![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() BattleTechhad a lot going for it: a fast and exciting combat system, a gloriously ambitious design, a loyal fan base - and of course GIANT ROBOTS - but hands down its greatest asset was a brilliantly conceived space opera background. You and your comrades must beat off the attackers and then discover why you’ve become a target - in the process becoming involved in dark intrigues that involve some of the most powerful Houses in the Inner Sphere.Īnd that was another fascinating aspect of Crescent Hawk’s Inception. It was based on the popular BattleTechsetting, developed and designed by Chicago-based FASA in 1984. It doesn’t stay simple for long, as your training is interrupted by a surprise attack from a squad of enemy Mechs who burst right through the walls of the training ground, intent on killing or kidnapping Jason Youngblood. The first mission is a simple training exercises that helps familiarize you with your Mech. The game opens with 18-year-old Jason Youngblood, son of legendary Mech warrior and war hero Jeremiah Youngblood, tirelessly training in his BattleMech with a team of loyal comrades. Off the battlefield, it played a lot like a role-playing game, allowing you to focus on leveling up your character and daydream of taking on some of the most famous combatants in the sector. Combat was turn-based, like most wargames at the time, allowing you to choose between, say, unleashing a missile barrage, using that nifty new railgun, or letting your weapons cool. For one thing, it was the first title Infocom released to have graphics of any kind (all their previous games, including the bestselling Zork and Enchanter trilogy, were text-based adventure games), and the well thought-out nature of the real-time tactics clearly laid the foundations for the industry’s major leap to a wholly real-time strategy game, the groundbreaking Dune II.Īdditionally, Crescent Hawk’s Inception was a successful blend of two very different styles of play. I know - I spent the first ten minutes of the game time doing exactly that (over and over again).Ĭrescent Hawk’s Inception was a major departure for Infocom - and, in fact, a pretty innovative step for the whole game industry. While the EGA graphics are, of course, crude by today’s standard, they were gorgeous eye-candy in 1988, and the ability to move a Mech around the screen and fire off its complement of missiles was thrilling. Their first game for Infocom, and the one that really put them on the map, was one of the best titles Infocom ever released: BattleTech: The Crescent Hawk’s Inception (1988).Ĭrescent Hawk’s Inception put players in charge of a Mech - a three-story killing machine piloted by a highly-trained Mechwarrior - on the bloody battlefields of the 31st Century. Infocom had a nearly flawless reputation in the gaming industry, even as late as 1988, and expecting an untested development shop to deliver product that would meet the public’s exceedingly high expectations for an Infocom title was an exceptionally risky bet.įortunately, the outside developer they chose was Westwood Studios, who would later go on to develop some of the most successful games of the 90s, including Dungeons & Dragons: Eye of the Beholder (1990), Command & Conquer (1995), Blade Runner (1997) - and who virtually created the real-time strategy (RTS) genre with their groundbreaking Dune II (1992). For the first time in their history, Infocom turned to outside developers to help fill their production schedule. By that time, over half of the employees had been laid off and the remnants of the company sold to Activision in a fire sale. Their heyday was the early 80s, when they released the most famous text adventure ever written, Zork (1980), alongside other classics like Enchanter (1983), Steve Meretzky’s Planetfall (1983), Brian Moriarty’s Wishbringer (1985), and Dave Lebling’s fabulously creepy Lovecraftian scarefest The Lurking Horror (1987).īut my favorite Infocom game came late in their history - indeed, after the company very nearly collapsed following the failure of their ambitious DOS database, Cornerstone, in 1986. Infocom is one of the most revered names in computer gaming history. In fact, for serious collectors of PC games, there’s probably no other company that commands the respect of (or is as collectible as) Infocom. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |