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| Many, many moons ago, the larger part of the PC users, had a small nifty program called QBasic. On it, we played games like Nibbles, (these days infidels refer to it as 'Snake') and Gorilla. Gorilla was a simple game, two gorillas would stand on tall skyscrapers, with the goal to kill each other with exploding bananas. The user would play one of the monkeys, enter the angle and velocity to throw the banana with, and hope for the best. |
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The simple but very addicting gameplay kept me sticking to the screen for hours on end. This specific genre has always been a bit of an underdog, with a small, but steady group of fans. Even though Gorilla came out before Scorched Earth, the latter has always taken the credit for being the starter of the genre. But then again, it deserves a title like this, other than the self-proclaimed 'Mother Of All Games' title.
Scorched Earth works with the same principle as Gorilla. |
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 The computer places small tanks across a randomly shaped landscape, and then they take turns in shooting each other. As the player, you can either commandeer your tank against remarkebly good AI-controlled tanks, or you could invite some friends, and blast each other to smithereens, which always is more fun than playing by yourself. For each tank that you destroy, you receive money, with which you can buy more dangerous weapons and cool items after the match is over. And thats where Scorched Earth stands out in the crowd. The number of weapons you can buy is impressive, and they all have their own pros and cons. The items are smaller in number but very useful. Shields, gravity-manipulators, parachutes, that kind of stuff. All of this makes sure that the game is still interesting enough to play after 10 rounds or so. The more money you make, the better the weapons you can buy. The better the weapons you can use, to more tanks you can destroy. Its exciting from the start.
Of course, the computer opponents' AI can be customized in a couple of different difficulty levels, and you even get a chance to choose what their tanks will look like.
Graphics- and sound-wise the game is no biggie, even back then, but it more than makes up for it gameplay-wise. And the fact that about every single feature in the game can be customized, keeps it interesting for a long time. If you do ever feel that you need some eye-candy too, try to get your hands on one of the 'Worms' games, which in some views is superior. But it won't have the same nostalgia-factor as Scorched Earth. |
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| Reviewer: Abandon5000 |
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| Copyright 2000 - 2008 Abandonware Games 5000 |
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