Leger vs. Fears (Amiga CD32)

It is not like they did not try.

Rather, bringing a Doom like experience to the Amiga became almost like a competition and by the end of 1995 at least eight had been thrown into the market.

Describing the impact Doom had on me and people around me (and seemingly the gaming market in general, by the looks of it) is quite hard, but saying it brough the first person shooter genre to the forefront is not a stretch by far.

Some would even go as far as claiming id Software's Doom had a huge role in the demise of the Amiga as a gaming platform in the eyes of many.

Bomb Software's Fears did not really do that much to change this, and as of today it is nowhere near as frequently mentioned along classics like Gloom and Alien Breed 3D, and besides some good reviews when released the word now (from those who bother to play the game) is often that it is one of the lesser friends of the genre.

You could wonder if Bomb's background in the demo scene, in 1994 releasing a demo with a 3D engine later being evolved into the core of Fears, and their attitude towards gameplay and game design in general had something to do with the current lack of enthusiasm.

Doom, as a successor to Wolfenstein 3D, did not mind the players running around like crazy shooting whatever came in their way. The tempo could be just as high as you wanted it to, with some stages taking mere seconds (almost) to complete if you knew what you were doing.

Fears, on the other hand, is slow as hell and by running around like a madman shooting at things chances are that you will be dead within a tenth of the number of seconds as it takes to complete a single stage in Doom.

It is brutal, in every sense of the word, with silent enemies and silent projectiles that tears you apart without you knowing of it until you see the screen telling you that you are taking damage.

To make things even worse enemies do know exactly where you are and try to shoot you as soon as you get close enough, and if you happen to open a door with an enemy behing it you will be shot even before you realise there is an enemy there.

Best of all is the fact that there so often seems to be ledges to fall off, into deadly lava or acid or whatever that kills you while being completely unable to get up from the pit of death again.

And that is just some few of the design choices made along the way that makes Fears one of the most hostile and unwelcoming first person shooters on the Amiga.

Some enemies seem to refuse to die until you are severly lacking ammo, and while a knife always will be at hand close combat is seldom really more than a desperate final way of trying to stay alive.

So... die you will do, again and again and again.

Like most games in the genre on the Amiga Fears does not give the player the option of using a quick save function to record the progress. Instead there is a password given after each stage completed, with things such as weapons obtained, lives left and ammo kept track of.

The choice of having lives at hand could be a disaster, but actually this is where it becomes obvious that one has seriously think of how the game is played, when it is a good idea to replay a stage and when to keep pushing forward.

Especially since the game is rather huge, with 30 stages to beat.

Lacking ammo, lives and having missed out on most of the weapons does not mean that it is impossible to progress, but it makes an already tough game all the tougher.

But this Bomb knew, so when you die you will always see your basic ammo be restocked up to its maximum of 99 and all the enemies killed, doors opened and things picked up will stay that way.

Furthermore, the more you play it will become more and more obvious that all of what initially seems unfair can be dealt with in ways to stay ahead of the challenge.

You will learn to always side step away from doors when opened to avoid unpleasant surprises.

You will learn to visually scan all the areas for surprises before you enter them, to use the map and see your placement when your vision is impared (especially useful when having to walk down, and take some turns, on thin steps placed close to deadly pits) and take note of the fact that enemies actually can come into view without them shooting at you as long as you keep your distance.

You will learn that playing a stage a couple of times, learning the enemy placements and in which order to push buttons, open doors and whatnot, dramatically will reduce the difficulty.

Suddenly it all seems to make sense.

Fears may be a Wolfenstein 3D in disguise, with a very square attitude when it comes to the level design. Working with height is merely an illusion, as the game in reality plays as is it would be flat, but knowing this makes it even easier to navigate.

Using the map frequently helps figuring out where secret areas can be found, which besides ammo and health refills may contain a new weapon (besides the knife and the rifle you can obtain a machine gun, a bazooka, a plasma gun and a circular saw (which uses no ammo at all but have a range just as limited as the knife)), or valuable extra lives.

Talking about enemies, depending on which version of the game you play, they will either consist of floating heads only or floating heads and creatures with bodies.

Personally I do prefer floating heads only, and even though they hardly are animated at all and never smarter than trying to reach you in an as straight line as possible while shooting and shooting and shooting at you they are actually quite disturbing.

Killed, they will stay on the spot with their skulls open and brains and various liquids exposed.

Combined with the quite monotonous aesthetics and ambient soundtrack that never goes beyond eerie sounds, some kind of humming noises, possibly machines working somewhere in the background, always knowing that one simple mistake can, and probably will, kill you... the experience is rather tense.

The entire game takes places in a towering castle of sorts, with a map showing you how you reach further and further up.

Starting at the darkest spot, deep down in a dungeon, finally reaching so high that you can watch a setting sun bringing some light to the castle and its surrounding mountains, there is really not much more sense of progression to be had.

Not other than some changes in the textures and new and tougher enemies, and seemingly more and more complex stage design.

This is however not a bad thing, instead it is making the journey feel like an almost endless one where one has to find motivation to keep moving forward.

But I never lacked motivation, instead each new stage felt like an obstacle to overcome. To learn how to beat, to beat and leave behind.

With each passing session of gameplay I found myself eager to return, to map out the next stage and to see what secrets I could find. To make another decision concerning my progress... if it felt okay to lose a life or two, if I had used up more ammo than I should.

Suddenly the credits was rolling after having beaten the final boss and Fears had evolved from something that felt dated and not much fun to play... into one of the most intriguing first person shooter experiences I have had on the Amiga.

If not surpassing Gloom, which would be quite a ridicilously surprising accomplishment, at least getting even with Alien Breed 3D.

Certainly a more well balanced experience than Breathless and Nemac IV.

Who would have thought?

Sure, the graphics are crude in their low res appearance, the perspetive used feels somewhat off when turning close to a wall and the not so animated enemies aswell the weapons presented in higher resolution than the graphics of the actual stage played, well, they do not help in making the production feel as perfect as it could have been... but it is never in those details the bulk of the experience resides.

A word of warning, though: Fears should never be played in any other way than one that allows for simple strafing. This means using the keayboard or a CD32 controller (for example) is a must, as playing without strafing readily available for use makes it more or less unplayable (and what options you have at hand will depend on which version you play).

Also, the flow of the game I have experienced is with the help of a 030 proccessor at 50 Hz on an Amiga 1200, with the game WHDLoad installed, so it might well be that it runs slower or suffers from slowdowns in certain situations if playing with weaker hardware.