Today I will talk about the game fighting force, which was released in 1997 on PlayStation and PC, and in 1999 came to Nintendo 64.
This game is in the beat ’em up genre and is one of the first three-dimensional games in this genre, since until that moment all games of this type were two-dimensional with a side view.
To be honest, this is not my first encounter with this game.
I played it as a kid on PlayStation 1 with my sister in co-op mode.
As far as I remember, the game left me with extremely positive impressions, and I played it several times with different characters.
When I was preparing the material, it was a real discovery for me that upon release the game received mixed reviews from the press.
Selecting the game version and setting
This game is currently not sold anywhere and therefore I had to buy it with a 100% discount in the green store.
At first I wanted to try to take the PC version, because judging by the videos on the Internet, the graphics there are much clearer than on the Playstation 1 and some people even managed to run the game in 4K at 60 FPS.
However, later I decided to discard this idea, since it is not possible to run this game on modern OS without dancing with a tambourine.
It seemed to me that this idea did not justify the effort expended, and I decided to choose the version of the game for the PlayStation 1, since except for the graphics it is no different from the PC version, and the emulator, in turn, provides a number of advantages which I will discuss later.
I chose DuckStation as an emulator, which, with the help of simple manipulations, can significantly improve the graphics of the original games for the PlayStation 1.
Compare what the graphics in the game looked like before setting up the emulator and what they looked like after.
It seems to me that the difference is noticeable to the naked eye: image clarity has increased significantly, models have become smoother, and the twitching characteristic of PS1 games has also disappeared.
The graphics are almost identical to those in the PC version.
By the way, you can turn on widescreen mode, but in this case opponents will disappear when they are at the edge of the screen.
There is an enemy on the right
He moved a little, and he disappeared
This made me uncomfortable and so I played 4:3.
Now let’s move on to the game itself.
First, let’s evaluate the graphical component of the game.
In my opinion, the graphics in the game, considering the time of its release, look pretty good. It is simple, but at the same time pleasing to the eye.
The developers even went crazy and made one of the heroines’ breasts move while running.
Unfortunately, the other heroine did not receive such a feature.
Control
The controls in the game are surprisingly well done. The hero automatically aims his blows at the nearest enemy in front of him, which significantly reduces the likelihood of missing.
Each hero in his arsenal has:
https://ukcryptocasinos.co.uk/cardano-casinos/ Forward punch
Back punch
Applying a grappling technique
Running kick
Attack in an area that consumes health
Yes, you can perform a jump kick, but I haven’t noticed any particular tactical advantages from this.
The only thing is that one of the heroes can attack with this attack simultaneously opponents located both in front and behind.
Speaking of heroes
There are 4 of them, but to be honest, there are not much differences between them.
Yes, their attack animations are different, but I didn’t notice any significant differences in damage done.
Except that Smasher seemed very slow to me compared to other characters. Although perhaps I’m wrong and this impression is created due to the massiveness of the model of this hero.
Destructibility
The game contains elements of destructibility and interactivity, which for 1997 looks impressive and pleasantly surprising.
This is especially noticeable against the backdrop of modern high-budget games, where such details are not always found.
For clarity, I will give examples:
-Hitting the car may activate the alarm, and if you continue to hit the car, the car will fall apart, and some kind of weapon may fall out of the trunk.
However, if the weapon does not fall out, you can always throw wheels at the enemy.
-Elevator railings can be torn off and used as a baton.
-You can either break the turnstile in the metro or insert a coin and pass.
-After breaking a soda machine, you can pick up the dropped can and drink it to restore health.
All this demonstrates attention to detail.
Heroes can pick up firearms, throwing and melee weapons, each of which has its own damage rating.
There is even a slight non-linearity in the game, where the player is given the opportunity to choose which location our hero will go to next, while the location that was not selected will not appear in the subsequent playthrough.
Although all these forks ultimately converge at one point.
For example, I tried to go through the Bronx in one walkthrough, and through the Park in another, and in the end, after going through these locations, I ended up in the subway.
Opponents
The opponents in the game are not very diverse – they are people with different amounts of health and damage.
They can be armed with all the same weapons as our hero, as well as ways to pick up weapons from the ground.
Sometimes they drop items that increase the number of points or restore the hero’s health.
In some situations, opponents can pin a character in a corner and stun him, but in such cases an area attack helps.
From time to time there are bosses that differ from ordinary enemies only in an increased number of lives and higher damage.
Now a few words about the cooperative mode
Unlike the PC version of the game, the emulator provides the ability to play online.
I recently made a video on this topic, which can be viewed here
Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a partner for the co-op mode, so I’ll tell you about its features, using someone else’s gameplay as background.
The cooperative mode in the game is implemented on one screen, without vertical or horizontal division. Players cannot move too far away from each other – attempting to do so will result in a collision with an invisible wall.
Cooperative playthrough of Fighting Force simplifies the game a little, since the number of opponents and their damage, at first glance, remains unchanged. However, the game becomes much more fun when you fight alongside a friend. In this case, you can accidentally (or not completely) hit your partner, since damage to allies is turned on.
By the way, the game does not have a save function, so the game must be completed in one go. (Remark: After editing and publishing the video, I still found a way to download. It turns out that you need to go to the "Options" section. Intuition is off the charts…)
Fortunately, this only takes about an hour, and there are no particular difficulties during the process.
The number of attempts to continue the game after death is limited: if they end, you will have to start over.
Additional attempts are given at certain stages of the game, usually before bosses.
You can get up to four additional attempts per game.
Although at first I made mistakes and lost, but by the fourth playthrough, having mastered all the features of the game, I managed to successfully complete it.
In addition, I want to talk about the levels
The first levels are completed quite quickly – you need to defeat several waves of enemies to move on to the next stage.
But after some time, frankly lengthy levels appear, which, it seemed to me, were deliberately made long to increase the completion time.
Typically a level is an arena where you need to defeat a significant number of opponents to move to the next level.
If the game lasted significantly longer than an hour, this could have a negative impact on its perception.
Plot
It is worth noting that the game does not have a full-fledged plot. Most likely the main plot details were presented in the booklet that came with the game.
Verdict
I believe that the game has successfully stood the test of time and even today it is pleasant to play and enjoy. Especially if you play it in co-op mode. which adds even more fun to the gameplay.
Yes, some segments may seem drawn out, but in an hour the game simply does not have time to get boring.
This year, by the way, the Fighting Force Collection is planned to be released. Unfortunately, judging by the trailer, there are no graphical improvements.
Moreover, the graphics presented in the trailer are significantly inferior to those that can be obtained by playing with the emulator settings.
I will definitely prepare a review of this re-release and compare it with the original version.
Share your opinion about the game in the comments and suggest games for analysis in the “Test of Time” section.
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