Raptor: Call of the Shadows

The Good
Raptor is a game that managed the impossible: bringing top down shooters to the pc and doing it Right. For the most part, all other previous scrolling shooters were a piece of crap when brought to the pc, and the genre only thrived on consoles or arcades. Raptor was the first game of it's kind that I could play on the pc without puking, and it was so because it combined furious mindless action with the right amount of gameplay depth to keep things from getting stale.

For starters the developers nailed the concept of the genre perfectly, and crammed as much action into the game as they could, you can destroy everything (and in fact doing so is encouraged since it gives you money!) and the enemies came from everywhere, be it land, sea or air. The locations are varied (tough deep space is missing...), the end-level bosses where massive as per regular shooter rules, and you had a humongous arsenal of weapondry to kick ass with.

The trick was, of course, that the weapons or power-ups were rarely found in-game, and were instead purchased in the black market! Previous games had already made use of that formula, but no other gave it so much sheer importance. In fact, you could say this is the "Privateer" of scrolling shooters, with dozens of weapons, shield upgrades, nukes, etc. available for purchase. How do you acquire the cash? Completing levels of course, but also blowing shit up, and racking the most kills! Finally a real incentive to be good at one of these games!!!

Furthermore the game allows you to take advantage of other PC-only skills, such as being able to save your game (a must when you added the mercenary angle) and the option to personalize your character as you see fit (which is not really PC-only but... hey! you couldn't do that without a keyboard! Well, at least not comfortably...).

To top it off you have absolutely Beautiful graphics, with silky-smooth animation and amazing detail (ok, for the time!) and a great sound engine to make each explosion feel extra-special.

The Bad
Well... hmmmm....

No 2P support. I mean, wouldn't it have been cool to be able to export your character and continue playing with a friend??? Probably the only rule this game broke was that one: no 2p support.

Other than that there's the fact that sometimes the action feels kinda slow, but Raptor is one of those slow-scrolling shooters, not the ones you zip around on-screen like 1942 or the like...

The Bottom Line
Required playing if you consider yourself a real action gamer. Raptor brings the fun of shooting the hell out of everything and adds just enough style to make it a completely fantastic experience that keeps giving instead of just a couple of funny minutes you spend at the arcade. It's a pulse-pounding experience that never gives up, and keeps coming for more. Play Raptor. Go visit strange and exotic lands... And blow the shit out of everything in sight!!! But keep your eyes on your profit margin or else you are never gonna get that twin laser!

The Good
Finally a real shoot'em up for the PC after so much wait. Raptor is a PC only shoot'em up which is incredibly fun to play. All the tiny details here and there, ground, air and sea targets, innovative weapons, unique shield system, and finally a both life and time saving save game feature are the pros of the game.

The Bad
Well, it's nevertheless a mindless shooter. Other than that there's nothing really wrong with this game.

The Bottom Line
A classic which is still appealing in today's standards.

The Good
Raptor had lots of things going for it. Replayability in all the difficulty levels, non stop action, loud sound effects, amazing graphics (for the time), and cool weapons. It's really hard to get from one end to the other of the game but you can save where you are in between levels so you don't have to start right from the beginning if you lose.

The Bad
The loud sound effects were good, but they were too loud. The gameplay gets bland after playing it through in elite difficulty 2 or 3 times.

The Bottom Line
A fast paced shootem' up I would suggest to any fan of the genre.