The Chaos Engine [SNES]

"Chaos Engine is a viewed-from-above 2D shooter made in the style of the old arcade game Gauntlet for 1 or 2 players. Players choose from 6 mercenaries - each with different skills and weapons to fight their way through 4 worlds, each comprising of 4 levels, eventually leading to a battle against the Chaos Engine itself - a machine which has the power to create chaos from order. This game was originally released on the Amiga. It is also known as Soldiers of Fortune in the US.

Graphics
This game has a great look and feel. It is set in Victorian times but takes the technology of the day and projects it to its limit - a great retro hi-tech theme. There are steam-driven devices and everything has a great engineered look - which extends to the character select and between-level status screens. Enemies are varied and look great - their weirdness increasing as you progress though the game, getting closer to the Chaos Engine. For example near the start you are faced with giant frogs in a swamp - but later on when you reach the layer of the inventor of the Chaos Engine you face giant dismembered hands and other oddities. The levels start off being organic (forest, swamp etc.) and get more man-made (forts etc.) as you progress - ensuring the game's look is always changing. The characters look good too - all with a unique look and there's good detail in their movement and in the weapons they carry too. On the SNES everything moves and works slickly. Occasionally there may be a few frame skips when things get very busy - but its rare - and it does not affect gameplay.

Gameplay
Each character has his own set of attributes which can be upgraded as the game progresses - some take more hits (this is a power-meter based game) while some move faster etc. They also have different weapons and special skills (healing power for example) and they can be "trained" as the game progresses to upgrade these and attain new special weapons.

This is a 2 player simultaneous game. When playing alone, the 2nd character is computer controlled and each character has a different level of intelligence which can be improved as the game progresses too. This teaming up of different and sometimes complimentary characters adds a bit of strategy to the game and also creates good variety as character selection really does make a difference - hence creating great replayability. As you clear levels of enemies, you collect health, powerups and money left behind by them. You can use the money at the end of a level to power up your character's skills , health and weapons. If you lose a life during a level the survivor has to play on alone until certain points in the level are reached and at the end of a level you can even resurrect a dead partner (if you have enough money).

Each level is crammed with secret areas , some are maze-like , others quite linear. If you aren't careful your characters can become separated resulting in problems trying to move - you have to work as a team to have even a remote chance of survival. This game is really tough and can be very frustrating - especially at the start when your characters are rather weak. Things improve once you get powered up but the difficulty cranks up too. You have to advance through each level quite carefully as there are ambushes everywhere. Enemies have spawn points which can be destroyed to stem their flow, but when you get good you milk each spawn point - picking up all the power-ups and cash the enemies leave behind. Sometimes the game can seem unfair but it IS fair - there are no cheap life losses - just really tough , but rewarding gameplay. ~

The aim of each level is to find and activate power nodes. When a sufficient number are found , an exit opens and you can move on to the next level. Some have multiple exits - the harder-to-find ones rewarding the player with different routes though subsequent levels. Your progress is stored by passwords and believe me you will need them. The password stores the current characters and level. Interestingly it also stores your cash so you can choose how to power up your character before resuming play - allowing for experimentation. You get a password at the end of each world - so you have to work for them!

Sound
Sound is OK - there are no shooting sounds - just loud explosions - but the action is accompanied by a very good soundtrack. There are sounds for enemies spawning which is very useful.

Overall
This game packs quite a punch and looks and plays great - It has great replayability due to the different partnerships you can attempt the game with. Mercenaries wanted ! Shooting game wimps need not apply. This can be a frustrating game due to the initial high difficulty level but it just about gets away with it. Recommended"