[typing]
Aw, man, I can't help it.
I'm always so drawn to this one, even though I know the truth about it.
Bioforge,
developed and published by Origin Systems in 1995 for MS-DOS PCs.
I freakin' LOVE this box cover
with its alien-looking x-rayed hand glowing like something out of Fallout.
Then you see...
"Take the starring role in ORIGIN's latest Interactive Movie."
Ugh...
"Interactive movie."
Not exactly a term that's thought of fondly nowadays
and it wasn't always back then either.
We have full-motion video games to thank for that.
But yeah, they were really pushing the interactive movie thing on everything from the box to the advertising.
Part of this was because they used something called a "flock of birds" suit
to capture the animations for the characters in-game,
resulting in a motion-captured performance for gameplay and cutscenes.
So that means that Bioforge was one of the pioneers
in the usage of fully texture-mapped skeleton-based characters via motion capture in video games.
Pretty neat if you ask me.
Inside the box, you get the game on a single CD-ROM,
a play guide which features all the controls and a short walkthrough of the first area,
an install guide and reference card for technical stuff,
a sneak preview of BradyGames' official guide to the game–
and a Field Personel File,
which features a ton of information that you'll find in the game
but in dead tree form.
No shortage of awesome physical stuff inside
as one might expect from Origin,
and I approve whole-heartedly.
Bioforge begins with a beefy intro flick
explaining the story thus far without explaining anything at all.
It's purposely vague since this is an amnesia story
where you'll slowly unravel the details through reading discarded diaries and such,
taking a note from Origin's own System Shock.
Not the only similarity either,
since most of the plot revolves around dark sci-fi weirdness in space,
filled with killer robots and misguided scientific experiments.
But it branches out into its own unique narrative
and is a different type of game entirely,
hinted at by the absence of any main menu.
Select your combat difficulty
and they game starts straightaway with not so much as a single indicator of what to do.
In fact, there's no HUD or visible UI at all,
save for some optional status text that sometimes pops up at the bottom of the screen.
It's just you
waking up with no memory
locked in a room with a floating nurse-bot of suspicious intentions.
And thus begins the first of many puzzles:
how to get past the robot without getting zapped
then how to get through the door without getting fried on contact.
[electric shocks and man screaming]
There's actually a walkthrough for this area in the included play guide,
but it's easy enough anyway and serves to teach you the basics.
Normally, you're just walking around when playing,
but if you press C, you enter Combat Mode,
when everybody is kung fu fighting.
Kick or punch the droid into the door
to kill it and the force field
then pick up and examine the items in your room.
A hunk of meat can be placed in your inventory for future munchies,
and a log book provides you with a little backstory.
Bring up your wrist-mounted data pad
which provides access to your inventory,
vitals, journal, and options menu.
Oh, and this is one of the earliest games I remember to include proper gamma settings,
which isn't really important, but it amuses me.
From here, the world is your dystopian, cyberpunk oyster,
with your goal being to find out who you were before your memory was wiped
and you were turned into this freaky awesome cyborg thing.
And to make this identity quest a real challenge,
every other choice seemingly results in your grizzly death.
It actually reminds me a bit of the feeling of playing so-called cinematic platformers
like Another World and Flashback and Blackthorne
in that it's a crapload of trial and error
mixed with making careful and specifically-timed actions.
But obviously, this is no 2D platformer,
instead taking place in a 3D environment,
with 3D characters
walking around a pre-rendered 2D background.
Running into the next room or even to the next camera angle
often results in a puzzle of some kind appearing,
whether it be action-oriented or logic-based.
It's entirely possible to screw things up beyond repair, too,
so saving often and in separate slots is a must.
Another reason to save a lot is because health is a constant issue,
since you hardly have any of it
and there a precious few ways to restore it,
with your suit quickly running out of energy when trying to heal you.
Although the fact that your guy gets bloody and walks with a limp when hurt is an awesome touch,
it happens far too easily.
What makes this even more challenging is the control scheme,
infamously referred to as "tank controls."
