Red Alert is developed by the game studio Westwood and published by Electronic Arts in 1996, a year after C&C was released. EA released the game again in 2008 as freeware to promote Red Alert 3. Two expansion packs have been released for this game, The Aftermath and Counterstrike, but I won't be reviewing those expansions.

The story of Red Alert begins with a small intro when you first start the game. In this intro you see a man travelling back in time to kill Hitler. This man is Albert Einstein, though it’s being kept a secret to you at the beginning. Einstein wanted to prevent the bloodshed and the huge loss of life. So with Hitler out of the way, the WWII never occurred. But one thing didn’t disappear: the USSR. It still remained a superpower. War breaks out when Stalin dreams of weird visions: the liberation of Europe from corrupt governments. Stalin invades Eastern Europe and the threatened countries of Europe form an alliance to counter the Soviets.

In the Soviet-campaign you battle your way from Eastern Europe to the rest of the continent. You will discover a conspiracy within the military. Gradenko, a field marshal, can’t be trusted anymore because he left information of the Soviets super weapon, the Iron Curtain, on the battlefield. Eventually he will be killed for that by drinking poisoned tea. Stalin will await the same fate after Europe has been ‘liberated’.

The Allied-campaign begins with a lot of setbacks: Eastern Europe has been taken over by the USSR and so have large parts of Germany; and Einstein has been imprisoned. With the help of Tanya Adams, you rescue Einstein. Einstein gives the allies all sorts of useful information about the Soviets super weapon. An Iron Curtain and submarine production base are destroyed by you and finally a turning point in the war is insight. But then a horrible discovery is made: the Russians developed a new super weapon: the nuclear bomb. Oh yes, because the WWII never occurred the USA never developed the thing. Russia had all the time in the world to develop the weapon of mass destruction. But the end of the allies is not insight because they rush towards Moscow. In the aftermath of the battle that followed, when searching the roubles of Moscow Stalin was found. But, a general of the Allies, Stavros, convinced the soldier who found him to behave like nothing had happened. They put a clot in his mouth and leave him to die.

So far the story of the game itself. The graphics in Red Alert look almost similar to those of C&C, but slightly better, but only slightly. It looks somewhat rougher, it gives a sensation that the camera is put very close the battlefield. The awesome sound of infantry dying has been modified a bit, but still something to enjoy. The units of the Soviets have a somewhat Russian accent that’s hilarious. Explosions of buildings are awesome, you get the feeling that the entire building went up in flames.

You don’t gather Tiberium in this game but you harvest finite recourses, consisting of gold and crystals, but in some levels there are pits that spit out gold. You’d normally get some special resources that look like gems, that give twice the amount of credits. Base building isn’t like C&C but more like Tiberium Sun. You start from a central Construction Yard but you don’t have to connect your buildings to the Yard. The allies have special buildings that are used as fakes and are fast and cheap to build.

Both factions have different units, but all come together to a single concept. Light tanks, heavy tanks, aircraft, naval units and of course, infantry. The Russians have the almost almighty Mammoth tank. The allies don't really have a special tank, that comes with the expansions.

In the end, I had lots of fun playing this game. The graphics aren’t that bad, effects like explosions are great to hear and to see and the different campaigns shows you two sides of the game. So if you want this game, try to dig it up somewhere or buy The First Decade.

The Punisher is a game made by Volition Inc. The game was released by THQ. It was released in 2005. The game is a third-person shooter, featuring Frank Castle aka The Punisher.

For the people that don't know the storyline already, it's the same as the comic. Frank Castle's family gets slaughtered by the mob. Frank Castle goes on a revenge mission and turns himself into the Punisher, focused on tracking down and killing every criminal and people that were involved in the murders. He uses any method to do so.

