Cabal

"Rambo has nothing on Cabal"

Cabal is an entertaining game for the NES that pits you, a random soldier whose name could be Cabal, against an army of terrorists in various locations. As mentioned, it is very entertaining, and will not disappoint you.

Gameplay- The gameplay is simple, but good. You move your cross hairs around the screen firing at whatever comes in sight. You can strafe around to dodge bullets, or you can use various objects for cover. Eventually these objects collapse, leaving you open to a barrage of enemy fire. One hit and you're dead, so you have to be quick. In order to advance to the next stage you have to kill a certain amount of enemy soldiers. You will have a few different machine guns and grenades to help you do this. This is the basic gameplay for Cabal. The really fun part is that you can destroy pretty much anything on the screen. From silos to big buildings, anything and everything is yours to destroy.

Graphics- The graphics are pretty bad, but tolerable. The main character has no face, as you only see his blue back and his black hair. Enemies often consist of green blobs shooting blinking bullets at you. The buildings and vehicles are pretty well designed though. Tanks look like tanks as do helicopters, planes, etc. The buildings are pretty well detailed and won't leave you guessing what the hell they are like the soldiers sometimes do. The backgrounds are okay too. You can often see the next stage you are going to advance to in the background, which I thought was somewhat neat.

Music- The music is good, and fits the game well. It is fast paced, and gets your adrenaline pumping. As all NES music is, it gets repetitive, but you really won't notice it so that is not a problem. There is only one type of music, except for the music that comes on once you pass a stage. The sound effects are very good. The gunfire sounds like it should, as does explosions.

Difficulty- Cabal is a very difficult game. You will often find yourself up against 8-15 soldiers, a tank, a helicopter, and a plane dropping bombs at you all at once, so dodging bullets can be hard at points. Your cover, which is usually a wall or something, works very good as it allows you to shoot soldiers but they can't shoot you. But your cover often collapses after 2-6 shots, so you can't rely on it to be there the whole stage. Bosses are often extremely difficult too. The first couple of Bosses are relatively easy, but the last 2 will have you slamming the control.

Controls- Very easy, A shoots, tap it in quickly to throw grenades. You can duck by pressing down, while all the other directional buttons move the character or the gun's cross hairs. B does nothing.

Replayability- Cabal has great replayability. You may be able to beat it 3 times in one day and wake up the next morning dieing to beat it again. Since there is so many things you can destroy and the gameplay rarely gets old, so you get your money's worth when you buy Cabal.

Cabal is a very fun game that has a loose, do anything you want type of gameplay like GTA has. It is challenging, so I warn you don't be too surprised when you end up losing all of your lives. Cabal also throws in a couple of comedic points too. How could anyone forget the goofy Cabal dance after you beat each stage…..

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 03/23/05