Crap Games #12

Off-World Interceptor (1994)
By: Crystal Dynamics Genre: Racing / Shooting Players: 1-2 Difficulty: Medium
Featured Version: 3DO First Day Score: 195,800 (cash)
Also Available For: Saturn, PlayStation

Most of the titles that are included in the 'Crap Games' feature here at Red Parsley were so chosen due to near-unanimous scorn at the time of their release from magazines of the day, but this one is a little different. I decided to include Off-World Interceptor mainly because of the intense disappointment I felt towards it personally. It hardly received glowing reviews anyway I guess, but I was enjoying my 3DO and its remarkable 3D abilities at the time, in particular The Need For Speed which was so far ahead of any other racing game I'd played. It was still just one game though, and I wanted another racing game for my powerful new console. Unfortunately, there weren't too many options available for it but I saw screenshots of Off-World Interceptor and thought it looked pretty good at least, so figured it was worth a try. Happily I was able to find it at my local games store, and at a bargain price too, and I was eager to get started on my... umm, off-world intercepting.

Initial signs were good. There are story, arcade, and battle modes, the first two of which should be fairly self-explanatory, while the battle-mode is a split-screen two-player mode. The somewhat limited backstory casts you as a bounty hunter but there are no detailed mechanics to facilitate this. You simply choose between five alien planets, then drive across their surfaces shooting the crap out of as many of the other drivers as you can. Most of the planets, or at least the parts you drive across, are devoid of settlements and very uneven. There are no actual courses laid out on their surfaces either, so you can basically go wherever you want, or indeed wherever the action might be. This includes lots of defences like gun/missile towers and mines in addition to the numerous other cars, one of which is your bounty. Reach the 'waypoint' (the end of the stage) before them or you'll have to 'run the course' again. Succeed and you can continue or choose a new planet.

This is just with the arcade mode, incidentally - the planets are in a set order in the story mode - but their content and your objectives remain the same. There are six 'cars' to choose from which are all rugged, chunky-wheeled off-roaders with names like 'Roadkill' and 'Violator' which are guaranteed to strike fear into the hearts of your nefarious bounties. The main differences between these vehicles, besides their scary names and appearances, are the weapons they are armed with which take two forms - cannons and missiles, although the former offers an additional option when powered-up too. All vehicles have finite fuel reserves and can absorb a limited amount of punishment, but luckily courses also feature numerous pick-ups including extra fuel, damage repairs, and money which can be added to the bounty you'll get for that stage (if successful). This money can then be spent on upgrades for your chosen vehicle to wreak even more havoc.

The upgrades include engine, tyres, shields, gyros (increases stability), and jump jets (improved jump height/length), and you can also add nitros to give you a temporary boost. It probably sounds like an amazing game, for its time at least, from what I've said so far, and it probably should've been too. I guess that's how I felt at the time since, as I mentioned at the start of the review, I was more than a little disappointed with it, but it's hard to pinpoint why. The graphics look quite impressive in screenshots such as the ones expertly grabbed by me and presented here, but they don't move very smoothly, the draw distance isn't great, and the sensation of speed is pretty woeful. I guess some of this is down to the type of game it is - with such bumpy hilly stages, perhaps the bumpiest and hilliest of any game I've played, you were never likely to be in for the fastest, smoothest of rides, but I almost felt queasy at some points when playing it.

You can literally drive over hills of any size too, so the 'camera' is jerking up and down like crazy sometimes. Despite this, though, the game can also be very boring as, without any actual defined courses to follow, each 'run' ends up being very similar to last in terms of the gameplay. You can drive around either side of a hill meaning there are different routes (kind of) but it doesn't make much difference really as everything looks the same and has the same features anyway. Aside from their colour schemes, most of the worlds are very similar in terms of design and are quite basic. The music is passable and the presentation is pretty good - the menu/options screens are fine and there are FMV cut-scenes here and there too (as was required of all games at that time), but technical proficiency doesn't make a game good as we all know well, and sadly Off-World Interceptor is just too boring and unstructured to be much fun for more than five minutes.

RKS Score: 4/10

Gameplay Video: here's a video of the whole game being played by one of the talented fellows at RetroGamerBB2019 (check out their great channel here).