The Terminator: Future Shock

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For other games of a similar name, see The Terminator (video game).
The Terminator: Future Shock
Image:Futureshockcover.jpg
Developer(s) Bethesda Softworks
Publisher(s) Bethesda Softworks
Engine XnGine
Platform(s) DOS
Release date 1995
Genre(s) FPS
Mode(s) Single player
Rating(s) ESRB: T (Teen)
ELSPA: 15+
Media 1 CD-ROM
System requirements CPU: 486DX2/66
RAM: 8MB
CD-ROM drive: double-speed
Hard disk space: 20MB
Display: VGA
Sound: SoundBlaster/GUS/Adlib/Ensoniq Soundscape
OS: MS-DOS 5.0
Input methods Mouse, Joystick, Keyboard

The Terminator: Future Shock is a first-person shooter computer game, based in the fictional Terminator universe. It was released by Bethesda Softworks in 1995. It was one of the first computer games to use full 3D graphics and totally free mouse-look in a FPS game [1]. The mouse-look allows players to aim at and continually shoot the moon in the sky on the levels that take place outside. The game will display the word 'ow!' in red a few times, then the moon will fall from the sky.

Along with the usual information and credits, the game manual comes with many illustrations, including an artist's image of the game design team dressed corresponding to some of their personality traits and pet projects, such as designer Robert Stoll sporting his prototype railgun.

Contents

[edit] Gameplay

[edit] Single Player

Shooting an enemy
Shooting an enemy

Future Shock is played in the first person perspective at all times. Each level in the game requires the player to solve a number of objectives before continuing to the next level, while fighting enemy robots with a wide variety of guns and grenades. Another obstacle in each level is the harsh terrain, as many areas contain too much radiation for the player character to remain alive. The terrain is navigated in three ways, 'on foot', in a jeep with a mounted cannon, or in a HK fighter (an aerial combat robot).

[edit] Multiplayer

Future Shock had no multiplayer component. A multiplayer feature was finally available in the sequel, The Terminator: SkyNET, which featured a deathmatch mode.

[edit] Features

Future Shock is driven by Bethsoft's Xngine, which was one of the first game engines to have the following features:

  • A full 3D perspective.
  • Real-time light sources
  • Full texturing

While the majority of the game used textured polygons to display levels and structures, many of the items, weapons, and level decorations were still shown using 'sprites'.

[edit] Story

In The Terminator: Future Shock, one plays a human who escapes entrapment by the Terminators. After escaping hostile enemy territory in the first mission, the player meets with John Connor, the leader of the resistance. From that point on, one plays as a resistance fighter. The setting is Los Angeles in the year 2015. SkyNet's uprising in 1990 has left most of humanity dead, with control in SkyNet's hands. All around is death and decay, scattered with remnants of a past society shattered.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Logan Booker, The Genesis of a Genre, Atomic: Maximum Power Computing issue 46, November 2004, p.47

[edit] External links

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