You can rotate left and right,
walk or run forwards and backwards and step to the side,
but it's all done from fixed camera angles with your character as the point of reference.
This was seen previously in Alone in the Dark,
and in later games like Resident Evil and Grim Fandango,
and I don't have a problem with them in theory.
In fact, they work pretty well for this kind of style.
But what I do have a problem with is that
you're often fighting with the camera angles to do what you want,
which leads to things as simple as walking through a door becoming an ordeal.
Beyond that, the combat in the game is atrocious.
It's slow, unresponsive, and vague,
and I'd recommend playing on the easiest combat difficulty
to make it slightly less irritating.
Keeping in line with being a virtual actor,
you have total control over your characters limbs and movements
through a combination of the arrow keys, the numpad, and the Alt and Control keys.
For instance, holding down control and pressing the numpad keys
will result in a number of kicks playing out.
Holding down Alt will give you some punches and defensive options,
and moving around with the arrow keys while this is happening
will drive you crazy.
It feels like you're passively giving suggestions
rather than directly controlling your character,
and that's just the melee combat.
Getting into a firefight with blasters is also nothing short of silly,
and the only way to make this work is by taking advantage of the world around you.
Shots can be bounced off certain walls,
which is actually pretty neat,
and if you place your guy *just* right,
you can shoot around corners, but
both of these take a bunch of time to get right
and are pretty annoying actually, so,
you'll just want to run past everything when you can,
or use the sidestepping exploit so that enemies ignore you.
That's the bad stuff though, and thankfully there's some notable good.
Bioforge is a game that instantly pulled me into its world
through its visuals and sound design,
then kept me hooked through its narrative and copious journal entries.
The amount of stuff on offer to read here is staggering.
And yes, you WILL need to read it in order to solve many of the puzzles,
since the answers contained within are randomized each playthrough.
Beyond that, it's just a threatening and somewhat creepy world to explore, and I love that!
There are many locations where I can't help but stop
to admire those pixelated low-poly models
and listen to the eerie ambience.
[wind howling]
It's a world that constantly makes me want to trudge onward and see what's next
even though I often regret that decision soon after I make it.
Like with this stupid timed bomb puzzle
where you have to float around using an alien artifact,
hop over a bunch of platforms,
make a run through enemy fire,
then carefully drop the bomb at a door and run away before it explodes,
all within a handful of seconds.
Screw that entire hair-pulling sequence.
It barely works and it's dumb.
Yeah, Bioforge still gets me all mentally aroused when I play it,
as long as I put myself in that mid-'90s headspace of
"Whoa! Computer games are cool!
I like computer games
and this one is different, so that means it's great."
The chunky software-rendered graphics are something that I've come to enjoy again in recent years, too,
if only because of the huge amount of imagination needed.
It helps keep my brain young or something, so that's good.
And I do enjoy this style of action-adventure game,
so it comes very close to scratching many geeky itches.
The problem is, instead of only those nostalgic spots to scratch in pleasure,
I end up with infected sores from the awful combat
and increasingly unforgiving action-puzzle sequences.
I can easily see why it's well-remembered,
but at the same time, I can see why it's something that incites mass rage quits.
I respect it quite a bit from an artistic and programming standpoint,
and I really do think that they were onto something great here,
but it falls short of being great due to so much of the gameplay itself.
And they seemingly knew this,
since there was a planned update called Bioforge Plus set to come out
featuring a better energy source for health,
better weapons and improved combat.
But poor sales prevented this from ever coming to light.
Still, at the very least, I'd say it's worth trying out what we did get
through the version on GOG.com,
and if you're into collecting, it's a really neat box, too.
But yeah, just know what you're getting into
and be prepared to forgive a lot of awkwardness.
[flute playing]
If you enjoyed this video featuring cyberpunk forks and flutes,
then you might just enjoy more LGR.
New videos arrive every Monday and Friday,
so subscribing may prove beneficial.
As can following on Twitter and Facebook,
where we can talk about old games and new games
and maybe even types of cheese.
There's also Patreon if you'd like to support the show financially
and see videos weeks in advance, among other perks.
And as always, thank you very much for watching.