Ozymandias

           With Quake and DOOM, id Software pioneered their own brand of game play and created a video game genre. First Person Shooters by the end of 1997 and the release of Quake II had become a somewhat wide genre filled with comic relief, pop culture references, fantasies, a variety of game play and visuals. This competition and variety of choice on the market however did nothing to temper id Software's thirst to push the genre and their own game play brand forward. Quake II certainly does this however it also has a delicacy id Software games lacked before when it comes to refinement. Quake II is a well oil, smooth running, great sounding machine of a video game. It is the id Software game play brand started in DOOM  in its most balanced and precise form yet. This blog's chronologically linear path give me an appreciation for these watershed moments like Quake II. It may seem almost cliche both in this blog and in 1997 to say id Software has done it yet again. It may sound repetitive to say Quake II looks unbelievable visually and the awe of its visceral feedback is just as much shock as any other id release so far. However all these things are true. Quake II embodies everything this genre has worked for up until the end of 1997 and it feels good. 

                   If there was ever a "blockbuster" video game until now it was Quake II. DOOM had its cult following termed phenomenon, and Quake felt like it achieved that as well but Quake II feels like a full on polished, massive budget, expected to be awe inspiring kind of product. The game stuns with a full motion video of sci fi marines in drop pods invading an alien planet setting the stage for your war of revenge after an previous unexpected attack on earth. It has nothing to do with Quake I and depending on the level of information access I had at the time in 1997 this may have been confusing to me though I quickly adjusted to the fantastic gritty sci fi story that reminds me very much of Star Ship Troopers in premise. The addition of this in an id game is welcome and really feels that blockbuster feel and expectation I had for a game of this caliber after the "year" this blog has had with 1997. My war with the Strogg quickly felt personal from the botched landing of the marines in the intro video. 

          Id Software's calling card is fast ground breaking rendering. Throughout the past year of 1997 in this blog I've seen some incredible examples of real time rendering for FPS games and video games as a whole, a welcome refreshment after so many sprite based games. Despite id Tech 2 being just a year old these new technological improvements in both software and hardware in the PC space where not lost on id. Quake II's version of id Tech 2 heavily focused on the user having a discrete 3D accelerator card to assist the CPU in rendering complex 3D games. This hardware was new yet quickly became extremely popular and common enough. With this id Tech 2 now has colored lighting! Walking past different colored lights now cast a light the correct color onto the player or enemy. The dynamic lights in general are significantly improved over Quake I. A tremendous increase in polygon count makes it by far the most detailed game I've seen ('97) including the best textures. Quake II and the improved hardware 3D accelerated id Tech 2 is a tremendous leap for video games in visuals and stuns as much as any of id Software's previous releases. If it's cliche its because John Carmack earned it by now. Because this jump is  so big I will refer to this version of the engine as the id Tech 2.5 Engine. Id Tech upped everything including the violent visceral feedback id is known for with enemies having chunks of meat and metal fly from them as you shoot away their health. The depth the colored lighting allowed and the freedom artist had with so many polygons creates environments unrivaled in Quake II.

                                

             Visuals aside the bedrock of Quake II to me and what really stuck with me is how smooth and well functioning all it's game play mechanics work with one another. It really is harmonious in a way I don't feel id Software had achieved with their trade mark game play formula. What I mean by previous statement is that the game play of Quake II, all the weapons, enemies, ammo, and movement feel like they work together and off one another in a practical and rewarding way that serves the game play. Everything has a purpose and feels like its there to compliment everything else mechanically. Blood is probably the only other game on this list I would hold is such regard when it comes to such a refined game play formula. Refinement in Quake II comes at the cost of some of my favorite things Quake I did. Qualities such as Quake I's breakneck speed and chaos that often could result in a less that satisfying death but fascination all the same. One fault I find Quake II with is it's power fantasy rarely allows for frustration from the player and its something that brings life to id encounters I severely missed from previous games. Not to say however that the "feeling"  of Quake and id Software games isn't alive and well but it lacks that always near death tension previous DOOM and Quake games gave us. 

                                                Quake II's symphony relies more on its weapons set than it does it's enemy encounters. DOOM II in this blog is praised for such a great set up of enemy and weapon dynamics. Quake II unlike Quake I and DOOM, offers a weapons heavy balance over enemy variance however the gain of this trade off is each weapon is very unique and has its specific purposes. Its more inline with the 3D Realms approach and I feel its the most enjoyable yet balanced weapons set id Software has presented in a game though Quake II does not satisfy in enemy variety like Quake I and not in enemy encounters like DOOM II. Quake features a pistol much like DOOM however it's dynamic light is a first for video games and cool to see its largely a useless weapon and I fault the game for using more for a graphics gimick than anything else. The shotgun in addition to the pistol is pretty much useless. Again once the incredibly satisfying super shotgun is found its never used again, the super shotgun however being incredibly satisfying in effect and sound across the variety of situations the game gives the player, its an id Software Specialty. The machine gun is fun with it's upward fire overtime but again largely useless after the chain gun is acquired though not completely. The chain gun is where Quake II's arsenal becomes more unique and satisfying to use, an expect in crowd control and going faster and faster until it runs out of bullets the chain gun is a pleasure. Hand grandees work as a slow and physically projected object of explosive quality and only exist for any real purpose because the grande launcher now sadly does not explode on impact a severe set back from Quake I and while the grenades often become satisfying with the tighter areas of level design Quake II offers they are not the most satisfactory. As I get to the toned down rocket launcher of Quake II  you may wonder why I even enjoy its weapon set and its because so far the balancing changes create for a more, if less chaotic, enemy encounter than the first game and I feel that flow is ultimately more satisfying in its accomplished pace and compromise. The rain gun however is a new and incredibly precise and powerful weapon. Used even more than my rocket launcher it feels like the rapid precise and powerful weapon a fast game like Quake II has been dying for. Its fits the game and encounters well and is a joy to use. The hyper blaster essentially is the plasma rifle from DOOM and is a poor replacement for the nail gun in Quake I. The BFG 10k. Now a id Software brand item the BFG is as insanely satisfying. The BFG 10k excels at its purpose which is last minute critical crowd control. 