In The Punisher you simply kill a lot of people, using various methods which gives you points, and by acquiring enough points you gain a medal ranging from bronze to gold. Each medal grants you various extras in the game, such as challenges, concept-art and images. You can also acquire several comic-book fragments, by interrogating your victims in a non-conventional way, for example by using an oven and many other things, since Frank Castle is quite creative with his methods. It's also possible to kill your enemies using "Special Kills" these are designated spots throughout the levels, marked by a golden skull (Special Interrogation Spots are marked with a silver skull). Some of the things you can do on these Special Kill Spots are throwing someone in a coffin and throw a grenade in it as well and other things as well. You can pick up various weapons throughout the levels such as bottles, crowbars and baseball-bats. The Punisher also carries various fire-arms which can be upgraded. The Punisher can also enter a rage mode in which he's practically immortal and can kill at a rapid rate using his two knives. The Punisher is an easy game, it can be picked up by anyone, through the upgrades it becomes even easier, by using the rage-mode you gain your health back giving you pretty much an endless supply of health.

The AI isn't particularly smart, it's easy to grab them and use them as shields since they won't try to get away from you. And their buddies will still shoot you even if their friend is in front of their target. Most of the enemies can be described as cannon-fodder, they'll even stand close to certain objects making killing even easier. And it's also easy to use quick kills on them, since they have no way of blocking that. Throughout this game, you'll encounter various bosses, each has its own method of being killed, but they're never really hard to deal with.

The levels are nicely done, they're quite big and the scenery changes every level. For example, there is a Zoo level, a Crack house level, a modern complex and a bar. Throughout these levels you can also encounter civilians, which you can't kill. Sometimes they'll give you something, but most of the time they don't, you are however required to save them.

The graphics in this game are rather nice, they hold up to the other games from that year, which can be expected since Volition always delivers quality products, unlike ValuSoft. There are many details in this game, from the design of weapons to the design of the characters. But the game isn't really a gorefest when it comes to killing, if you're looking for that, I recommend Dead Space.

So all-in-all, I recommend buying this game if you ever find it. I happened to buy it for €2.50, which was a bargain, but don't be afraid to pay a little more for it, since it's really worth your money.

Diablo is a point and click hack and slash RPG, and is created by Blizzard North and released by Blizzard Entertainment in 1996. The game came out on Windows, Mac OS and Playstation. The game also got an expansion pack, Diablo: Hellfire, which was created by Sierra online. Most Diablo fans thought this expansion pack was a complete failure because of the graphics, which are worse than Diablo, and the fact that players aren't able to play this game online, whilst players were able to play online with the original game.

The story of Diablo is based on the premise of a war between Heaven and Hell. The town of Tristram is under attack by demons, and you must save the town. As the player delves into the underworld, he discovers more about the demon Diablo, through large tomes that are found throughout the levels. Eventually, you'll reach the lair of Diablo and must kill him.

Diablo, an incredibly powerful demon, is the Lord of Terror and one of the Three Prime Evils of Hell, who had been imprisoned in a Soulstone and buried in caverns deep beneath the town of Tristram. Though his imprisonment was meant to be eternal, the power of the Soulstone weakened over centuries, eventually allowing Diablo to awaken from his forced slumber. He telepathically turns a nearby human, the Archbishop Lazarus, into his loyal puppet. In order for Diablo to actually leave the Soulstone, Diablo needs the stone to be shattered. He possesses Lazarus, and has him break the stone. Diablo then tries to gain control of King Leoric, the local ruler, but Diablo, in his weakened state, is unable to overpower Leoric. Since Diablo is too weak to possess the king, he abandons the idea. This leaves the monarch's mind numb and his soul corrupted. He then gets Lazarus to kidnap King Leoric's son, Prince Albrecht, so that Diablo can possess and warp him, thereby attaining material form and strength. At the moment of the boy's possession, his terror is so great that the boundaries between the realms are broken and parts of Hell seep into the mortal world and take root in the subterranean labyrinth beneath Tristram.

