Abuse

aka: Abuse Classic, Alien Abuse, Them
Moby ID: 389
Linux Specs
Included in

Description official descriptions

It is the unimaginably distant year 2009. You are Nick Vrenna, falsely locked inside a high security prison. The genetic experiments conducted in the prison, combined with a full-scale riot that took place recently, caused all guards and inmates to be transformed into insane, aggressive mutants. Your job is to escape while stopping the genetic plague from transforming the whole world.

Abuse is a side-scrolling platformer with a lot of shooting. It's a nonlinear game, as the levels often have a few exits that lead to different areas. Your character is a cyborg equipped with various weapons; initially, you only have a weak laser rifle with unlimited ammo, but you can find more powerful guns later on, such as grenade launchers, flamethrowers or lightsabers. You move through a building complex, fighting any enemies you might encounter on the way. The enemies are mostly the mutants, but also the defense systems (such as stationary missile launchers).

While you move with the keyboard, you can aim with your mouse, so you can shoot at any angle no matter what direction you are running. On your way, you'll find elevators, teleporters, cracked walls that can be destroyed and more.

Apart from ammo and health, you can also find upgrades which have a number of beneficial effect - increasing your running speed, for example.

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Screenshots

Promos

Credits (DOS version)

39 People (38 developers, 1 thanks) · View all

Programming
Graphics / Artwork
Sound
Production
Co-Producer
Network Setup & Test
Additional Network testing and technical assistance
Music
Quality Assurance Controller
Project leader Quality Assurance
Quality Assurance
[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 74% (based on 24 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.7 out of 5 (based on 80 ratings with 7 reviews)

A wonderful piece of software.

The Good
Well, for one, it's written in LISP - and I can definitely appreciate rarities. The graphics get an A-OK - detailed and well drawn (they remind me a bit of Amiga's Alien Breed) and the game engine works well and is really fast. The music/sound effects are good too, and the gameplay is fun.

The Bad
It's very repetitive, but then it's a shooter, so what do you expect?

The Bottom Line
A rare find - a very good game written in LISP.

DOS · by Tomer Gabel (4539) · 1999

A forgotten cult classic that deserves to be revisited

The Good
This 1996 run-and-gun platformer from Crack dot Com (unfortunately now defunct) is a flawed one, but an amazing and innovative game nonetheless. It's probably most well known for its unusual control system, where you use the mouse to aim and fire, and the arrow keys on your keyboard to move and jump. Kind of clunky at times, but once you get used to it, it works fine, and makes for a unique gaming experience, playing not much like other platform games.

Abuse has the feel of a science fiction horror movie. It's just you, alone (with your awesome weapons) inside a dark prison, battling clusters upon clusters of giant ants, and some robots. The graphics are dark and photo realistic, and the music is intense, thus contributing to the game's atmosphere. In a lot of the levels, there are lots of quiet moments where you feel you will suddenly encounter a horde of screaming ants trying to kill you. I must agree with what YID YANG said in his review of Phantasmagoria that this is basically what makes a horror movie/game scary. Not the monsters themselves; just the quiet, tense moments, and the jumping scares when something happens. (Slender anyone?)

Of course, to encounter such monsters, you have an assortment of awesome, powerful weapons on hand that you can use, provided that you have the ammo for them. Your default weapon is a laser shooter thing that always fires with or without "ammo", but such "ammo" improves its firing rate. All your other weapons will require ammo, and may be necessary a lot of times. These weapons include a grenade launcher, missile launcher, plasma shooter, and a super awesome flame thrower that will easily torch any horde of ants to a crisp. There are also powerups that you can use, like a jet pack that gives you the ability to fly, and a booster that lets you run 2 times faster. Like some of your weapons, these powerups may be crucial for solving some parts of the levels.

And the levels themselves are complex, and require some simple puzzle solving skills. You'll be making use of teleporters, switches, ladders, elevators, doors, and such, in order to complete some parts of the level. There's also breakable walls that explode when fired upon, and often contain hidden powerups or switches, or a passage to another area in the level. A lot of levels require some thinking in order to complete. Along with the puzzle of doors/teleporters/switches/etc, you have to, of course, battle hordes of ants and robots bent on causing your demise. You'll want to make use of the "consoles" that save the state of your game, because in some areas you'll likely die a lot, and keep trying until you finally make it. And when you do beat a level, it is very rewarding.