       I go into such depth on Quake II's weapon set cause it really is the meat of the game play sandwich and where most of the joy of playing the game stems from. Quake II is a harmonious symphony of butchering your enemies in elegant yet enjoyable ways that tantalize the player in a manner the FPS genre was made to do. Id Software at the end of 1997 was not concerned with watering itself down with the times as much as embracing itself and its brand of violence as part of the times. The Strogg of Quake II present a satisfying, and by this point in history ('97), very id Software brand of horror and game design fun. The Strogg are human and cybernetic monstrosities controlled to destroy humans. Using the parts of your fallen comrades in machines and literal meat grinders, the Strogg are gruesome and fit the id Software tropes. The strogg also fall into the id Software design mold mostly set by Quake I and DOOM II before it.  Though the enemy set while enjoyable and cool is one of the less satisfying elements of Quake II over time.

                                     The enemies of Quake II really hone in on the strengths of the FPS encounter that has been established in the genre across multiple studios. Some enemies fly and suppress, some charge, some tank, some heal or shield yet all are made to be blow to bits by certain weapons belonging to a specific category or in Quake II's example a specific weapon itself. While DOOM II, DUKE,  or even Turok had enemies with particular weaknesses, Quake II centers itself around a rock, paper and scissors game play mentality between enemies and weapons in the game. Quake II's combat loop is not only rewarding but satisfying in the sense a rhyme game or timed thing would be. 2+2 always equals 4 in Quake II and you can always stitch together these different combat rhymes for an extended good time in the game. Moments of this kind of satisfactory height and fulfillment in power fantasy aren't rare while not being all too common. If anything Quake II's biggest fault is that the game is almost too well paced. The ramp up of combat and intensity is present but it lacks the ability to just adjust you quickly to chaos as Blood did or to learn a complicated yet rewarding system as DOOM II. Quake II takes it's time giving the player the full arsenal and presenting them with a full set of enemies, this was so egregious that found the pacing to be borderline boring at first especially in comparison with what I expect from id Software and Quake. When Quake II gets it's legs and speed about it, Quake II soon joins id Software's other efforts in terms of carnage though I miss the funneled rapid chaos of the first game the more tempered approach of the sequel was more satisfactory long term when realizing how cohesive the overall game felt instead of being divided into individual levels. Quake II takes a note from id Software's kin Raven Software. Like Hexen II, Quake II using id Tech 2.0+ has a conjoined over world. Each level and area is joined by the player physically traversing the area even if through gated load screens. Some areas of Quake II are only joined in more or less cinematic form yet much of the game is physically joined in a very impressive manner. Quake II's level design while never reaching the lows of the worst parts of DOOM II or Quake I, rarely hit the heights of Quake I. Quake II instead focuses on presenting a stage and grounding the player though the new geometry density can be hard to navigate and the speed run  race feeling of levels all but eliminated. I can't help but feel a little tired of the setting as well. While traversing across the planet Strogg the environments largely look the same and grow a bit samey despite the luster of id Tech 2. 5.

         Overall I found Quake II to be a huge departure in feeling from previous FPS games because of its more linear and constricted approach to what are still very much Quake levels. Because of Quake II's updated objectives, connected levels and item collection borrowed from the likes of Hertic and Hexen the shooter aspects feel more grounded in this set stage. Quake II feels like a proper adventure you'd find in a Hollywood war movie and I think that is what id Software was going for. The design choices and changes in Quake II are not just from the id Tech 2.5 engine. The new weapon placement on screen, conjoined level design, slower paced enemy encounters and player speed all are deliberate in taking the player on a top notch action adventure FPS video game. This set stage along with an near perfect weapons set makes for not just a super fun and visceral game like id Software is known for but also for immersion which I don't think we've seen on this level in the FPS genre ('97). Quake II pulls away from the arcade influence carried in from DOOM II. Its a pretty big change up and I welcome it. For the genre it's huge. I think id Tech 2.5 is the first engine that's had the ability to create and FPS like this with a cohesive story and world. In late 1997 this would have been enough to astound me all while setting a new pipe dream expectation of having a cohesive world to enjoy a start to finish grounded FPS campaign. Quake II isn't just remarkable in being a very polished and extraordinary product on its own right but because of the implications the game and id Tech 2. 5 have for what can be achieved by not just video games but the FPS genre specifically. Shooters may be able to tell more than just an 80's action movie premise after all? Maybe not as despite all this, this is what Quake II does. The implication of it's more safe narrative roots doesn't make it any less ground breaking especially from a company that brought us the demon killing simulator. 

                Quake II as a sequel is a mixed bag and as a FPS game innovative and incredible. While I miss the chaos and fastness of Quake I paired with it's speed run mentality the welcome trade off is having a coherent story, setting and game to play with Quake II. On this blog i criticized the fist game's mixed bag of confused settings and somehow even less coherent story than DOOM II. Quake II may play slower and be more "cinematic"  but Quake II is still a farcry from Golden Eye or being anything other than a product of the id Software DNA. Quake II provides the most satisfactory and engaging while immersive campaign of any shooter on this blog yet including id Software's own best of the bunch. Backed by the best weapon set and balance yet from the studio and Quake II is a FPS genre lover's dream. While there are clear things I'm interested in seeing from the genre presented in narrative with games like Dark Forces II or with platforming level design like Turok or with cinematic movie magic like Golden Eye, Quake II stands alone as the undisputed king of genre relying only on tropes from it's own medium to create an enriching and full FPS experience. 

                       Quake II is incredible and edges its way despite its trade offs as being my favorite game on the blog yet. As cliche as it may be to say id Software struck gold yet again and that is a joy I'm not ashamed of. Id Software is second to none when it comes to honing in the serotonin releasing elements of a genre they themselves crafted. Id Tech 2.5 Engine shows the incredible leaps hardware and software of the late 90's was offering. By the end of 1997 the genre, games and real time rendering had changed and Quake II embodied the best of all these traits. 

                                    

                               

The Force is mostly strong with this one.

 

                 Rare's freshman installment in the FPS genre brought Bond to life in video games, showing just how far modern real time rendering technology could go in realizing a beloved world from another medium. Star Wars has already seen not only its introduction to video games but the FPS genre in this blog. With Dark Forces 1 I found the game severely lacking  in presentation and that presentations' ability to give me a proper Star Wars experience. In the years since 1995 however the evolution of not just rendering technology but also FPS game design and 3D art had not been lost on Lucas Arts. With Dark Forces II my inner Star Wars Flame ignited along with my joy of a well designed FPS. 1997 has been by far the most expansive and exciting year for this genre by far and I'm happy to say Lucas Arts' pleasantly surprised and excited me with this FPS. 

