Before there was Resident Evil there was Bioforge. A great video game that told an amazing cinematic story of transformation, corruption,adventure, action, survival, tension, loss, endurance, power, and isolation. Bioforge is for those who are fans of survival horror games and amazing mid 90's video games many who are from Origin games. It was created in my birth year which makes it more rightfully for me to like it.
Bioforge is about a man named Dane who one day awakes a cyborg and must escape the facility from the evil cult leader Dr. Mastaba who wants to turn all living things man,beast, and alien into cyborgs.
The gameplay is very difficult, you have many controls to tend to. You have to pick up items to restore your health and a energy gauge. You can make the energy replenish your health gauge. There are many puzzles in this game. They are hard to solve. For example, you have to kill a alien only by turning off a force bridge. Or try to make a nurse bot put a robot arm on a palm reader to confirm entrance in to the room. For greater health you can kill a robot and take his battery.
The combat in Bioforge deviates from standard survival horror combat. In a good way. There is more than one way to fight. You can punch or do a round house kick. You can pick up cool weapons like a laser gun or laser rifle and a severed arm. You can beat up bad guys with the severed arm. You can pick up notes on the ground and read them for codes or advice or just even for information. They look like Ipads and almost all the same which makes it confusing a little tedious to cycle between them. But that's okay, I like challenge. They give great depth in the story.
There are different settings for difficulty. I think I either chose the easy or medium. If you choose hard, your character will need more time to punch the enemy by holding the button down.
The game has choices and consequences. Don't even think for a second to just take the short cut. Oh no, you have to do everything the right way. There is a laser tower and you have to kill the incoming space marines within a space ship so you won't have to face the consequence of getting shot after exiting the surgery room by a asshole space soldier. That means you have to start back at a new save point all over again. All over again. It is very exhausting. That is why you must save often. And there isn't a whole lot of places to save. Not that it is like RE where you have to find a type writer or computer. You better make sure you find out a guy is a enemy or not. Or you will never be able to finish the game. You'll see what I mean.
You beat up robots, dinobots, aliendroids, humanoids, and soldiers. What can I say?
For a game about survival horror it isn't very scary. It has a oppressive atmosphere but is not scary game by really any means. It lacks a weird factor and a shock factor. I mean there certainly are weird and shocking things but it isn't really dark and edgy. It feels more like a suspense story.
It is hard to move your character, if he has low health and you sprint he can sprint and fall.
In this game there are many ways to die. You will be eaten, shot, burned, frozen, drowned, suffocated, smashed, zapped, poisoned, beaten, fallen, exploded, broken, slip, thrown, radiated, and ect. If there is a death you name it. He'll die from it.
The biggest flaw in the game is the length. It isn't very long. Quite short. With big plot holes that could have been filled as it had ended. I swear.
The graphics are great! Especially for and old MS DOS title. The backgrounds are pre-rendered and beautiful. Very atmospheric and well done as are the detailed 3D models which look very life like and easily fit the backgrounds. The animations are great. They have been done with motion capture. I would love to see this be remade in to a modern game.The camera angels make the game feel just like a movie. Every place is shiny and unique. Some of the backgrounds are animated. The puzzles looks good too. It feels like an amazing post-modern trip to the aquarium or science museum. I personally like the 256 color ratio on the backgrounds. Gives it more atmosphere. Honestly, the graphics where a instant grabber for me. It looked like the Terminator or like some kind of James Cameron flick I have seen before or Ridley Scott film.
The sound effects and music are also unforgettable. The midi sounds give it such a good Sci-Fi atmosphere.
In conclusion, download this game or buy it. You will not regret it or forget it ever. It is so epic. It should have sold more copies than it did. Why didn't have a sequel?