Creature Shock

The Good
The game features some of the most spectacular graphics of its time.

Most of the name giving creatures are really creepy and a challenge to defeat. Discovering their weaknesses while trying to survive the attacks is quite demanding in regard to timing and aiming.

I especially liked the suspense-packed atmosphere provided by the scary environments that threaten to hide horrible surprises around every corner.

The Bad
I really detest the gameplay of the two flight sequences in the game. It's even worse than the one of Rebel Assault. It seems to be almost impossible to avoid collisions and aiming is a game of chance. Additionally these sequences' graphics are far inferior to the rest of the game.

The constraint to redo the whole mission on failure is very frustrating as well as the possibility to run into literally dead ends.

Despite the great overall graphics the human character models look disproportionate and poorly animated.

The Bottom Line
Creature Shock is a first person shoot 'em up with control model similar to Myst. You can only choose from a set of predefined directions to advance without direct control of the movement. Equipped with a single gun and a protective energy shield only, the player must be prepared to encounter face to face combat after every new direction chosen.

The Story doesn't really matter. It's about the usual encounter with an unknown alien race. First the player has to save a captured sexy chick space ship captain and then the whole solar system by shooting anything that gets in the way.

The alien fiends cover a variety of different shapes and sizes. The rather small ones include arthropods, bat like creatures, or insect forms. There are some humanoids too but the major threats come as big worms and spiders or a combination of both. Most of them can only be killed by hitting weak spots that may be really small or are just revealed by certain movements. So timing is crucial during the fight sequences, especially because you cannot shoot and activate your energy shield at the same time. Also using the shield too long or to often will deplete your power supply which also charges your gun.

Besides these challenging fight sequences the exploration of the labyrinth like alien facilities is one of the major gameplay ingredients I feel comfortable with. Sadly the intermediate flight sequence missions are a real nuisance and don't fit in by their look and feel.

After-all Creature Shock is a real scary game with great graphics and an exiting atmosphere. A large part of the game is demanding in a positive kind of way, though it can be unduly frustrating too.