                As a fan of Star Wars who can remember the before prequel times of the franchise getting into my 1997 character wasn't hard at all. The franchise had been for over a decade spreading itself across multi media in various forms and spin offs all naturally gravitating in some way around Episodes 4-6. They inherit the visual and audio tone of the original films and both Dark Forces games where no exception. A severe problem I had with the first Dark Forces was Lucas Art's artistic and engine limitations that just made parts of the game hard to navigate and distinguish. Lucas Arts to my pleasant surprise remedies this in the sequel. 1997 has seen video games torn between the new realistic 3D worlds ushered in by Super Mario 64 and Quake. Dark Forces II's new engine would choose the path of the future. The introductory level instantly pleases the type of fan I was at the time and would be for this blog. 

                       The cyber grunge look of Star Wars original films is well in tow with blacks, greys, neon's and all kinds of sparks and yellow lights on buildings stretching miles below or above. Artistically the game carefully recreates Star Wars environments with an impressive amount of real time rendered, textured and lit perspective correct polygons. While its not as impressive as what id Tech 2 has managed in the last year it does the job more than good enough when paired with its beautiful and exciting use of sprites with these polygons. While we've seen some sparks etc as sprites in these high end 3D games as far back as Quake, Dark Forces II uses them liberally as blaster shots and gun blast, explosions p[aired with great animated textures on water and along the walls. The engine takes ques from Build Engine allowing signs to be shot and start sparking or certain things to animate into a destroyed mode though the destruction is far behind Hexen II or even Build Engine games in the past entries of this blog. Lucas Art's new engine and great attention to art really bring Dark Forces II to life in a way the last game in the series just could not even begin to.

                        

  Dark Forces II starts in a very standard cold metal cyber grunge area typical of Star Wars circa '97. The first level introduces you to your high stakes returning character with a live action recorded video along with a very 90's low budget Sith Lord. Its heavy on the cheese but as a fan and gamer I find this awesome. I thoroughly enjoy the introduction FMV and the use of FMVs for cinematic presentation in this game. It's something I haven't seen much on this blog. Instantly Dark Forces II gives you Star Wars content in a familiar way. The rendered game matches up well with the FMV and quickly had me blasting in this well created world. The first level of the game largely sets the context for the pace of the gameplay. It uses the art and technology to show off and immerse you in a Star Wars environment. Largely doing this with art and things off the more linear and segmented path your on. Later the game does some great and innovative design choices of pushing you in the direction of progress on these linear paths, sometimes literally pushing you. Dark Forces II's game play pacing is more direct by being linear and slower than most shooters this past year. The FMVs create a very cool extend Star Wars universe story and reward for game progress. The combat is an order of magnitude above the first game in the series in my opinion. All the mentioned positive qualities and attention to detail create a fully established and thought out Star Wars shooter experience. Achieving what the first game didn't in my opinion and that is worth reason for Star Wars to exist as a FPS game and how video games and this particular genre would make for a great new Star Wars experience unique unto itself,Dark Forces II is that game and I found it very exciting for that reason. It's not as extreme in its hyper focus as say Golden Eye this year ('97) has been but it is more akin to Turok or Shadow Warrior in showing you things and presenting areas with plenty of dressing. 

        While Star Wars in its current ('97) state has a more limited known arsenal that requires some imagination for a full FPS game arsenal Lucas Arts did not disappoint again. The two base blasters you get early on had me worried at first. One with a more accurate slower fire and one with a fast rapid less accurate fire had simple variations on the same weapon, a long range equivalent of DOOM or Quake's shotgun vs Super/Double Barrel Shotgun in effective use difference. The cross bow allowed a more powerful albeit slower shot and the grenades make an effective comeback. Dark Forces II's slower pace means the fun 3D bunny hopping not just in id's games but also game like Turok makes the guns a bit of a drag still and only serviceable because out of minimal fun and franchise fan service.I do not wish to sound like I do not appreciate or in this case think franchise fan service in game design is not a good practice or a reason for something existing in game design. I think Dark Forces II and Golden Eye 007 prove that  these games have every right to exist if nothing else as a smart and functional way to experience the fantasy of one of these franchises.

The experience mentioned is hard and almost never pulled off without an established franchise and few counter examples exist in this blog. The nuance of all this comes back into game play as a great example of what I'm talking about with Dark Forces II's implementation of the light saber. Drenched in lore you obtain a light saber with expected combat qualities. Lucas Arts was smart to essentially treat it as a gun in the fact the user just has to fire it. It auto blocks and reflects shots with I'm guessing some kind of hit scan solution and then you slice and dice through enemies and environments alike with the fire button. Also in the 90's my favorite light saber color was green and depending on the day still is so bonus points for that Lucas Arts. All this immersion and Star Wars fantasy fun is sometimes brought to a haul by what I would consider less than what I've come to expect in quality level design ('97). The highs of Dark Forces II's level design such as many well placed secrets and secret areas, intelligent if forced ways of moving the player along an area only to have them be able to loop back around after making it out of a forced path like often used water currents will do. paths are not always intuitive however and the attempt at more id Software style "got ya" moments usually fell short for me. 

          The complete package of Dark Forces II is one that excited me and I'm extremely glad was part of this blog. I find it so important in a year ('97) already stacked with important games in the genre. After Rare set the standard for how a first person shooter could immerse and create a video game foreign franchise Star Wars in my opinion has a great redemption story for me. Playing Dark Forces II has also reminded me of the biggest take away so far of 1997 and that is of the variety of experiences the FPS genre can now provide ('97). Star Wars Jedi Knight Dark Forces II is a fantastic Star Wars experience and a good FPS experience, a game franchise now that really shows the growth marks of a genre.

                     

Some late visitor at my chamber door

                              
                         1997 has had no short of exponential genre growth that we likely haven't seen since, as you'd expect RavenSoftware would not disappoint with their 1997 release Hexen II . I mentioned playing Redneck Rampage how the FPS genre had evolved to cater to more niche and even comedic taste, Blood and Shadow Warrior proved the true and tried legacy of DOOM and Duke had plenty of room to grow while releasing along aside more experimental and fresh takes on the genre like Golden Eye and Turok. The wide breadth of experiences available in the FPS genre has no disappointment neither in history or my reliving of it however Hexen II would extend the boundaries of the genre more than any other shooter to date. Ravensoftware started with Heretic's fantasy driven take on id Software's new genre and expanded the fantasy ideals with more heavy handed RPG design elements in Hexen and Hexen II. Sharing much with the first game those same design principals and mechanics are taken to extremes. At times it feels more what the modern age would liken to a Action RPG game. With lots of hack n' slash action, a gigantic maze of large winding levels covered in secrets and obscure objectives. Like of all of Ravensoftware's games to this point the game is drenched in arcane weaponry, enemies and task. RavenSoftware's unique identity comes through in Hexen II better than any game they have made before.

