacceptable. When
you die, it’s not because the game was cheap. It’s
because you didn’t react quickly enough, or because
you didn’t respond to a boss pattern with the correct
counter-moves.
Speaking of dying, it’s not a crisis in this game. If you lose all
your lives, you can always continue in the same stage where
you left off with all your items and weapons intact. Some
of the later stages get pretty difficult, and you may have to
attempt the final areas more times than you would like. Still,
the ‘Game Over’ screen will come around again, and you’ll
click ‘Start’ once more, just because you can’t help yourself.
The game is just that good.
CLOGGED DRAIN?
The game’s first stage thus takes place
in a style that looks like it was ripped
straight out of Spy Hunter. The
top-down perspective shows your
car racing through the streets,
dodging oncoming objects,
firing shots at enemy vehicles,
and collecting the coins
their mangled wrecks leave
behind. At the end, there’s
I SEE YOU BEHIND THAT WATERFALL, Mr. SNEAKY
NO, IT AIN’T BUMP ‘N JUMP
32_GRAVEYARD_VICE: PROJECT DOOM
HARDCORE GAMER MAGAZINE_VOLUME 1_ISSUE 3_WRITTEN BY BOOTH BABES
HARDCORE GAMER MAGAZINE_VOLUME 1_ISSUE 3_WRITTEN BY BOOTH BABES
VICE: PROJECT DOOM_GRAVEYARD_33