I’m a mutant. He’s a mutant. Wouldn’t you like to be a mutant too? Review

I’m a mutant. He’s a mutant. Wouldn’t you like to be a mutant too?

Jail. That’s where you are. Spending the rest of your life rotting away

in an 8×10 cell. However, some nutball gets it in his head to start

experimenting on inmates. He discovers a plague that brings out the worst

in humans, code-named Abuse. Unfortunately, the plague is released,

and everyone in the jail is infected. People begin to transform into

misshapen creatures bent on the destruction of everything. Only you, it

appears, are immune to Abuse. After finding a discarded battle

suit, you prepare yourself for some death and destruction as you attempt to

save the world from this genetic nightmare. Just another day in video

game land.

Bungie and Crack Dot Com have teamed together to bring the hit Abuse

to the Macintosh. Of course, the Mac version is a little more refined than

its PC predecessor, but that is to be expected because it came out a little

later.

The graphics for the Mac version of Abuse have been improved. With

smooth movement and sharp characters, this game is pretty fun to watch. My

only complaint on a graphics standpoint would be that the common beasties

look way too much like the things from Aliens (I’m talking about the

big things, not the face huggers.).

The control of Abuse is one of the easiest and smoothest I have ever

encountered. You use the keyboard to move your character around, but use

the mouse to aim and fire. This allows you to shoot while running away (a

tactic I hold dear.). It’s at this point where old Mac users are

screaming, “That’s not new, why I used that interface with Dark

Castle!” While this interface was seen on the original (I’m talking

B&W, little boxes.) Macintoshes with the release of Dark Castle, it

is now smoother and faster then ever before.

The sound does a good job of spooking you in this game. You can hear

the aliens before actually seeing them. This leads to some very tense

moments when you know that about eighteen mutants are ready to pounce on

you, but you don’t know from which direction. Very well done, indeed.

While Abuse is just a “kill all that you can see” game, it does

contain a lot of secrets and tricks. Many walls can be destroyed to

uncover secret weapons stashes. Also, because you are in a jail, you can

use many of the jails defenses against the beasties. Time it right, and you can eliminate an entire group of mutants with the flip of a switch. I bet Rambo never thought of that! (Though he could do that lip thing, so Iguess we’re even.)

Bungie’s most recent craze seems to be releasing level editors with their

new games. They did it with Marathon

Infinity and they didn’t want Abuse to be left out. Build your

own maps, and challenge your friends to beat the mutant hordes. As with

any game that is released nowadays, you can also network Abuse and

kill your friends instead of your enemies. You can also use the map editor

to tell you where the traps are on any level where you get stuck, but that’s

cheating.

All in all, Abuse is a game of sheer carnage. If you thought

Doom was violent, you ain’t seen nothing yet. It is a refreshing

change to see a side scrolling bloodbath, in the spirit of Contra.

If you want a game that saves on the brain power and is a lot of fun, go

with Abuse.