The elephant in the room with Hexen II is its use of id Tech 2 previously I've only got to enjoy in Quake which came out late 1996. RavenSoftware stands among the genre's best in art design. With Hexen looking incredible on the id Tech 1 engine. Naturally I , like my 1997 FPS self would have been , was very excited to see not just the return of the incredible tech but see it in the hands of a studio with incredible art direction. Hexen II does not disappoint in this regard. Its by far the most technologically impressive game I've played for this blog. Looking leaps and bounds better than Turok or Golden eye. Characters and environmental details pop with incredible geometry and textures. Levels are massive comparatively to its contemporaries and unlike GoldenEye or Turok suffers not distant fog masking the level. Colored moving textures, light beautiful torches along dark cold hallways or an arcane black Smith's forge. Beautiful statues and structures adorn the game along with trees and foliage. Its easily one of the best looking games of it's day FPS or not. Missing the jank and limitations of the FPS engines since the dawn of Polygonal rendering. The use of all this tech only executes as beautifully as it does thanks to RavenSoftware's art direction. The game brilliantly and cleverly works around its restrictions and to its strengths. It's hard to look back at the first game. Limited movement, animations, and sprites for spells. This is an astronomical jump similar to the jump we saw with Quake over DOOM II. As of this point in the blog Hexen II is the best looking FPS game on this blog. The atmosphere and style of RavenSoftware and what they achieve in Hexen II is iconic.

              Hexen II doubles down and refines the elements of Hexen. Many of the weapons and spells return. Though the team could have targeted Hexen II as Hexen 3D they went the extra mile in making sure the way you make use of the items is more engaging and needed. Melee combat is much better. Hit detection largely works the same but feels much more responsive and satisfying with a war hammer in true 3D. Bolts and spell projectiles now have actual 3D elements that fly around the level. The speed is much the same as the first game but like Quake the strafing and jumping in enemy engagements is transformative with a true 3D game. The splattering of enemies with blunt weapons, slicing with swords and beautiful wild spells is pretty spectacular to see. The real kicker.....many structures...most... are destructible. Hitting away with a hammer or spell may destroy an object. This blew me away. I couldn't believe it. A 1997 id Tech 2 game. Like I said with Duke Nukem 3D, physics, destructible areas and the like all create a strong sense of presence and feed back to the players existence in the game world.The visceral effect is tremendous over the first Hexen doubtlessly adding more to the cultural shock value around video games in 1997. While I've never been put off by most gore I can see how the visual feedback of these games is a big jump along with everything else in short amount of time. Being a fantasy violent FPS I would have loved the combat and visual feedback. RavenSoft keeps with the more generic host of enemies they have had before but later in the game there are some more memorable ones. These enemies never move much out of the established enemy encounters of Hexen.  Honestly while its mostly improvements and polishing the combat and mechanics of Hexen II grabbed me much more than Ravensoftware's previous attempts. 

 

           While more conservative in combat and enemy chan ges with Hexen II the team was much more liberal in its use of RPG game elements. The studio that pioneered it must have known Hexen had essentially started the creating of a sub genre. While this is an FPS focused blog to accomplish the context I want for these games its important to also remember other games coming out at similar times. 1997 would also see the release of the legendary Elder Scrolls II; Dagger Fall. While a completely different genre and type of game RPGs where booming and RavenSoftware had already dabbled in genre blending with the previous entries. Hexen being bold about it. While classes, stats, starting weapons and  ammo stay about the same in the sequel I applaud Hexen II 's use of its own tech to accomplish what the first game couldn't. RavenSoftware focused on creating a very dense 3D world the player would have to traverse multiple times and find many secrets and oddities including a fantastic catapult. While its not open world in the same degree as Daggerfall is the loading screens are few and far between and the implementation in what is essentially a hub area is something I haven't played anything on this blog. Quest are essentially your win conditions with equivalent key cards often being long convoluted processes to get a hold of specif items or processes. It is here that I think historical context makes a very important perspective shift. While its massive intricate maps are beautiful and fun to explore I found myself almost entirely lost the entire time. To complete on thing usually turns into a long list of prerequisites making you travel between loading screens and explore for random switches that may effect the map in another loaded level. The biggest growing pain I see this type of game going through is how to accurately inform and visually lead the player to objectives and create a clear picture in the players mind of what they must be looking for and finding. Hexen II does this mostly in occasional text reading off of signs or pop up text bubbles. One almost needs notepad open to help keep track of it all. I feel this is something the FPS genre hasn't really had to do much of and its not a surprise to see RavenSoftware struggle in coming up with solutions. 

             Duke and the like full of secrets and even destructible environments, however the linear nature of what the player had to do and the play space made these things very easy to find with minimal information needing to be conveyed or visually represented. Another reason RavenSoftware may not have tried all too hard to focus on these missing elements. See in 1997 when playing games the internet was in its infancy. My friends and I used to constantly get stuck in games and go talk at school where mythical rumors to actual helpful knowledge about these experiences would be shared. Guidebooks where also my best friend. If I had been playing a shooter like this back in 1997 I likely would have had several school conversations and a guide book at home. Yes I used a guide in 2020. Its not so much as poor design on Hexen II's part as much as it is a product of its time and the way gamers conversed and found secrets in games was very, very different. I will say though despite that excuse Hexen II can be a bit egregious if your not careful about keeping up with what your supposed to be doing in game. After a couple weeks off returning to this game I found my self completely lost. With very little hope of fiding my way again short of rereading the whole guide and wondering why I was in the wrong place and in what step of "Y" I was in trying to get "X". It is a very difficult game but not for the reasons I'm used to seeing on this blog.Letting my modern persona take over briefly to say that the real beginnings of incorporating RPG elements into shooters that we are used to now started with RavenSoft its a pleasure to see.

                     RavenSoftware continually blows me away in this blog. A studio I had only dabbled in has cemented themselves as one of the era's best studios. The combat and flow of Hexen II is not satisfying or the main draw like Quake or Blood. But having savage fantasy FPS combat in id Tech 2 is fun all the same. Raven has without a doubt created the vast majority of great looking games in this blog. The studio's relationship and ability to add their own high quality art bar is to be revered. Sadly during this play through I did ultimately get lost one to many times and largely lost interest. If I had been more mature in 1997 and playing this game however It would have been sublime and a huge hit with me. I love every note this game hits and with time, friends and a good guide its a timeless fantastic game that can still easily be enjoyed today. As I enter the later stages of 1997 and the dawning 3D era its incredibly refreshing and exciting to play a id Tech 2 powered game. The engine is on a whole other level than its contemporaries almost a year later. I've had a blast playing all these games up to this point though some more than others. However getting to experience the genre transform is so exciting and these polygon driven FPS games are really breathing new life into the genre and hobby just like 1997.

