Apocalypse (video game)

Infobox VG
title= Apocalypse


caption=
developer= Neversoft
publisher= Activision
distributor=
designer=
series=
engine=
version=
released= October 31, 1998 (US)
November 1998 (EU)
September 22, 1999 (JP)
genre= Third-person shooter
modes= Single-player
ratings=
platforms= PlayStation
media=
requirements=
input=

Apocalypse is a videogame for the PlayStation games console, developed by Neversoft and published by Activision. It is most notable for its involvement of actor Bruce Willis to provide the main character's likeness and voice.

Overview

The game is a 3D third-person shooter very much in the style of . The player's character is moved using the Dual Shock controller's left stick, and shooting is handled independently by pressing the right stick in a given direction. Alternatively, movement may be controlled through the Directional Pad and shooting performed by using the four symbol buttons on a typical Playstation controller, where the triangle button shoots forward, the cross button shoots backward, and so on for the remaining two buttons. Unlike its 2D inspiration, it is possible to duck or jump, and a selection of different weapons are available.

Plot

The game's antagonist, a brilliant scientist named the Reverend, has created a powerful theocracy based on the idea of a rapidly approaching apocalypse. He uses his expertise to create four powerful "Horsemen of the Apocalypse", War, Plague, Beast and Death, in order to ensure this comes to pass. His former colleague, Trey Kincaid, is the only man with the know-how to stop the Reverend, but is locked up in jail.

Excerpt from the Manual
Precursor to the Apocalypse
"The future is a troubled place of seething masses and conflicting ideas. Sprawling metropolitan landscapes cover the earth. These industrial gothic centers rumble with internal chaos and external strife. Religion and Science have become the world's dominant cultural forces, each offering their own version of salvation. These two opposite pillars of life battle for disciples as humanity verges on the breaking point. Science seeks the answers to life in technology while Religion condemns it as the sure path to Armageddon.

For a while, Science seems close to proving technology is the answer to the complexities of modern life. Through the research of brilliant scientists, cloning, cold-fusion, and nano-technologies are no longer the stuff of science fiction. The miracles that Science has promised are inevitable.

Violently opposed to such progress is a mysterious figure known only as the Reverend. The Reverend is a false prophet who evangelizes his version of the gospel to a world teeming with lost souls. Desperate men and women latch onto his teaching by the billions. The Reverend preaches that the approaching scientific breakthroughs are an offense against the one true God and declares science to be blasphemy. He seeks to suppress all scientific progress as tools of Satan. With the President of the United States a close personal friend, he succeeds in having all scientific research banned. The anti-techno dogma of the Reverend has prevailed.

After eliminating all opposition, the Reverend proceeds with his true intentions. He turns to the same technology that he has publicly condemned to perpetrate evil. It is, ironically, the tools of the forbidden science which will enable the Reverend to conjure up his own version of the Apocalypse. He can no longer wait for judgement day to arrive, it must take place immediately. This depraved cleric is planning the deaths of billions in a grand genocidal event that will leave the earth in smoldering ruins. The Reverend tells his followers that the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse will walk among them. Death, Plague, War, and the Beast are the heralds of the coming Judgment Day. The world is mesmerized by the Reverend and his fabled Horsemen. Will Judgment Day truly arrive as he has prophesied?

Only one man has an inkling of what the Reverend has in store for the world. He's a lone tech-renegade on the run named Trey Kincaid. Trey is a brilliant scientist whose rebellious ideas and breakthrough work in nano-technology have finally brought that fringe science beyond the prototype stage. At last, mankind is capable of creating complex machinery on the molecular level. Trey knew his experiments would one day provide the world with an answer to its prayers. But Trey's dreams are shattered when science is banned. The Reverend's thug "disciples" Break into Trey's lab, steal his research, and massacre his coworkers. Trey is captured but not before he learns the truth.

While the Reverend was also decrying science as the work of the devil, he was also secretly following Trey's research. With the information his thugs have stolen from Trey's lab, the Reverend plans to use his newly developed nano-tech resources to bring to life his own revelatory version of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

The end of the world is at hand, and the only true hope to mankind's salvation is Trey Kincaid."

Level design

The game's various levels are connected as themed units, each unit ending in a boss battle.

*Kinkaide's escape from jail. Boss: Tank
*Kinkaide's journey through the sewers to the city. Boss: Giant Crocodile
*Kinkaide's flight through the city. Boss: Death
*Across the rooftops. Boss: Helicopter
*Through a graveyard to a nightclub. Boss: Plague
*Into War's weapons factory. Boss: War
*Into the White House: the President of the United States is in fact Beast, the final boss who has multiple lives.

Weapons

There are various futuristic weapons in Apocalypse, all with various strengths and weaknesses and effective against different enemies.

*Machine Gun - Trey's default weapon which never runs out of bullets.
*Pulse Laser - A fast-shooting weapon that fires green laser bullets for slightly more damage than the Machine Gun.
*Rip Laser - A laser that fires a continuous stream of purple light that tends to home in on nearby enemies.
*Particle Beam - A gun that fires a long yellow beam/laser trail that can easily behead or dismember enemies.
*Flamethrower - The traditional flamethrower that produces a wide spread of fire to burn enemy enemies in the radius of the flames.
*Grenades - Hand-held explosives that explode upon contact with any solid surface.
*Homing Missiles - Weak missiles that are capable of following enemies past many obstacles and for a long time, often above five seconds.
*Rockets - Damaging rockets that can be fired in quick succession, and explode upon contact with a solid surface.
*Smart Bomb - A special and very limited weapon that is capable of killing any enemy within the blast radius.

Cast

The game's unique selling point was the involvement of Bruce Willis, who recorded several lines for the game and whose face was scanned for inclusion as the main character. Early in development, Willis's character was to be a wisecracking sidekick. However, it soon became clear that players were far more interested in playing "as" Willis than with him. When the game was redesigned, his wisecracks were retained for moments when items are collected and other suitable situations.

Plague was voiced by Poe, who also appeared on the game's soundtrack.

oundtrack

Apocalypse features several songs from several artists, in an attempt to give the game a blockbuster feel. Among the soundtrack were songs from Poe & System of a Down. The in game music was composed by Doxon Entertainment & Jeehun Hwang.

Tracklist

# Cirrus - "Back on a Mission"
# Gearwhore - "Accelerator"
# Poe - "Control"
# Snot - "Stoopid"
# System of a Down - "War?"

Game engine

The Apocalypse game engine was reused for Neversoft's next title, the seminal "Tony Hawk's Pro Skater", as discussed in a [http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20000628a/fristrom_01.htm Gamasutra postmortem article] . This engine would be upgraded and reused in various other Neversoft titles.