Hello I'm Jack Red aka XboxClown89, today I'm going to review another game bundle called Retro Shooter Rampage Bundle. All of them were from the 90s with some interesting facts not a lot of people knows. I actually bought this at full price of twenty bucks. So I'll do this process how much of this actually worth your money?
Operation Body Count
We will make each game worth five dollars each to add up to twenty dollars. I also wanna start from the worst to work my way to the best. Operation Body Count is hands down the bottom of the barrel here. The first few stages are in repetitive sewers with a lot of rats. I do mean a lot of rats with mud people.
There's a little over forty stages in the game. Now something you should notice right off the bat, it plays incredibly similar to Wolfenstein 3D. They even used an modified variation of the same game engine here. The weird part is parts of the game's story is also incredibly similar to a particular 80s action movie.
Die Hard, yes this team ripped off the movie. Let me explain, you are facing off against a lot of terrorists within a building by yourself. You are working your way up which is also very similar to Wolfenstein 3D. Sadly, it only gets much worst from here. The bullet holes on title screen look not only dated but not even edit in fully right.
The map only shows an small section of the overall map. There's a lot of enemies, more than what I was expecting. Up to getting a particular elevator, you have to find the only exit not trapped. The game doesn't tell you how many enemies to kill. Which means you may be wasting your time to check to see if you could leave the stage.
The weapons are fine, hit detection on both sides is horribly unbalanced. You could be blocked but they possibly can still hit you I'm not kidding. The overall map designs are so boring, overused and even finding secret paths ends up being too easy. There isn't even many bosses like in a lot of retro shooters I played.
Of course, "You lose" screen get use to it because you're gotta see it a lot. I highly recommend you do not play this piece of filth. We just loss five dollars onto the next game in the bundle. Corridor 7 is also from the same people responsible for you guess it Operation Body Count. You would think I was going to say this was an huge improvement here right?
Corridor 7
Well there's some confusion on when those games originally came out. Corridor 7 actually came out a few months before Operation Body Count. Which is even weirder considering that did a few things notably better. There's a little more depth within the maps. A more interesting roster of enemies with barely any bosses.
The weapons are easier to use with a more interesting variety. Also the codes actually works, I don't know why they don't for Operation Body Count. Also like Operation Body Count, there's a little over forty stages. Although this is also an Wolfenstein 3D clone, it actually more ripping off Blake Stone series.
Yes Blake Stone series is also a Wolfenstein 3D clone but those were done right. This is like a poor man's attempt at those games. I love when you get a particular map item, you fully see the entire map. Now why couldn't Operation Body Count do that? There's a lot of enemies on the maps too. I do have a major problem with some sections of the maps.
In particular, the areas you gotta move around with crates surrounding. For some odd reason doesn't even display that properly on your map. All you'll see is your cursor moving through an invisible map section. They do from a few stages changes how to end the stages. Before the last one, an portal you had to kill most enemies before you were allowed to leave the stage.
Thankfully this is no longer an issue for portals, as soon you find one go straight inside to finish the stage. The last boss isn't much of a boss fight. The ending felt dated in a few ways. The music was alright, better than Operation Body Count though. Now we loss ten dollars, sadly I also can't recommend this game.
Last Rites
Next up is Last Rites, which originally didn't come out in the United States. It later got rereleased on Steam and GOG world wide. Don't worry I didn't pirate this game. There's eleven missions, you have an small platoon to take on zombies. I do like parts of the artwork as well as how it explains the story in mission briefs.
This is a mission based FPS game which was starting to become more common at the time. Personally I rather play stuff like GoldenEye & Perfect Dark. The game is very dark, they used too much darker colors with some notable dark areas. Yes there's some brighter areas but you just felt somewhat sad seeing it.
Not necessary in the mood to kill something!!! This game often gets labeled as an Doom clone. Although it has some similarities, Doom was way better. Also this felt more like a precursor to Left 4 Dead series in a weird way. I do like parts of the audio though. The AIs on both sides isn't the best. But hey it's way better than those from Operation Body Count.