All in all, Abuse is a totally unique platform game with complex level design, excellent graphics, innovative gameplay, and a dark atmosphere. You will enjoy this game if you like horror games in particular.

The Bad
Truth be told, the control system in this game can be quite clunky at times. For one thing, using the mouse to aim and fire took some getting used to for me, when I first played it. Using the powerups, however, took even more getting used to. Especially the jet pack powerup that allows the character to fly. You use a powerup by holding down the right mouse button. When using the jet pack with the mouse, it is my instinct to move the mouse in flight, in order to move the character around. But no, moving the mouse is for aiming your gun, so you have to use the arrow keys. This makes it very frustrating at times. It works when you get used to it, but I'm not particularly fond of it. The overall game difficulty can get kind of frustrating as well.

Sadly, this game hasn't really stood the test of time, as its popularity has decreased over the years since Crack dot Com closed down and released the source code, and several Abuse fan sites/resources are now dead, with the community being much less active than it used to be.

The Bottom Line
A few flaws notwithstanding, Abuse is an excellent and unique cult classic platform game. I recommend giving it a try if you like platform games, and also games with a science fiction horror setting. Since the public domain release of the source code, there's been some work on it. It's been ported to SDL, and is available for Linux as freeware, with all the registered content from the full game. There's also a 32-bit Windows port available, which I've been able to find on Desura and Mod DB. There's also an iPhone port called "Abuse Classic". Or you might be able to find a copy of the DOS game somewhere, like in a garage sale or flee market.

Whatever way you obtain it, enjoy this forgotten gem, and thank me later.

DOS · by OrcishGrunt (114) · 2014

Nicely atmospheric, great side-scrolling action... but not much else.

The Good
When I first started playing Abuse, it seemed SUPERB. The character animations and sounds really drew me in, and I was sincerely creeped out about the setting and mutants that leaped from shadows and ripped through walls. Movement was fluid and quick, and worked really well with the platform-style layout. The weapons, as well, were standard fare and then some, featuring my all-time favorite, laser weapons. With the addition of power-ups, it made it possible for different play tactics for different areas, something most side-scrollers don't do.

The Bad
Unfortunately, there is no storyline in Abuse. The setup is quite interesting, I expected more as I played - and found none. Eh, some people might not mind this, but level after level of the same stuff gets mighty frustrating. Especially in areas that have some gorgeous backdrop, like an indoor hydroponics forest, or skyline window, that just BEG for some in-game descriptions or interaction.

A problem with immersion, especially atmospheric emotional fear, is that repetition ruins the immersion. Unfortunately this happened to me with Abuse. After a while, I wasn't worried about what was around the next corner (well, bend in the platform) I was just annoyed. It's a shame the immersion wasn't expanded on with a story or even descriptions, because halfway through the game I just couldn't immerse myself in it anymore.

The Bottom Line
Did I, at some levels and at some moments, have fun in Abuse? Damn right. Was it a good game? Only for a little while. I'm not usually a side-scroller player, but I really loved some of the parts of Abuse. But the lack of other elements (story) and presence of others (atmosphere) made the whole a little confusing and more than a little frustrating.

DOS · by George Shannon (113) · 2000

[ View all 7 player reviews ]

Trivia

Cancelled ports

In January 1996, Crack dot Com contracted Reflex Entertainment to do the SEGA Saturn and Sony PSX versions of Abuse. In May 1996, Crack learned that Sony would not allow a PSX version of Abuse because it wasn't 3D and it was a port.

Changed plot

The game's plot (shown in the opening screen) was changed at some point. Originally, the player was to take the role of a special agent infiltrating a base in order to stop an alien invasion by "the ants". The 1.x shareware version still features this back story, whereas the retail game and 2.x shareware both have the new "mutants in prison" plot. The original story's text is:

The Ants were fearless, efficient killers. The Unified Underground's only opening was that the Ant defense systems were designed by engineers too arrogant to consider the threat of an individual. It was enough to justify the covert Abuse Missions.

On August 31, 2021, eight bytes were zeroed in a computer, and Nick Vrenna's identity was erased. A suit of armor cradling his smoking auto rifle stood in shadows appreciating the stench coming from the first retired Ant of the day. The armored soul feared the effort would end up as pathetic as the Terran Surrender Terms, but humanity had nothing else.