Personal Weapon

                           
Shadow Warrior would be the third jewel in a heavy crown for 3D Realms. After creating the incredible  Duke Nukem 3D and working heavily on Blood they had already cemented themselves as a top tier design studio in the mid 90's FPS genre. Going toe to toe with id Software , perhaps not in technology or speed but  with heir own more methodical flow and equally gross carnage yet slower and chunkier in feel. Duke Nukem 3D and Blood are easily two of my favorite games on this list and two of the best shooters I've ever played. It's actually pretty easy to put myself in the shoes of my 1997 blog persona. 3D Realms' content being a wonderful and overdue discovery I owe to this blog. A more mature 1997 me that was heavily invested in FPS games would have been incredibly excited for Shadow Warrior. Monolith and 3D Realm's collaborative Blood would have blown me away as I wrote about. Duke Nukem 3D still an all time favorite. Shadow Warrior doesn't quite deliver on the hype for me but it does stand as a testament to the 3D Realms formula in one of their most polished and satisfying games. 

                            
The looming shadow of Quake seems to get larger as the year goes on. With id's contemporaries quickly catching up in polygon rendering new games still not meeting that bar are not living up to a growing presentation standard. Blood easily stands toe and toe with Quake when it comes to quality game design. Build Engine is still plenty capable of delivering an excellent experience but with Turok and consoles pushing into 3D it almost feels like these titles fall behind. Make no mistake the engine delivers and 3D Realms' familiarity with it shows. Shadow Warrior is easily the best looking Build Engine game to date. I feel 3D Realms really pushed the engine to its limit while the artist knew some incredible tricks in creating environments. Despite not using polygons the game gives a great presentation of 3D space second only to polygon rendered games. A magic carpet ride over lava rivers and above rocks was one of the high lights. However the heights of Japanese mountains and the gloom of caves, eastern houses and even an industrial warehouse all look great. The games enemies look identifiable and blow into chunks though a bit less than Blood. The physics and interactivity of Build Engine is still highly enjoyable but there's nothing really new here that wasn't in Duke regarding interactivity or physics having the novelty fade. 

                                 In terms of game play the game follows Duke 3D very closely in pacing and engagement principals. Shadow Warrior however differs in the enemies and weapons used refining this formula to a polish I find wasn't in Duke while not ramping up the carnage to Blood levels. Shadow Warrior doesn't just rely on enemy type to weapon type matching but also in how you want to proceed through a room. This is all too often choke points like it was in Duke 3D. The grenade launcher and ability to blast around corners comes in particularly handy. These choke points can often encourage you to go back and find more health and ammo, well placed or rewarded through the other parts of the level. A brilliant design feature I loved from Duke though it is heavily relied on feels more organic in this title. While few enemy types really stood out to me other than serving various forms of damage some weapons really stand out. Chopping enemies with the sword is gory and fun.

Using the severed head of an enemy with your finger poking in the back of it to torch enemies or using a beating heart in your hand the game has some memorable and great weapons. While most weapons have an alt fire and the inventory system is stuffed with caltrops, gas grenades, flash bangs etc. I rarely found myself using these items. These systems almost feel needless. Over all the game play loop feels tighter or more refined than Duke along with the basic level layouts. Seeing your master's fortress self destruct with a nuke and his naked anime girls is a sight to behold along with various other cheeky 3D realms level design and events.The game even occasionally lets you use a vehicle to wreck shit. My favorite was the tank and after Golden Eye I'm really loving the innovation of armed moving vehicles your character switches to. It essentially changes the players body in space and speed while dealing damage that is rewarding in short burst. The game's east meets west carnage is unique and fun.

                                 
                   Shadow Warrior's Lo Wang is the Asian stereotype badass you play. He like Duke or Caleb set the tone for the games humor and attitude.  Armed with dual Uzi's , a Katana or a rocket launcher the next Lo Wang takes on the western Asian stereotypes and action movies. Naked anime girls populate the world at times and try to shoot you if you stare at them too long in the bath house. Comments from Wang may not make me laugh like Duke as much but 3D Realms humor is there. The constant chatter from Lo Wang after enemies turn into bits or nukes go off is again straight from some 90's comedy skit. 3D Realms both in design and tone had set their identity as a studio and games apart with its own flavor of 90's edge. Build Engine's DNA has proved to be a bright a colorful tree. 

                   Shadow Warrior does so much right but sadly most of it is dulled by the fact other games, particularly those 3D Realms themselves have been involved with have had all these same strong points. At this point I feel like I'm starting to write the same blog over and over despite playing a reasonably unique and fun game. Shadow Warrior is a blast, its a fun shooter and I'd loved playing in 1997 however it does largely feel like retread ground. Lo Wang largely does what Duke does but it just doesn't stick with me the same way. Blood had incredible gun play and a horror art direction that really made it stand out. Build Engine is showing its age after releases like Turok and Golden Eye being fresh in memory. At this point in 1997 the maturity of the FPS genre has inherit limitations set in. A well designed and well playing game like Shadow Warrior two years ago would have been a monumental standout. The growing pains of the genre are lessening and more and more good games are being made. Progressing onward through 1997 Shadow Warrior falls into the newly created good but not good enough category.

PolyBond

            

