A couple of months ago, I reviewed Another World and Flashback and promised to have a look at one game which draws heavily from both titles. A long time Amiga gem, it has been made downloadable for PCs, completely for free, here.
There are some great things about onEscapee and some not-so-great things, which prevent it from becoming a true classic, worthy to sit right next to the two Delphine Software miracles. At the first glance, almost everything seems perfect - the stunning intro, the great music (although I still think the guy who sings the tunes could use some singing lessons... and maybe less beers, for that matter), the wonderful background graphics, especially the water levels. But then you notice the release date, which is late 1997, you remember that this was the same year G-Police got released, what's more, Quake and Tomb Raider were already out since 1995. At that point, you frown and start to wonder, why the hell doesn't this look even better? Just as you wanted to say "for its time, the game looked brilliant."
The truth is, onEscapee truly looks like it should have been released 3, maybe 4 years earlier, and not exclusively on Amiga, of all things! Amiga, which at that period of time, was a sinking ship. After all, how many of you (collectors not included) owned A1200 with the external CD-ROM drive, while you could have just as easily bought a PlayStation? So what was the point, anyway? What were they thinking? Well, if you take the graphics, the copy-and-paste Another World controls, the picture becomes clear enough. I guess it was meant to be a revival of the classic. One last look at the AW/F, which is a genre by itself. And if you treat it that way, you might like it.
The plot is not entirely coherent, but it's something about aliens abducting earthlings ("all healthy, strong men") towards purposes unknown. Our hero, David White (I learned the name from wikipedia) is one of those unfortunates, fortunate enough to escape and try and make his way through the hostile world. Just like in Another World, most of the screens feature at least one way to die, each death scene depicted by its own high-quality animation. Just like in Another World, you start in some underground caverns crawling with unfriendly life-forms, ready to eat you alive when you're not looking. Gradually you make your way towards some hi-tech android factory, where you get to shoot your laser-gun multiple times, then there are other places, including the gloomy outskirts of some futuristic city, the beautiful waterfall area and another space location, which is the final one. The game is quite simple - you run, shoot the enemies, run back to the regenerator to replenish your health, solve some really nasty button-pressing puzzles, run some more. The controls were not as fluent as in AW/F, although miles ahead of Heart of the Alien, thank God. The interesting thing is, that though there are some cutscenes here and there, not a lot of words are actually spoken, except for the initial introduction and the singing guy. Maybe it give the game a little poetic atmosphere, but at the same time, is confusing as hell. At the atmospheric outro sequence you find yourself wondering "How the hell did I end up here?". Again, in AW it was the similar thing, but the game was so perfect and innovative you simply didn't care and F has dialogues which eliminated the problem.
What more is there to say? Nice background (if you forget about Resident Evil), nice intro (if you forget about G-Police), decent enough gameplay (if you forget about Tomb Raider) and some tedious puzzles. All-in-all, the game is a complete, not exactly successful, AW/F derivate, for better and for worse, so I recommend it only for those who lust for the two original games and want to play some more. My guess is, you won't be all that disappointed.
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1 comment:
onEscapee does indeed share some thing with the classic AW, mostly in plot and storyline. Young man gets unwillingly transported to a VERY hostile alien world, acquires a working handgun (which happens to have a 'shield' mode) and is on a quest to Get The Heck Out Of Here.
But it is there the similarities end. The graphics alone are far better; onEscapee's leaves AW in the dust. I spent a good portion of my first playthrough admiring the background art. For each and every scene the stage is set
As far as dangers, the game takes an approach that combines Roger Wilco-ish in-your-face death scenes with the idea that if it moves, it'll probably kill you. As do many things that don't move for that matter. Dangers range from the very obvious (predatory creatures) to the subtle (a teleporter platform with only a warning on the tiny status screen as a hint). Gruesomely appropriate sound effects add to the realism, as if the high-quality animations weren't enough.
The ingame music does a very good job of mood-setting. Everything from simple electronic riffs to complex tunes keeps you on the edge of your seat wondering what's just around the corner.
Anyone comparing onEscapee to AW should also note the controls and savegame ability have been vastly improved. Speaking from frustrating experience, AW's clunky handling was enough to drive a player to insanity. And the password system! Would it have killed them to include a few more save points? (like a DOZEN)
The biggest disappointment was a lousy ending worthy of the SNES' Jurassic Park. All sorts of loose plot ends left undone with no real hope for explanation. Enjoyment is in the journey in this game, and not the final destination.
Sidenote---onEscapee was ported to the PC by some dedicated fans in ~2008.
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