Loaded (video game)

Loaded
North American PlayStation boxart
Developer(s)	Gremlin Interactive
Publisher(s)	Interplay Entertainment
Platform(s)	PlayStation, Sega Saturn
Release date(s)	NA December 12, 1995 PAL February 1996 [1] JP March 15, 1996 [1]
Genre(s)	Top-down shooter, Action
Mode(s)	Single player, multiplayer

Loaded (known as Blood Factory^[1] in Japan) is a science fiction-themed top-down shoot 'em up video game that was developed by Gremlin Interactive and published by Interplay. Loaded was released on December 12, 1995 on both the PlayStation and Sega Saturn. The game had origins in DC Comics as well as the more adult-orientated Vertigo Comics, and there was a small graphic novel based on the game. The six playable characters of the game are a combination of villains, anti-heroes, psychopaths, perverts, mutants, and flamboyant murderers. They are, however, the last hope to stop the intergalactic supervillain code-named F.U.B. and save the universe. The characters were created and designed with contributions from Garth Ennis of Vertigo Comics and Greg Staples of 2000AD.

Later in the same year the game spawned a sequel using almost entirely the same characters and the same game engine, albeit one with mildly improved graphics, named Re-Loaded. Re-Loaded was released on the PlayStation and PC at the end of 1996. Although it did not enjoy as good sales as its predecessor, it did however have an acclaimed soundtrack, this time entirely written and recorded by Neil Biggin.

The game discs of both games could be played as audio CDs. Both games were notorious for their macabre sense of humor, over-the-top violence and extreme gore.

Plot

The game is set in the distant future, long after mankind has discovered faster-than-light flight and has since colonized most of the inhabitable worlds across the galaxy. F.U.B. was once a pretty uncultured and incapable catering officer with questionable sanity in the Sector Marines, often screwing up the field kitchens and dropping jars of Plusgrial fnart jiz powder into the cooking pot. F.U.B. (which stands "fat ugly boy", a name he was never able to escape) finally lost his mind on a barren desert front during a relatively minor skirmish of the last 40 years. Not wanting to let "the boys" down and unable to find any meat, F.U.B. amputated his own legs, cooked them and served them up to the soldiers in a hot broth. Despite it being the best dish he had ever created, F.U.B. was given an unconditional discharge and asked never to show his face again. Vowing to get revenge on the worlds of man for his banishment and exile, F.U.B. replaces his legs with mechanical, hydraulic-powered replacements and becomes a feared and egotistical space pirate, attracting other fragile minds to his cause. He undertakes a dramatic, bizarre and insane appearance; wearing furry dice, smoking Havana cigars and tattooing a target on his portly belly.

The six playable characters have notable differences and derangements, but what they have in common is that they are all psychotic mercenaries who have been framed for crimes actually committed by F.U.B. and are now serving life sentences on an inhospitable maximum security prison planet, the planet Raulf. F.U.B. has even taken on a new secretive identity, joining the intergalactic prison system and working his way up the ladder by murdering his superiors and taking their positions, and F.U.B. is now the warden of Raulf. F.U.B. has done this so that he can pin his crimes as a space pirate on other people, usually those who are psychotic anyway so as nobody will notice.

The player (or two of the game's six characters, in two player mode) must escape Raulf, chase F.U.B. and engage on a bloody odyssey across the strange worlds of the galaxy to exact revenge on F.U.B. The supervillain however is merely excited by this, seeing it as a challenge and a game, and to this end he steals the most advanced machine in existence - a machine which can toy with the very fabric of the universe, manipulate matter and even open doorways to other dimensions. With this machine F.U.B. plans to hold the universe to ransom, and sets up a prison break on Raulf to set things in motion. If he can defeat a group of the most feared individuals in the galaxy who are armed to the teeth and wanting revenge, he figures he can defeat anyone.^[2]

Gameplay

The game features levels across fifteen different worlds and has six playable characters: Mamma, Fwank, Bounca, Vox, Butch and Cap'n Hands. Two characters may be selected in co-operative mode to complete the game. A mission briefing plays at the start of every mission, aided by a full motion video sequence. Loaded's gameplay is almost identical to that of Gauntlet,^[3] which requires the player to move room to room killing everything in sight, everything of which will try to kill the player also. Score can be increased by looting the bloodied remains of enemies. There are some puzzle and exploration elements, and power-ups and ammo can be found. The levels progress by collecting keycards capable of unlocking doors. The player can zoom in to their character by pressing R2, or zoom out by pressing L2. At the end of each level, the game tallies the player's greed factor, accuracy and body count on a 0%-100% scale in order to give the player's career prospects (ranging from as low as "social worker" to as high as "genocidal maniac", etc.) and final score.