  Before I can talk about Rare's innovative entry into the FPS genre I have to first talk about the two trending themes I'm observing through 1997. The most obvious of these themes from a glance are real time polygon rendered visuals. Quake changed the gaming world and what people wanted particularly from first person shooters, a well established genre for years by this point. Its not hard to see why it was so exciting going through history. There can be beautiful sprite work from Monolith or Ravensoft but Quake and Turok looked the part of being the technical achievement they where. Stunning game play areas, space and mechanics just not possible before. It was indeed a new canvas. Goldeneye takes this trend and combines it with a strong take on the second theme, variation in the genre. Each blog entry I keep saying more and more how these games are trying new things and making cool new experiences. Redneck Rampage is just funny, Blood is mechanically amazing, Turok uses polygon powered environments for platforming, Quake has incredible movement. Each of these games does something drastically different and builds a game around it. by the mid part of 1997 the FPS genre was starting to see the formation of sub genres.
        With Goldeneye 64, Rare's innovative take is to create a stealth based, spy thriller, first person shooter. Like Star Wars: Dark Forces we see a popular movie franchise coming to the FPS genre. While Dark Forces heavily took the id pallet, Rare would not have that luxury as Bond couldn't Turok his way through as a stealthy spy on his way to sabotage the enemy. Goldeneye 64 drastically plays different than any other shooter on this list. I was blown away with how much different it felt and plays. Creating that spy experience in first person is so fun and exciting after countless games of a super charged action hero wading in blood. So many first that I just haven't seen in games in this blog until now. This incredible like sneaking up behind an enemy to chop them in the back of the neck with your hand and have them fall out. Or sniping an enemy a far with a silenced sniper rifle. Destroying alarms to stop enemy reinforcements or using a silenced pistol to not alert more enemy's is a completely new dynamic for the genre and would go on the inspire entire sub genres of the FPS perspective that we take for granted today. In 1997 and in the context of this blog I would have been floored at doing these things. I think experience would have startled me second only to Quake in terms of shock value and being something new.
                          

Equally stunning are the visuals. In many ways I think its a better looking game than Quake. I feel like in the early 90's despite staying 2D things like Heretic looked notably better than DOOM II, Duke better than that and so on. This happened fairly quickly. However its taken until mid 1997 for me to feel like I'm seeing a better game visually than Quake. There are concessions the game makes in its design to be able to push better looking elements but the game is stunning all the same. In one mission its a sunset in a snow covered area as Bond infiltrates a bunker. Its beautiful and as of 1997 one of the best looking moments I've seen in a FPS. Textures and light colors and lights all come together to make what is a very good looking game artistically. I feel like Rare's art team really new what they where doing in how to use what they had effective but also pleasing to the eye. The stunning aspect of realtime polygon rendering comes across in how life like these environments are. I feel like this is the first game where I'm playing in a real area. While Blood had somewhat normal looking buildings along with Duke, Goldeneye feels like real world areas in space and structure. Its a huge visual wow factor after the more video game look of environments in shooters so far. I would have been constantly replaying levels in this game to see the varied and beautiful 3D environments. Goldeneye takes Bond to plenty of places even a great looking jungle and boat level. The game is gorgeous, keeping the trend of how impressive the N64 as a home console was at this point. Aside from Quake nothing on PC using polygons in the genre has been on my blog. Gaming platforms for the FPS genre had significantly expanded as Goldeneye proves the console can handle its own with polygon driven FPS.
                             Having the Star Wars property in Dark Forces is what I feel like helped make that game special. Seeing Rare try to catch the magic of James Bond in Goldeneye 64 is impressive. The games' drastic and unique design choices all lend themselves to the Bond illusion. This blows me away as no game has really made me feel like an actual big screen character. Duke being a parody doesn't have the authentic and smooth feel of being Bond. The game plays more like an arcade on rails linear shooter than it does a typical FPS game I've grown accustomed to on this list. Bond can walk freely in 3D space. These environments as mentioned earlier are beautifully rendered and immersive but because of the realistic approach don't always lend themselves to pleasant environmental navigation. Boxes and objects meant to be cover to duck under similar to on rails shooters cover system can often be ran into or backed into without the player meaning to. Its a farcry from the excellent movement and flow allowed by the level design in Quake or Blood. The games shooting is the most fun when your standing or ducking and free moving the aim of your weapon. Enemies fly back in super realistic motion captured animations, computers and objects explode with fragments flying everywhere. Its a jaw dropping action movie like experience. However when moving faster to cover or strafing around several enemies the auto aim is only serviceable and much the experience is flattened. This is how most of the game feels with those better parts just mentioned being drip fed through certain choke points and enemy encounter areas. This would really bum me out as its the weakest playing part of the game but what winds up happening is the stealth moments and kills become entertaining and fun to pull off. Sneaking up with a silence pistol or a melee attack is new and awesome for a game on this list. Sniping over large areas has a bad ass feel in it no game has made yet. Goldeneye reminds me of DOOM II where all these ideas are new and awesome but very rough around the edges as environmental movement and encounters rough around the edges. Bond's villains all lend themselves to their arcade inspirations providing cheap cannon fodder and little variation. This also means there's little weapon variation. Often your start weapon is different depending on the level. A silenced pistol, smg or sniper and the enemy weapon pick up is always the same AK. These weapons all animate but after just finishing Blood which came out right before Goldeneye I miss a tactical and varied arsenal. Goldeneyes stealth focused limited weaponry and enemy types feels simplified and dumbed down in comparison.
                         
  Keeping inline with its immersive James Bond experience Goldeneye has a much slower pace than any other shooter on this list. The walk speed and level design along with a regenerating health system similar to again arcade shooters  lends itself to a slower more "cinematic" experience. This would have been really incredible in 1997 and the true accomplishment of what makes this game remarkable in my opinion. The slower pace ties in well to the linear gunplay sections that are meant for more spectacle than testing your battle dance skills. Using the super impressive graphics Bond encounters friendly non playable characters and even in some moments has them follow him in escape. Its these moments that show us just what else FPS games can be beyond the id Software DNA embedded in every game of the genre until now. As impressive as it is how much of a badass spy you feel shooting through Goldeneye that doesn't mean that these new ideas are better ideas. Its not in my top five playing games on this list despite its innovations and there range of successful implementation in gameplay. The shooting is very repetitive and outright boring compared to Quake or Blood. Even games like Redneck Rampage are better shooters because of the movement in levels and the shooting mechanics in my opinion are just way more interesting and rewarding. The hyper real levels look cool and are real immersive until you can't move in them like you'd want even if it would be less realistic. The game does a lot to lay the foundations of many elements in FPS games we enjoy today. The stealth focused shooter now exist in this point in the blog and its and interesting sub genre to see emerge despite being very immature in Goldeneye. The techno/band spy thriller soundtrack is a great way to make the game feel like a Bond game. One thing I do considering Goldeye better at than most games on this blog is the sound track. Easily one of my favorites.Rare's innovative immersive touches go onto the menu system Bond pulls up on his watch, the cool gadgets and tools to accomplish multiple objectives in a given level. Early on you get to take control of a tank and that linear design and mass destruction is a great way to change the pacing in level design.
                       I love being able to know where these fans are coming from by playing this blog. Rare has a cult following and after playing Goldeneye 64 I can understand why. They pulled off an innovative and fresh FPS experience.that did better than any game before it at bringing a movie over to the new medium. The game is visual stunner with great art direction. I'm real glad it was on my list for this blog as it's been great and is great to take a break from some of the more tested and popular shooting conventions. However Goldeneye 64 failed to ever really let me fall in love with it. In the context of this blog and 1997 I think I would have been wow'ed and think its a good game as I do now. But It doesn't hold a candle to Blood or Quake in my opinion and I'd personally rather play Turok if we are talking N64 games. I think Goldeneye 64 is an important proof of concept for many good ideas while falling short of the better FPS experiences 1997 and years prior have to offer.

