DOS

Abuse

Great design, lots of hidden goodies and built-in level editor. The interface takes some getting used to, so you won't be hooked right at first. One of the most enjoybale shooters of the year.

As side-scrolling shooter games go, there hasn't been much innovation since, say, the old coin-op game Elevator Action. Sure, there've been a few crazy characters with quirky attributes like Mario, Sonic, and Earthworm Jim. And maybe there've been some minor additions: upgradeable weapons, hidden one-ups, incredibly mean bosses, and bonus levels. Then there's the technological advances such as parallax scrolling (if I had a dime for every time I've heard the phrase, "Our game has more layers of scrolling backgrounds than …" I'd be a very rich man). But in terms of actual play, not much has changed in the side-scrolling, jumping and bumping, shooting and ducking, horizontal platform-game genre. Until now.

This is the premise of Abuse. With that in mind, you, dressed in battle armor that you just happen to have found, are off to save humanity from infection by Abuse. Your mission is to get to the Control Room at the center of the prison complex and make sure that the prison's infected water supply doesn't leak out into the outside world.

The game is designed for dieing, the idea behind it is that you will die, die, die and then survive knowing that in each corner awaits death, and it's fun. When you aren't running from monsters, blasting your path open under heavy enemy fire or surviving the attack of the security systems, you are on your way to a deadly trap.

If you're easily addicted, stay away. Otherwise, it's a must have. At it's simplest, Abuse is all about destruction. Haunting, beautifully crafted carnage, but carnage nonetheless. Its great graphics and sound effects and its infinite customizablity add up to make Abuse one of the best action games ever.

Well, you should know pretty much all the basics by now. If you like what you have read so far, I recommend you download and try it out, and if not, save yourself some time and visit some other genre section! A mark of 4 for bringing something new to the genre, while falling back in some other categories.

Abuse is a great game. While it is a bit difficult at times, it is an amazing amount of fun that features top notch gameplay. Anyone looking for an all out slaughter fest with some puzzle solving, could not go wrong picking up a copy.

Abuse wirkt anfangs nur mäßig faszinierend, aber man spielt sich richtiggehend rein. Weder das Büffeln von dicken Anleitungen noch ein High-End-Pentium sind Spielspaß-Voraussetzungen. Ein dynamisches Jump-and-Shoot, das erklärte 3D-Puristen aber kaum hinterm Kanonenrohr hervorlocken wird.

Da kommen Erinnerungen an längst vergessene Schlachten auf! Abuse knüpft direkt an Klassiker wie "Hero", "Turrican" und "Shadow of the Beast" an. Eine altbekannte Spielidee also, doch was soll's, wenn das Rezept noch immer gefragt und das Endprodukt gut gemacht ist? Abuse absolvierte den PC-Games-TÜV ohne Tadel. Der Wertungsdaumen zeigt nach oben.

Det finns så mycket högoktaniga actionlir att jag inte kan rekommendera Abuse, som egentligen inte är dåligt. Det har bara svårt att höja sig över mängden.