Copyright infringement

The iPhone version caused quite a stir when Stephane Portha released the ported game using the title Alien Abuse on March 17, 2009. The original development studio Crack dot Com released all the shareware bits of Abuse to the public domain when it went out of business, but kept ownership of the Abuse trademark, the registered levels, and Bobby Prince kept ownership of the sound effects.

Unable to come to any sort of agreement with Portha and unable to get Apple to take down the game, despite a DMCA notice, one of the original developers, Dave Taylor went out and had the game ported to have an official version of the game available using the name Abuse Classic. It was released in August 2009. Soon after, Alien Abuse was pulled, either by the original developer or by Apple.

Development

The game was largely written in C, but it also featured a Lisp interpreter. Most of the character logic and AI was written in Lisp, and it was possible to write mods simply by defining new game characters and game characteristics in Lisp code. Early shareware versions included a complete Breakout clone example game (somewhat misleadingly titled "Pong"). Regrettably, there were many changes between versions, and mods for 1.x shareware versions don't necessarily work without changes in 2.x retail version.

Macintosh version

The main improvement from the Macintosh version over DOS and Linux versions was that it had better graphics; the entire thing was worked to work perfectly in 640x480 resolution, as opposed to the VGA 320x200 used by the DOS version. (The DOS and Linux versions can be made to run on higher resolutions, but the game itself isn't scaled to those resolutions!)

Level editor

The game has a built-in level editor, and you can make levels for the shareware version. An interesting feature is that it can be made to work in sync with the actual game engine. If enabled at the command line, the editor is accessible at any part of the game which allows you to test flags and triggers in real time for your latest creation, or alternatively, modify parts of the game's included levels on the fly (ie: can't find the key for that pesky door?? Then remove it!)

Naming

We chose Abuse for our first game name because the game involved knowing full well that pressing the buttons in all those rooms was going to bring down hoards of howlers, but you would do it anyway, abusing yourself. It also went well with Crack. An alternate name considered was "Them."

References

Crack dot Com must have been Nine Inch Nails fans -- the clear namesake for protagonist Nick Vrenna is onetime NIN drummer Chris Vrenna.

Source code release

On Jul 12, 1997, Crack dot Com announced the release of the game's source code to the public domain alongside the shareware game data. Registered version levels were not released because the game was still sold at the time. Crack dot Com could also not make the game's sound effects public because they were owned by Bobby Prince.

While the code and most data assets of Abuse became public domain, the title remained a trademark held by Jonathan Clark and Dave Taylor. Using the title (e.g. to create a derivative game called Abuse 2) without licensing it from the original developers is thus not allowed.

Additional information contributed by Arson Winter, B.L. Stryker, Pseudo_Intellectual, Roger Wilco, Sciere, WWWWolf and Zovni

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Related Sites +

  • Abuse
    game page at Crack dot Com's website, preserved by the Wayback Machine
  • Abuse FAQ
    Explains much of the game. Required reading if you love Abuse.
  • Abuse abuse
    Dave Taylor's story about the iPhone version of the game
  • Abuse by Crack dot Com
    game page at the Origin/EA website, preserved by the Wayback Machine
  • Abuse for Windows/DirectX
    website of Jeremy Scott's original Windows port of the game, preserved by the Wayback Machine
  • Alien Abuse story
    Stephane Portha's side of the story regarding the iPhone version of the game
  • Craig's unofficial Abuse Website
    Wayback Machine copy of an unofficial website with user-made levels, add-ons etc.
  • abuse-game.com
    Fanpage with download of the open source release and user levels

Identifiers +

  • MobyGames ID: 389
  • [ Please login / register to view all identifiers ]

Contribute

Are you familiar with this game? Help document and preserve this entry in video game history! If your contribution is approved, you will earn points and be credited as a contributor.

Contributors to this Entry

Game added by emerging_lurker.

GP2X Wiz, GP2X added by 666gonzo666. BeOS, iPhone, Acorn 32-bit, Macintosh added by Kabushi. Amiga added by Игги Друге.

Additional contributors: Trixter, Sciere, Pseudo_Intellectual, Crawly, Patrick Bregger, lethal_guitar, MrFlibble.

Game added November 6, 1999. Last modified March 16, 2024.