Diablo

  

         The dawning of the new 3D era has brought among many new design challenges and possible directions I hadn't seen in this blog until Quake. However the older Duke Nukem and DOOM inspired generation of FPS games wasn't done yet. Redneck Rampage was decent and more importantly funny. But just a year ago in blog time 3D Realms blew me away with Duke 3D. The level of interactivity, movement, vertical space in the level design fundamentally changed or at least challenged all conventional FPS design. Despite all that Duke did I still can't help feel there was more left on the table. Quake seemed to jump ahead and in many ways that's good but what had been presented before was never really perfected or replicated with design choices of say Turok or Quake. It's at this point Monolith enters the scene and creates what is easily among the top games on this list. Blood is phenomenal. It's every design aspiration we've seen in shooters pre full 3D perfected. It features some of ,if not the best in certain cases, level design of any game on this list. Quake included. It's spooky horror movie theme and look make the presentation my favorite of any game yet on this blog. Caleb's sadistic and slightly humorous goth personality charms me in a different yet just as effective way as Duke did. The combat loop involves one of my favorite weapon arsenals with my favorite enemies in a shooter so far. By summer 1997 Monolith had created an instant classic while proving that perfectly crafted and atmospheric game play could always find room at the top despite the dawning of the polygon era.
             Blood thrives on the ultra video game violence of the 1990's. With companies like id Software being blamed for acts of real world violence, Blood throws itself right into the cliche to great effect. Blood earns its name sake with just as much if not more than Quake. Blood literally fountains and sprays out of the undead and their demonic comrades, zombie heads can be kicked around to great effect, monks can be set on fire and watch as their flesh melts away. I'm sure playing this in 1997 would have shocked with its imagery. Blood's levels and tone is derived from era horror movies. The Hotel from the Shinning is one of the most impressive levels I've ever seen designed in an FPS game so far on this blog. Rising from the grave to find Crow references, and plenty more. Caleb is pale with red eyes and in some impressive for the time pre-rendered CGI cut scenes he as a cult leader is betrayed by the demon he and his lover worships. If Quake and the NIN contribution embraced 90's alternative edge Blood lived and breathed it. The enemy designs are fun and well thought out video game enemy pulled form the Living Dead or Buffy. The soundtrack with children occasionally singing rhymes or loose horror ambience could be played at a Halloween party. My favorite track a sick take on carnival music in one of my favorite levels, a haunted carnival.Caleb offers sadistic commentary taking pleasure in gore and making the occasional joke.  The atmosphere Monolith created is the best I've played in an FPS on this list. I adore it.
              Blood's many aspects are all extremely well executed. The excellent and fun environments are brought to life by Monolith's outstanding level design. The only studio to challenge them would be id at this time and even then I'm not sure who wins. The game starts out in a creepy and beautiful cemetery and quickly has you on a train ride through the apocalyptic hellscape of Blood's reality. Gargoyles and ghost fly at you, zombies and zealots. All with differentiating attacks and usually some variation particularly the monks. The enemy encounters take more from Duke than they do id created games. Blood's enemy's though remain largely unique and interesting in multiple ways not seen before. The arsenal in which they are gored with really ties into how you fight them and they react. Its very violent but rewarding. The player can literally stab a voodoo doll to gore and turn to dust enemies....its sadistic and I love it. Caleb makes sure he has plenty in common with

the player.
               The flame thrower is a spray can and lighter, the machine gun a Tommy gun, the shotgun is DOOM II levels of good, the throw-able dynamite straight from Duke and a napalm launcher in place of  a traditional rocket launcher. These weapons, ammo and enemy encounters are designed around the way the level flows in a near perfect way. While some levels like the haunted carnival, train ride, garden maze or hotel straight blew me away more than any levels in any other games on this list. Hallways and vertical spaces are all used to the extreme much more so than any other Build Engine game so far. The ambition in creating real world places or life like areas while making them fun and fast to blow your way through is impressive. The secrets are taken to another level as well a great example being the Hotel with its many secret passages and movable book shelves. I have to say Blood stands toe to toe with Quake when it comes to how fun and fresh combat and level traversal can be. Monolith using a technically outdated but more than capable engine are on an equal but different footing of genre leading level design, shooting and enemy encounters.
Despite not using polygon rendering Build Engine by the middle of 1997 still held up extremely well and while the design of a game like Blood must have been pushing it to the limits, the engine is plenty capable of wowing me and delivering some of the most ambitious designs seen in a shooter yet (97). The design direction 3D realms took by having interactivity and physics be so much of the simulated environment is a choice I wish every game took. The amount it adds to the player experience cant be understated and I'm happy to say Blood embraces this just as much. Destructible environments give way to supplies and secret areas. Gore bounces around in meat chunks when disposing of enemies or in the case of ghost their eyes pop out of their skull. Flesh burst and burns off of creatures with fantastically animated and detailed sprites. Blood is probably the second best looking game behind Quake on this list in my opinion. It's easily the best looking Build Engine game I've seen and far beyond what id Tech 1 was not so long ago offering in games like Hexen. The texture and color work are fantastic and while the lighting distance has limitations not seen in polygon rendered games the cohesive art style and more inherit artistic freedom of sprite use give way to a very great looking game. It really brings to life my favorite levels in a game. I think Monolith stands beside RavenSoftware when it comes to delivering excellent art in the FPS genre at this time.

