Amok by GT Interactive

The story behind Amok:

Gert Staun’s the name. The Bureau has hired me and my Slambird battle walker to stir things up on the planet Amok and destroy the recently signed peace treaty. My bosses profited heavily from the 47-year Corporation War and aren’t prepared to accept the slim pickings of peacetime. A lot of architecture is gonna blow up and a lot of people are gonna die. Don’t say you weren’t warned.

Being the good guy isn’t important to most retro computer gamers as long as the gameplay is solid and challenging. And Amok, a first-person, 3D action game from GT Interactive, is a challenge for even the most skilled Doomer, Duker, or Quaker.

Employing a MechWarrior-like battle walker (that conveniently transforms into a submarine for certain jobs), the game is divided into a chronological series of nine missions. Most involve two phases that must be completed before you can advance (by way of a password) to the next level. Some mission phases are flat-out sprints against time, while others permit you to linger around the battlescape and blow up everything in sight while searching out secret areas.

not as pretty as the Duke
Amok doesn’t possess the graphical pop of Quake or Duke Nukem 3D. There are no multilevel structures to investigate, and some of the enemy soldiers are about as fearsome as the little green guys from Toy Story. Gert Staun’s battle walker/sub does its thing over a variety of flat-as-a-board urban, desert, and underwater environments that are reminiscent of the original Doom graphics (albeit with screen resolutions up to 800 by 600). Simplifying the pixel-painting procedure even further is the fact that all missions are nighttime affairs, offering about 50 yards of visibility. Your 3D accelerator card isn’t likely to get a big workout with this one.

I’ve got blisters on my fingers
The keyboard-only controls are a slight drawback to the game. Not being able to use the mouse or a joystick elicited more than a few curses. Meanwhile, the forward view includes a small radar screen that paints all enemy units as red dots. Run into a nest of steel-jawed rats and that radar screen turns solid crimson.

Amok has so many bad guys, my trigger finger got sore. From the sheer volume of baddies, the game provides a challenge that matches or exceeds the hardest levels of other shoot-’em-ups. Speaking of the many baddies, there are over 20 types to contend with on the planet Amok. From standard soldier and scuba grunts to the more foreboding Guardian Droids and Mini Saucers, it’s hard to feel lonely.

Its challenging gameplay could have earned Amok a four-X rating. But the unconscionable decision by the programmers to omit a save-game feature (yes, I’m serious), joystick/mouse support, or multiplayer options causes it to lose a valuable X. When death (and no load/save game fallback) greets you after two hours of intense fighting, you come to understand the true meaning of a love-hate relationship…Amok-style, that is.

tips
-Don’t spend too much time battling with the Guardian Droids or Mini Saucers. They will eat you alive if you stand and fight them. Run away (they tend to not chase you) and concentrate on the mission objectives.
-Type ZZZCYX at the password prompt in the Options menu to access any level of the game. With no save-game feature available, this undocumented password cheat is worth its weight in gold.
-If you encounter keyboard lock-ups while running from Windows XP, switching to Compatibility mode should eliminate the problem.