"Bloody briliant old school shooter"

Chaos Engine is one of the few games that I really remember as having an influence in my childhood onto what games I now enjoy, that genre being shooters, whether they be FPS, Third person or anything in between.

- Story -
A machine experiment goes wrong basically and creates loads and loads of mutants and other crazy effects, it's down to a team of 6 mercenaries to stop the Chaos engine and destroy it.
The 6 different mercenaries have different strengths and weaknesses and you can choose 2 to compliment each other perfectly, awesome really. Pretty unimportant to the game, but still pretty cool when you look at it

- Graphics -
For an Amiga, these are excellent graphics, top down, the guns all have clearly difference ammo. Upgrading guns shows upgraded ammo, which look cooler and cooler. Lot's of strobe flashes and explosions in this game. Very grey and bronze though, which fits perfectly in the Victorian Steampunk theme of the game. Really great. Lots and lots of different enemies to fight which are all very different and are all very well rendered. One great aspect was the steam vents you occasionally see, the steam looks absolutely excellent

- Gameplay -
Very fast paced gameplay in this game, very fun though. Lots of enemies on screen at all times, you also get special attacks which are guaranteed to cause lots of mayhem among them, which is great fun. Luckily being on Amiga, you only need the joystick and the trigger, so the controls are extremely simple, it's very easy to play, but so so difficult to master. The choice of characters if one of the great strengths of this game, each one also comes with their own unique special attack, some of these prove to be extremely useful (Dynamite, Petrol Bombs and more) and some of them prove to be about as useful as a chocolate radiator (a map of the level).

The levels are relatively linear, you only really need to backtrack if you want to go back and keep fighting more enemies, but who could blame you? If you have a second joystick, you can also play with a friend, which is great fun for everyone, which also makes up for the unpredictable computer AI for your second character if he's computer controlled. You also get a password for every single level and with every possible combination of characters, so you never have to restart if you find a great combination. The end of each level also allows you to upgrade your character stats, guns, but special attacks and more from credits you pick up throughout the level, so you can buy a slow but powerful character and speed him up into a fast, strong guy or you can continue to enhance his strength and turn him into some sort of tank man, which is in my opinion, much more fun.

- Sound -
Each world has it's own unique set of soundtracks; The Factory levels have a very fast, techno style theme of music which suits it whereas the more Gothic levels having a much darker, industrial tone, which is slightly unnerving to this day when you play it and enemies just appear from apparently nowhere. The guns unfortunately actually make no sound when fired, which could have been very cool, but being on 2 discs, I guess some things had to go though. The enemies all die well and explode when shot to pieces. There is also a very cool computer voice that states what most of the items are when you pick them up; step on a map and the said awesome voice will simply state 'MAP', you will appreciate how cool the voice is when you play it.

- Difficulty -
Each world gets progressively harder and you discover the usual 'Run and Gun' tactics will not always quite cut it, so you need to work some slight tactics out. It's got a great longevity though and you will find yourself replaying levels to try and not die as much and save some special attacks though. So it's hard enough to constantly keep it a good challenge.

Choosing different characters can also change the difficulty for you in the early levels more then the later ones when they level out due to starting with less useful skills and weaker guns for some so you will be at more risk of death to be frank, but you will learn fast or get game over with a game like this, so it's worth sticking with.

- Replayibility -
Due to the sheer number of possible upgrades and character types you can customise and also the number of different characters, this game has one of the highest replay values I've seen in a game and it easily stands up to most modern games. There is only one ending though however, but it's great to see, with any combination of characters. You will want to try and complete this with the weak characters as a good challenge after you've done it a few times to see if it is possible.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 06/12/08

Game Release: The Chaos Engine (EU, 1992)