Last Rites doesn't have codes but there's commands you could edit, I don't know how to. It's mostly altered where in the game you want to start from. The zombies don't seem that scary with some having throwing weapons. As far I'm aware most missions ends close to where it begins, yes one of those shooter games.
There's not many boss fights here either. The weapons are alright with accuracy being great. There's some huge maps to explore. Last Rites is chaotic with a lot of zombies. More than what you would expect in an late 90s FPS game. I don't see many people enjoying this game today. But it is more likely going to do better than Corridor 7 and Operation Body Count.
Of course, at times you'll get confuse what to do or where to go. Some stages appear to be much shooter while others are notably longer. So the overall length of the game can easily differ depending on things. But you are more likely going to stay interested to see the ending. Overall, I felt not many people I would recommend this game to, which saves us five dollars barely.
Killing Time
I saved the best for last, our final game in this bundle is Killing Time. Before I can even talk about the actual game. I got something huge to bring up here. There's two major versions of Killing Time. The original 3D0 version that almost gotten a few ports. I'm here to talk about the later remake version of the same game.
This version came roughly a year later. There's a lot of changes between both versions. Regardless, they do have the same story. An event occurred that cause something mysterious to happen. You got to that location to discovered what happened there. Unlike the original version, they were able to fully remove loading screens out the entire game.
Yes even before Xbox Series X/S and PS5 done that years later. I would say in every category is a home run compared to the rest of the bundle. The audio alone is notably better. The enemy variety is the most interesting as well. There is still not many bosses though. The weapons are mostly decent, a great thing here.
The map is notably huge covering this entire island. There's two maps you'll use. One of them fully shows off the entire island. The other map is meant to be a lot of shooters at the time. Some areas it doesn't work that way though. The map itself is filled with surprises. There's also a lot of key items you'll need to collect in order to beat the game.
There's jumping but it kinda tricky to pull off. There's a handful of areas you'll need to use jump. So it isn't that major of an issue but for those locations expect to die a lot. Do I even need to mention this also has a lot of enemies? Some areas you'll be surprise has this many enemies at several locations. To beat the game, you'll need to unlock the final area upstairs in the mansion.
Then you have to locate and destroy six mirrors. All you'll need to do after that is go back to the water clock to destroy it. Originally depending on things, you had one of two endings you could get here. It's kinda weird the way they changed it, you sorta get both endings in one go here. Which also means another boss character gets added very late into the run.
Both bosses are annoying for different reasons. The first boss gets introduces very late into the game. You could kill him repeatedly, he'll keep respawning. He will die after you destroy the water clock. The final boss will take a lot of damage as well as dish some of it out if you aren't careful. Once she's dead enjoy the ending to Killing Time.
I felt as unusual Killing Time was, it held up amazingly well. So what it technically is another Doom clone. This game quickly blew the rest of the bundle away. The best part is you could simply buy this game separately which I do recommend. This game has the right balance to keep you going for hours. In the end, we were able to keep 10 dollars.
Virtually half the price of that bundle. Now because it says Rampage in the name, you are wondering maybe it's just me. Is it fitting of that name? You bet it is because there's a ridiculous amount of enemies in all the games. There's some sick weapons as well as somewhat map designs. Personally I felt Killing Time was the perfect choice for this bundle.
I don't recommend this particular game bundle. Don't be surprised to kill animals & insects in these games. Retro Shooter Rampage Bundle sounds crazier than it actually is. Operation Body Count later got an Doom 2 mod recreation. Killing Time doesn't do press on buttons to open up pathways. What it does is tell the story in the most interesting way.
A handful of actual cut scenes with FMA dialogue memories. However if enemies get too close to you, the audio of those gets canceled out. Thankfully, you can kill the enemies then wait to trigger those again. The acting for the most part is better than games like The 7th Guest which comes more off as being cheesy.
