You've seen Bio-Hazard Battle on the Genesis, right? It has the same CG-created look and feel and it works quite well.
Bio-Hazard Battle is one of my favorite Genesis games of all time, but even I have to admit, the Genesis lacks the color to shade the prerendered stuff very well. Playing the game on my HD, where you can count the pixels, BHB comes across with that trademark dithered look Genesis games often fall victim too. Any port of Terraforming would suffer as such and I believe definitely take a hit in the shading aspect.
Anyway, this topic recently sparked my interest to play through the game again for the first time in many months. Here's my own personal breakdown of how the adventure went.
Stage 1 - Descend through the clouds to the planet in question. Destroy waves of prerendered CGI enemies. I love the enemy design in this game, very unique. Like most levels, backgrounds just look superb with many layers of parallax. The boss here is one of my favorites-- an aero fish/turtle hybrid whose brain matter you must whittle away at to destroy. My main complaint with this level is one that becomes a recurring trend in this game-- you can basically occupy a single position for the duration of most of the level and just fire away to clear the enemies. I can give a pass here since it is, after all, the first level. f*cking superb music.
Stage 2 - One of my least favorite levels in the game, you cross a lava field. The volcanoes sporadically erupt which inverts the entire screen for a moment. This bugs me a lot for some reason. The color choices here don't do the system justice. Like the first level, you can kind of just pick a spot near the bottom of the screen and sit there for the ride and clear enemies without getting hit. The boss here is super lame, a volcano with a octopus-like creature attached to the top. He shoots a straight laser beam at you, every, oh, 10 seconds or so. No threat whatsoever. f*cking superb music, though.
Stage 3 - We go from lackluster to blockbuster here with stage 3 being my favorite of the entire game. You cross a beautiful crater field with a blue gaseous atmosphere. "Mode 7" effects make the distant background layers shimmer as if you're looking through gas, the color choices are superb, and man, this is the best this game gets visuals-wise. Just beautiful. Also, they kicked the gameplay up a notch as simply hanging out in one spot will mean quick death by early to midlevel. You'll need a bit of strategy to get through this one with waves coming from in front, below, and behind, and sometimes all at once. The boss here is another dud though, some digger who runs back and forth across the bottom of the screen and kicks up rocks at you. He poses little to no threat and if you can't dispatch him without taking a hit you probably shouldn't be playing shooters. f*cking superb music.
Stage 4 - I like this level a lot too, but not nearly as much as stage 3. They kind of took a step backwards gameplay-wise as you can set up shop in one spot and hold down fire to make it through most of the level. It's not as bad as stage 1 and 2, but things should've gotten harder from stage 3, not easier. Background visuals are awesome once again, many layers of parallax, I'm not really sure what kind of area you're supposed to be traversing but it looks like some kind of alien garden. The boss here is the real high point as he's the most challenging you've faced yet. You'll actually need strategy to beat this guy, I suffered a few deaths my first few runs through back when I got the game originally. The music track used in this level (it was recycled for level 6) is probably the best in the game, however. f*cking superb.
Stage 5 - Dark cave level. IMO, this is where the gameplay gets as good as it's gonna get. It's all downhill from here. Very dark colors used here, and many environmental hazards need to be avoided in the form of stalagmites, and rogue boulders. You will suffer a few deaths here, especially near the end of the level, on your first few runs through until you memorize where the most open passageways will allow you to pass. The boss here is either a bum or f*cking ridiculous depending on what weapon you show up with. If you have the red laser, he'll be a bum, and should be down for the count within seconds. Just a tip. f*cking superb music, though, if not dark and sinister.
Stage 6 - runinruder always refers to this level as the "muddy mess" level, and while I don't think it's
that bad it really isn't very pleasing. You'll be excited at first at the heavy, heavy use of "Mode 7" to make the background wavy (I think you're supposed to be underwater?). After the first, oh, 3 seconds you'll realize they really, really overdid it to the piont where you can't even make out what it is in the background that's actually waving around. There is no parallax here, no environmental hazards, and we're back to the stage 1, 2, and 4 formula of "sit-in-one-spot-and-shoot". The boss is middle of the road difficulty, like stage 5 though, show up with the laser and he's toast fairly quickly. They reused the best music track of the game however, the stage 4 tune, so somehow I still found the level acceptable. It was a nice change of pace from the rock-dodging in stage 5, even if the Mode 7 stuff was just a
tad over the top. They should have gone the route they did in stage 3 and just applied it in small doses.
Stage 7 - This is my least favorite level of the game, I dislike this one just a tad more than stage 2. It's a further de-evolution of the gameplay back to stage 2 standards where sitting in one spot and shooting will get you through to the boss. The backgrounds are the worst this game has to offer with a generic starfield, and later asteroid belt to journey through. The boss is some kind of giant space ship you can only see the nose of.... and he's a real bum. You shouldn't have any trouble taking him out on your first encounter. For the first time since the journey began the music isn't f*cking superb. It's just..... OK.
Stage 8 - Gameplay kicks back up a few notches, and is possibly the best the game has to offer, rivaling that of stage 5. You do the old cliched R-Type "run around the mothership" destroying laser turrets and cannons. It's a lot tougher than the mothership in R-Type though, believe it or not, and you'll suffer some deaths while you devise a plan of action. I have no issue playing the entire game to this point without even dying once, but I often will suffer at least one cheap death here due to these ridiculous homing lasers that are shot at you. You need to utilize your ship's backfire from switching speeds to take things out as the level switches halfway through and you start moving backwards over the top of the ship. The final boss is just another part of the ship itself, and you'll need a bit of strategy to finish this one off. Not a bad level overall, except for a couple things. Where the rest of the game shines (audio & visuals) is where this level really drops the ball. The music here is unmemorable, and I get the feeling the folks who said this game felt "unfinished" were talking about this level. The giant mothership doesn't use more than 2 colors (white and grey) and the rest of it is completely black so you can just kind of see the outline of it. I'm sure this was a design choice as opposed to some rush to get the game out the door, finished or not, but UGH, what a horrible one and what a let down after at least 6 levels of beautiful scenery. So the game goes out with a whimper when it should have really been a huge BANG.
After my run through the other day, I like Terraforming a little bit more than I remember liking it. It's game you'll have fun with for sure, even if the gameplay bores you to tears (not saying it will), you'll be entertained by the visuals alone and that makes it worthwhile to some degree IMO. But great visuals and music aside, when Terraforming is broken down to it's core elements, I find it lacking in real challenge or depth. Too bad since it has everything else going for it. This decent game could've been made fantastic by simply adding the need for a little bit of strategy at a few select points along the journey, and revamping a couple of the bosses.
Anyway, that's my 2 cents.
Topic: Terraforming- aaaaargh!! (Read 628 times)