Development and marketing

Loaded was developed by Gremlin Interactive, a British software house based in Sheffield which had previously had a successful run in developing games. Loaded and its sequel Re-Loaded would be among the last games developed by Gremlin Interactive, before it was acquired by French giant Infogrames for £24 million, and the studio in Sheffield closed. The game was internationally published by US-based Interplay.

A demo of Loaded was included on a demo disc bundled with the PlayStation in Europe.^[4]

The main character design and graphics were done by a host of comic book illustrators like Les Spink and Greg Staples (of 2000AD fame). Interplay collaborated with DC Comics to create a 12-page novella illustrated with the game's artwork to promote it and introduce the characters and the game premise. The book was published bundled with DC's works at the time and DC signed adult-orientated Vertigo Comics star Garth Ennis to write it. The novella is now considered a collector's item.^[5]

Soundtrack

Loaded features 21 compositions by Neil Biggin, plus 2 tracks by Patrick (Pat) Phelan and 2 more by Pop Will Eat Itself (Kick to Kill and RSVP). The game was specially designed so that it could be placed inside a CD player and used as an audio CD (skipping Track 1 which contained the code for the game). This would then enable the listener to play the full soundtrack - including many hidden tracks and two of which were complete tracks from the Amiga CD32 version of Zool 2 (Mount Ices and Mental Block's house), another game by Gremlin. There are 25 audio tracks in total on the CD, the hidden tracks were brief demos and were never used in-game.

Reception

The four reviewers of Electronic Gaming Monthly gave the PlayStation version an 8.25 out of 10 average score. They compared it favorably to Smash TV and cited the multiplayer mode as the game's most enjoyable feature.^[6] Major Mike of GamePro deemed it "a simple premise taken to absurd heights: From the wacky characters to the overblown carnage, the game is generally a blast to play. While it lacks some of the strategy of similar-minded titles like Doom, the action hardly ever lets up." He also extensively praised the graphics, particularly noting the strong details, zoom feature, and light sourcing effects.^[7] While they complimented the animated environments and four-player option, Maximum had an overall subdued reaction to the game, saying it is much more repetitive than similar games such as Alien Breed and The Chaos Engine. They gave it 3 out of 5 stars.^[8]

As of 2009, Loaded has an 82% rating on MobyGames.^[9]

Loaded was a commercial success, with the PlayStation version shipping 250,000 copies the week of its release.^[10]

Re-Loaded

Less than a year after the original game was released, a sequel was released also for the PlayStation and DOS entitled Re-Loaded, developed and published by the same companies. It featured the same game engine, and even the game menus are the same, although it is a game engine with slightly improved graphics. Four characters from the original game are also in Re-Loaded, such as Mamma, Bounca, Butch, and Cap'n Hands. Vox, however, is not present in the game and is replaced by two new female characters: a pink-haired, cannibalistic sex symbol named The Consumer, and a malfunctioning android nun named Sister Magpie. Via cheat code, Sister Magpie can unlock hidden character Fwank from the previous game for use in Re-Loaded. If unlocked, Fwank is the best character in Re-Loaded, with the most speed and best armour. All of the returning characters have new weapons and/or variations of their costumes. There are twelve blood-soaked new worlds to annihilate, much bigger than the levels encountered in the previous game, and with the added bonus of being able to morph the surrounding terrain with high-powered weaponry and explosives. The game is available on PlayStation Network.

F.U.B., the antagonist of Loaded, had his body destroyed at the end of the previous game, although his brain fled in an escape pod. Landing on a harsh desert world, Kee-Butt-5, his brain has been implanted into the body of a chiselled, bronzed young artist hermit named Manuel Auto, and then he murdered the loyal surgeons responsible for giving him a new body. Reincarnated and renamed "C.H.E.B.", which stands for "Charming Handsome Erudite Bastard", the former raving lunatic supervillain has taken on some of the aspects of his host body, the creative, artistic and thoughtful Manuel Auto. With his matter manipulation powers, C.H.E.B. plans to transform whole planets into "Works Of Art and Genius", starting with his own body which he grows to the size of a small moon. Once again the group of blood-thirsty anti-heroes gather to bring him down once and for all and set off for Kee-Butt-5...

Re-Loaded, despite having better graphics than the original game, was not as well received and currently has a rating of 48% on MobyGames.^[11] Like the previous game, it could be played as an audio CD.

References

External links

• Loaded at MobyGames
• Re-Loaded at MobyGames