Remember This?
Comments
12 responses to “Remember This?”
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Jabez
Terra Nova – Strike Force Centauri.
A classic Looking Glass game, and one of my all time faves!
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TailSwallower
Yep, have to agree with the Terra Nova call. Never actually played it, but I desperately wanted to, being obsessed with Mech games at the time… Too bad I was 12 (I think) and couldn’t exactly afford every game I wanted to play.
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Chuloopa
all i can see is that it’s definitely not a mech warrior or heavy gear game… The hud’s all wrong..
It does have a very mech warrior sort of flavor to it though… hmmm
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Jabez
Just to add some of my memories of this game, it really was, IMHO, the progenitor of the Tribes class-based jetpacking combat gameplay, two years before Tribes was released.
Sadly the promised multiplayer patch never eventuated. 🙁
I also fondly remember that the game would tell you how many trees you had destroyed during your play session when you quit it. 🙂
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Alex Rogan
I was just struck by the harsh pixel font used in those days. If my eyes go bad in the next 10 years I’ll know what did it.
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Max Combo
Terra Nova, a rolled gold classic I’ve still got lying around in a cupboard somewhere. If I recall correctly it took western mech action and added a level of manouverability more commonly found within first person shooters whilst increasing the sophistication of the available strategic options.
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Simon G
Ah, Terra Nova: Strike Force Centauri, a criminally underrated FPS by Looking Glass. It was heavily inspired by Starship Troopers and way ahead of it’s time in 1996 with massive 3D landscapes, accessible tactical gameplay, true reflective water (that even mirrors lasers and explosions!) and a pseudo-3D model system for squadmates and enemies that uses individual sprites for each body part pieced together in a way which gives the models fluid movement. It also has a cheesy but fun story told through cutscenes with live actors.
It’s a seriously badass action game, and as Jabez said, Tribes owes a lot to it as jetpacks play a huge part in TN. The HUD in the screenshot was super advanced for it’s day (even today it would be considered excellent) and can display squadmate and remote drone cameras (drones could be controlled remotely as well, with a long distance cam feed), a full 360-degree real-time view and different weapon/gear status screens, plus nightvision mode and access to all sorts of squad commands. It really feels like you’re piloting an exoskeleton mech. If you liked other games from LGS like System Shock or light-tactical FPS games like SW Republic Commando, you’d probably love TN despite it’s age even today.
It’s bizarre that no other developer has ever tried to replicate the formula in a modern FPS, given how samey they seem to be getting. A modern HD remake with intuitive controls would be amazingly cool.
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