CLASSIC MOMENTS
» PLATFORM: AMIGA » RELEASED: 1993 » DEVELOPER: THE BITMAP BROTHERS
It’s fair to describe The Chaos Engine as a little unforgiving, and this becomes apparent soon after leaving its character selection screen. As you might expect, all six of the mercenaries you can play as or partner with start with less than optimal capabilities in one or more areas, which means that you’re in for a challenging opening level regardless of your choices. As you enter the first stage’s wooded maze, merciless robotic opponents fire upon the pair of you from all sides. While you’re dodging their ammo and taking them out, you also need to search for cash and other useful collectables. You additionally have to activate satellite dish-like nodes by blasting shells into them, and of course you have to navigate your way through the dense forestry all around you. Achieving all of this ultimately brings you to a bridge leading to an exit armed by droids. Once you’ve taken care of these, you get to triumphantly fire two nodes into life before a moment of calm as you hit the exit having survived the game’s opening salvo.
BIO
Developed by a team of The Bitmap Brothers’ creatives including Mike Montgomery and Eric Mathews, The Chaos Engine looked to William Gibson and Bruce Sterling’s seminal steampunk novel The Difference Engine for its plot and Victoriantech aesthetics. Praised for its emphasis on exploration and character building as much for its shoot-’em-up elements, The Chaos Engine also won plaudits for tasking players with character development. Versions were first released for the vanilla and AGA Amiga, before its success on those machines led t
