Raptor: Call of the Shadows
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| Raptor: Call of the Shadows | |
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| Developer(s) | Cygnus Studios (since changed to Mountain King Studios) |
| Publisher(s) | Apogee Software |
| Engine | Custom |
| Release date(s) | April 1, 1994 |
| Genre(s) | Scrolling shooter |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Rating(s) | OFLC: G |
| Platform(s) | DOS, Windows |
| Media | Floppy disk, CD-ROM |
| System requirements | 386 DX 40 MHz, 486 DX2 66 MHz recommended |
| Input | Keyboard and mouse, or joystick |
Raptor: Call of the Shadows (often Raptor for short) is a 2D raster graphics vertical scrolling shoot 'em up single player game for the x86 PC written for MS-DOS, by Cygnus Studios (which has since changed its name to Mountain King Studios).
Raptor: Call of the Shadows was originally released on April 1, 1994. There is a shareware version available for this game which includes the first sector, the Bravo Sector. The full version can still be bought today (as of 2007).
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[edit] Story
The story of the game indicates that "In the future as a mercenary flying the super-tech Raptor, you'll be sent on interplanetary missions to knock off top competitors of MegaCorps."
[edit] Gameplay
As in all shoot 'em up games of this genre, there is a vast number of enemies to kill, both on the ground and in the air. At the end of each wave, and often halfway through the more difficult waves, there is a "boss" which is a single enemy of great size and whom can take a lot of fire before succumbing. Most of the ground objects (buildings, vehices) can be destroyed as well. For each target destroyed the player earns credits, with the amount of credits earned per enemy destroyed is proportional to how tough the enemy ship is. Between new waves and sectors the player can use credits to select among 16 different equipment upgrades (various weapons, "shield-packs", bombs, etc) to be bought for his own aircraft.
The game is divided into three "sectors": Bravo Sector, Tango Sector, and Outer Regions, which all have nine sub-missions called "waves", making for a total of 27 levels.
[edit] Episodes
The Bravo Sector is the most "generic" one, with few features distinguishing each level. Starting at the coast and then moving inland, most of the targets are military bases and installations, and much of the terrain is barren land, with the occasional forests and rivers. The environment suggests that it is located in the Middle East, as large oil silos feature prominently in the early waves, and a tank farm is found near the end. In the final wave, the player flies offshore to ruin the Lithos Petroleum rig. (However, there is no background on why Lithos is the enemy, other than being suggested as a competitor of MegaCorps.)
The Tango Sector is more distinctive, with waves having several themes. These include a large water/chemical plant, farmland, jungle, city, and airbase. At the end, in the jungle, the player has to defeat a huge aircraft which splits into three modules.
In Outer Regions, the player travels from different planets; they consist of a lunar body, a red planet similar to Mars, an ice world, a volcanic world, and finally a space station.
Tango Sector and Outer Regions each have a special "night wave" with its own theme music. The night level in the Tango Sector is a well-illuminated city in Wave Eight, while the Outer Regions' is the "dark side" of the moon.
[edit] Weapons and upgrades
The player starts out with only the default machine guns, and will eventually be able to buy or find more (and stronger) weapons. There are two types of weapons: The first is always active (it will always fire whenever you shoot), and the second type is selectable. There are three fixed/active weapon types and ten selectable weapons, but the selectable weapons cannot be fired simultaneously - only one at a time.
It is easy to max out on active weapons since they are cheap and relatively ineffective. The player starts out which machine guns, and can later get the Plasma Cannon and Micro Missiles.
The Laser Turret and Twin Laser are the two most useful of the selectable weapons. The Laser Turret can auto-track and engage flying targets from at at any point on the screen, including vessels that are just appearing, and the Twin Lasers has the highest damage output of any weapon in the game. Eventually, as the player accumulates more credits that required, there is nothing that can be done with the surplus. Buying duplicates of selectable weapons apparently has no impact on effectiveness.
In addition there is also a special type of weapon which is a powerful explosive: the megabomb. A megabomb will take hitpoints from everything on the visible screen and usually destroy the smaller enemy ships instantly.
Though you can upgrade your ship, there is only one usable vessel for the player, you can't buy new or different ships. If the player's ship is heavily damaged, it will lose a selectable weapon with each following hit.
One apparent oversight of the game design is that a player can play through a certain wave until the weapon was found, abort the level and sell the weapon, and then repeat in order to buy expensive weapons (however, the player will not receive money earned from killing ships if they do not finish the level). This loophole allows the player to accumulate more phase shields than what is allowed in the store.
Phase shields do not recharge, unlike regular shields (though regular shields do not recharge in the Elite difficulty). However, phase shields can be repaired by picking up shield boosts (though it replenishes the phase shield as half the rate as regular shields). Another apparent oversight is that while only up to five Phase Shields can be purchased, an unlimited number can be picked up. On waves with such a powerup, players can accumulate as many phase shields as possible to ensure that it will last for the rest of the Sector.
[edit] Reception
Raptor is noted for being particularly difficult to start out. Although the player can skip right to the Tango Sector and Outer Regions before completing the Bravo Sector, this is almost impossible in practice, particularly since the player needs a fully armed ship in order to survive the levels of the Outer Regions.
Some consider Raptor very repetitive for its time when compared to shoot 'em ups for arcades. Enemies are destroyed purely for money, and they will not release powerups that make the player more powerful. Flying enemies only move in fixed predictable patterns - they will not react or hone in on the player's moves (although turrets will). The Raptor fighter jet can take a lot of damage if the player buys Phase Shields, but there are no lives that can be earned - either via points or bought - once the player dies it is over unless they have saved the game. There are no obstacles to avoid (except the enemy ships themselves). Apart from the final level, which takes place on a space station; no levels take place in space; only interplanetary missions are available. There is no multiplayer support. The display is fixed to only scrolling vertically, never horizontally (as in Axelay for the SNES console).
Tyrian (1995) is considered much more innovative and less repetitive than Raptor, as it adopted Raptor's credit system and the arcade's powerups.
Nonetheless, Raptor is still considered far more polished and realistic-looking. At its release, Raptor had the best graphics of any scrolling shooter to date, and despite over a decade since its release, the graphics are still considered good quality.
[edit] Miscellaneous
If the game is started when the computer's internal clock matches one of several predetermined dates (for instance, December 25, one of the programmers' birthdays, etc) the hostile enemy ships will change appearance, to look like cows, monkeys, or even vessels from science fiction films. This also changes the opening title screen and sound effects.
This also seems to happen if you press the three buttons that appear at the bottom of the loading screen (to do this using the keyboard, not the mouse, press the 'S' key, then the '1', '2', and '3' keys at the episode selection screen).
