The Thrill of Combat

The Thrill of Combat is an independent game by Mark Essen (messhof) for one or two players cooperatively. Players control a pair of organ hunters aboard a helicopter with the goal to collect a number of hearts, lungs, livers, kidneys, pancreata, and intestines. For each game session, the helicopter leaves a ship on the sea and heads towards nearby land, randomly generated and crowded with people. While steering the craft (based on throttle speed as well as the position of the nose to steer), a gunner to the side of the helicopter can fire a laser at the humans on the ground. The game is controlled using both the mouse and the keyboard.

When a few have been shot down, the gunner can parachute his way down and will start to operate the humans to remove their organs. At that point, the game area is divided into two screens. While performing surgery to remove the vital organs by encircling them carefully with a laser, the player still needs to steer the helicopter that has become defenceless, on the other side of the screen. When an organ has been cut out, the helicopter can lower a rope to bring the gunner/surgeon back aboard and head back to the base to unload the organ.

Only one organ can be carried along, but based on the amount of damage done, different organs can be chosen from. The humans will defend themselves with lasers and there are also turrets that fire rockets. Even though it is possible to play the game alone, a second player makes the game a lot easier. The helicopter itself is very hard to control, with glitchy movement, accompanied by flashing colours and pounding music. The graphics have a distinct retro look.

Per game session, there is only a single chance to collect all items on the list, without continues, making it extremely difficult to complete the game.