Bioforge





It’s time for some history. There was always a unique game that would make a small revolution and start the whole new category of video-games, the one that is the very first of the kind. As soon as that kind of game is released, you can tell that in no time there will be hundreds of "clones" and "look-alikes". And usually there will be another game that will make that category even more popular. So there were Wolfenstein 3D and Doom, Dune 2 and C&C, and so there was Alone in the Dark, the game that started this new category - 3D action-adventure.

Alone in the Dark, naturally had a lot of stuff that could be improved. One of them (and perhaps the most important since the story and atmosphere were great) was the movement of the character. It was much more like a robot than like the man. So, it was just a question of time before some game’d make a serious improvement in this area. The first one was the famous Ecstatica, where the design of the characters was based on ellipsoid and very realistic movement. The next step was the same effect but with realistic design. The next step was Bioforge.

Everything about this game seemed incredible when it was released: graphics, gameplay and especially the atmosphere. Naturally, when you play it a little you will see that it is not perfect, but there was no major fault that could bring down the entire impression. Enough of this general praise, let's go one by one.

A ship docks on a strange planet and two armoured men carry some guy who can't even walk inside. You can also see a face with an evil smile starting some sort of an operation. Next thing you know is that you woke up in a cell of some kind not knowing where you are and even more not knowing what you are. Although this kind of a start was used so many times in games, movies and stories, it doesn’t seem to fail in making an interesting start. And when talking about Bioforge, what a start it is. You will immediately realize that the fact that you're awake doesn't mean that you survived yet.

Conversations with other characters are either automatic or in the cut-scenes. But you will find most of the information reading computer logs and personal notebooks. Here and there you'll find someone's notebook where you will find info about what happened from different aspects and sometimes you'll find important codes. Slowly you'll get a picture of what is going on while trying to discover your identity, what happened to you and perhaps the way of escaping. You don't have to read everything carefully if you don't want to bother. Instead you can just quickly move through logs or notebooks and then read the important information in your own log. There will be very few friends and a lot of danger of various sorts. The game manages to remain an adventure while you constantly deal with new troubles. The storyline is much deeper than it seems at the start and after a lot of action and slow progress in the story, things will turn around later. Well, there will still be a lot of action.

The combat button will switch the combat mode on/off. While in combat mode, you can combine hand and leg buttons with numpad buttons to perform a variety of attacks and dodges. Hand-to-hand combat is done very well, you will try to make hit after hit without giving your foe the time to fight back. If he does, you must perform the block unless he is too fast and manages to make hit after hit. So there is no easy fight really. This is also where biggest fault in the game comes to light: sometimes the camera position won't offer a good view of you and your foe. That may get irritating sometimes when you simply miss your enemy because you can't determine the right direction and he remains free to attack however he pleases. When in combat mode, if you don't do anything you will automatically orient towards the enemy, but sometimes you will want to run toward him and hit him right away. Automatic orientation is a good thing but still some cameras will give you headaches. This is not an easy game and this especially goes for action parts, because it may often happen that you start a duel very well, but one mistake can give your foe enough advantage to defeat you.

It is interesting to see the damage on your body. The less health you have, the more wounds will appear on you. Health can be restored using the battery inside of you. You actually have a battery that provides energy for your body and can be used for health recovery. This is important as there are not many new batteries to be found. Energy will be very important later, but you will have to discover it yourself. You will find only a few sorts of weapons but it is really not a fault. Every blaster can also be used as the club. At the end it seems that you will have more fights with hitting than shooting. You will be mostly shooting at robots of various kinds. Lasers are reflecting off glass and certain walls so you can shoot while still covered. This is sometimes the only way to defeat some enemies. And sometimes it is best to simply be fast.

This review could go on and on but it's better not to say it all. So, everything about this game is great indeed. It’s an action-packed adventure with a deep and interesting story and a lot of troubles and puzzles to take care. This game is highly recommended to all video-game lovers, not only adventure and action fans. Surely one of the best games of it's kind.

Unfortunately, you need DOSBox to play it in XP and you will need a lot of skills to make it run smooth. The full enjoyment is reserved for those with Win98 (or older) only or perhaps for better emulation. Make sure that sound settings in DosBox match the settings in the game (IRQ,DMA).

Mount the directory where the Bioforge is as C: in DosBox. Example: if your Bioforge directory is in C:\\Games\\Bioforge, then: mount c: c:\\games

Use BIOFORGE.EXE to run the game