While the game is good in some levels it can be brutally hard .After playing so many games from this era I've found myself not struggling as much but Blood has changed that for the worse again. I found supplies laid out pretty well but not to the near perfect balance Duke Nukem 3D did. I do more frequently in Blood find myself in some near impossible situations no matter how much I've explored the level before hand. Though it's hard to complain much about the game. It really is limited by its older design take while at the same time achieving greatness because it perfected those design choices. The movement and mobility may not be as good as Quake but is much better than anything else. The arsenal while not wholly original is largely fresh and always fun. The way enemy's react and attack is very predefined and varies only between a small set of things but the strength in this is Monolith has balanced all these dependent variables near perfectly when it comes to how player driven interaction is. I remember in my blog about DOOM II and the games following how movement in 3D space was challenging both because of tech but also because of content creators figuring how just what the right way of doing something was. Blood feels like a genre culmination of that. Monolith has obviously learned plenty of the lessons involved in the FPS genre growing pains while not being afraid to be inspired by the kind of things something like id Tech 2 allow. Like other games on this blog Blood and largely the Build Engine family of games have been unplayed for me.
                    However the unifying interactivity and immersive sandbox they tend to provide the player hit a note that makes me particularly fond of them. I think I would have been that edgey nerd in 1997 talking about how Duke and Blood did great, amazing things that Quake didn't. I'm sure I would have regarded id as the top tier studio and they certainly where even considering that now, but I do think my fondness of the Build Engine and the overall immersive sim design choices would carry beyond time. I would have seen Blood in 1997 as further maturing of the genre because of the way it showed how effective different approaches to the FPS genre could be. Blood is easily one of the best games I've played for this blog. I have no doubt in 1997 I would have been floored by how good it was even if I was still eating up polygon rendered Quake. Monolith executed a near perfectly designed game. Blood honestly deserves every bit the same recognition Quake, DOOM or Duke get for being a well designed and timeless game.
                     The gore and look of the game along with a fantastic sound track further cements the fact that the FPS genre no longer solely belonged to id or their tech. Variety and alternate ideas had not just been expressed but now strongly and forever taken root into what was now a full expanded genre of video games not beholden to the design principals of one or two titles. Blood is one of the best shooters I've ever played, for this blog or otherwise. It will forever be a favorite I return to especially on Halloween. This blog gives great insight and I keep finding treasures I never played or properly appreciated before. Blood is a testament to this. Monolith in 1997 made a classic.While not bringing anything ground breakingly innovative it still pushed the bar of quality and excellence to new heights. So much ambition in the horror movie inspired areas to the enemy encounters and gameplay mechanics made Blood some of the best FPS fun I've ever had bar none.

Duke Dynasty

The end of April 1997 would see the FPS mechanics of video games fully realized into a broad and varied genre. Xatrix Entertainment's Redneck Rampage couldn't have existed before this moment and though it's no where near among the best shooters on this list Redneck Rampage shows a comical and creatively free side of the genre only timidly explored up to this point. Growing up in WNC it hits a personal comedic note with me. It's the first game since Duke Nukem 3D that I would laugh out loud at the comedy in a game. Build Engine is another thing Redneck Rampage has in common with Duke 3D, proving that while proper 3D had the video game industry on fire from PC to console, Build Engine was no slouch in the experiences it could create.
 Redneck Rampage takes a lot from one of my favorite games on this list Duke Nukem 3D. The player character is very much his own character. You play as Leonard chasing his lost simple friend Bubba around and later fighting off aliens. Its very much a Mice and Men style relationship but with much more probable inbreeding. Leonard has plenty of one liners after taking damage, finding secrets, unlocking doors or his favorite thing shooting up other rednecks. The enemies aren't short on banter and I particularly love the skinny grunt characters voice and lines. It reminds me of a personal friend's bit that often mocks the daily redneck tendencies we have to endure. The game starts you off in some hazy southern fields that look pretty dated by the standards of more recent games on this list. Finding barns and wandering in and out of multistory houses however reminds me of Build Engine's better qualities. Its not something I even saw in Turok and honestly even Quake is still behind in this regard. I had a dog chasing me had him follow me in a room then close the doors on him and it worked! All while Leonard is going around saying he's "on you like stink on shit" or hollering every time I open the menu to save the game. Your fighting giant overhaul fat rednecks, skinny creepy ones saying "Im gunna git ya" , throwing dynamite to blow them into chunks, the large shotgun wielding redneck sometimes reduced to two turkey legs standing on their own. All this while pigs are screaming and chickens running around...all can blow up and the pigs particularly get hostile. Redneck Rampage has characters and character as a whole in its presentation. It would fit right along side some mid 90's MTV bit. This is a game that couldn't have existed before and certainly not now a real 1997 time piece.

The game mechanics itself are pretty poor and in the health system's case quickly make the game a slog to play through. As many laughs as I've had with the game this is one of my least played games on the blog list. While I often try to get at lest 2/3rd the way through and often finish these games after a couple hours I was burnt out here. Leonard drinks beer and whiskey for his health a pretty funny way of doing health packs and health pick ups are found with pork rinds...its pretty funny for me. Problem is he gets drunk quickly using health packs and soon enough you literally can't walk in a straight line.  Its funny until you need to actually play the game and the effect can last minutes or longer. The game's enemies are basic affair for the genre at this time not breaking from the id influence all too much but stripped down even more. The shotgun is straight from DOOM II but somehow a little worse. The pistol is a lot of fun, throwing dynamite sticks is straight from Duke 3D but the way the fuse is lit and the time to throw makes it worse than the pipe bombs and I could only use them in larger spaces no the corner hallways I'd gotten used too.  Finding keys through the level is actually pretty fun being straight out of Duke's playbook. Build Engine's ability to allow horizontal and vertical 3D areas of play is fantastic to see even if they are always lacking in terms of actual design quality.  These flaws actually make the game pretty challenging and I played it less than the "hurt me plenty" I typically keep for these games.  It's not what I would call a bad game and especially given the context of the time it was released and the other games I've played on this blog. I feel like I would have probably found it rather average but the comedic effect and setting of the game would have made it special enough to really enjoy for some time. One of the strengths of doing this blog is it allows me understand why people remember these games fondly even if they are not the most well designed or playing games of the time.

  Redneck Rampage embodies the width of the FPS genre in 1997. Quake gave us crazy fast, very much id styled adrenaline, Turok let us explore with first person 3D platforming and dinosaurs with lasers, Duke saved the ladies with destructible environments and tons of simulation. Redneck Rampage allows this southern parody to be a fully realized game. It hearkens back to an emerging industry where being different and adventurous where encouraged often sucessful. I'd say it works. This game is remembered for the experience it brought not the perfected gameplay mechanics. It's just fun sometimes and often times not so much however I had plenty of laughs along the way. At this point in the blog its also worth noting Redneck Rampage along with the last several games from Duke on have really driven home just how much of an explosion FPS games had from spring 1996-1997. All kinds of differing design approaches, characters, settings are a far cry from the "DOOM Clones" that populated the earlier parts of this list. Not to diminish the influence of id. It's remarkable this blog started in 1994 and in every game id's inspiration is felt still in every title to varying and different degrees. I commend Xatrix Entertainment having the humor focused ambition they created Redneck Rampage with.