Diablo may have a body now, but he is far from his full power, so he bides his time and summons countless hordes of demons and infests the whole underground complex, claiming the new region of Hell as his own personal lair. Soon afterwards the maddened Leoric is slain by his own lieutenants. Demons appear in the countryside as the Lord of Terror regains his strength in the heart of the labyrinth and prepares for the time when he would once again emerge to seek his brothers - Baal and Mephisto - and free them as well. It seemed to be a matter of time until the Prime Evils gained dominion over the entire mortal realm. This is where you come in. As you fight your way through sixteen levels to face Diablo, you'll encounter various monsters, quests, tomes, scrolls, weapons, and other miscellaneous items.

In the beginning of the game you can choose from three combat classes: Warrior, Archer and Sorcerer. After you've chosen your class you'll begin your adventure in Tristram, a little town with a few inhabitants. They tell you that most of the townsfolk had been kidnapped and then slaughtered in the old church. In this church lies the labyrinth of 16 levels filled with enemies. At first your enemies are zombies and skeletons, but the closer you get to level 16, the more they'll look like demons. At first you don't know anything of your enemies, but as you kill more and more of them you will get more information about that specific enemy. They also drop weapons, potions and scrolls which aid you in your quests. The stronger your armor is, the more you'll look like a knight in shining armor. However, almost all weapons have a durability rate, and when the durability rate drops to zero your weapon will break and then you can't use it anymore. So make sure you repair it at the Blacksmith before it drops to zero.

Each time you level up you get five points which you can spend on your attributes: Strength, Magic, Dexterity and Vitality. Most weapons can only be worn when you have a certain amount of Strength and Dexterity. All spells need a certain amount of magic points, mana. Throughout the game you'll find Magic Books, which you can read in order to learn a new spell or upgrade an spell that you've already learned.

The graphics of this game are great for a game from 1996. At least the graphics look better than Fallout and that game is from 1997. The sound is nice too, it really improves the horror aspect.
The most remarkable thing is that all the levels of the labyrinth are random generated levels, so when you completed the game for the first time you can't memorize it for the second play-through, and you have to complete the game at least two times in order to complete all the quests.

Diablo is a fine game, I really liked playing this game. It is a classic RPG and a difficult one too. Everyone that is an RPG-fan should have played this game.

Hearts of Iron III is a game made and released by Paradox Interactive, a company that mostly creates historical strategy games like Europa Universalis III and the Hearts of Iron series. Hearts of Iron III was released in August 2009.

In Hearts of Iron III you choose a nation you wish to control during the period of 1936-1948. You can take control of almost every nation that existed during that period. The gameplay itself is very complex and that's why you can let the AI control some decisions. But you are able to control everything yourself too. You have to control diplomacy, production, technology, politics and intelligence. I'll explain these categories later on.

The game centers around three factions: The Axis (Germany and allies), The Allies (United Kingdom, France and their allies) and The Comintern (the Soviet Union and their allies). When you've chosen another country than these you can align slowly to these factions. Nations are more likely to join a faction with a similar ideology. For example, the U.S.A is more likely to join The Allies than The Axis, but it isn't impossible that they join The Axis.

Another thing that's very important is your Industrial Capacity. With more IC you can construct more units, harbors, airfields and some defensive structures. In order to keep your IC at 100%, you'll need resources. The resources available in this game are: Energy, metal, rare materials (you need these for your IC), oil (you need this for fuel), supplies (you need this to supply your armies in order to keep their combat strength at 100%) and fuel (which you need in order to move your armies). Another thing that is important is the dissent in your nation. You have to keep your people satisfied, because otherwise they'll strike and thus you'll lose IC.

Diplomacy: At this screen you can align to a faction, trade with another nation, buy a production license from another nation, guarantee freedom to another nation (if a faction/nation declares war to the nation you guaranteed, the nation asks you to help them fight against that faction/nation) declare a limited war (only available when you're in a faction, if you choose this your faction members aren't forced to also declare war to that nation) or declare war. You can also influence other nations to join your faction.

Production: At this screen you can monitor trading convoys, construct brigades, such as infantry, cavalry, tanks, planes and more. You can also devide your IC into production factors. These production factors are: Supplies, reinforcements, upgrades, civilian goods and production. Personal I recommend you to let the AI control this, because the needs change every day and when the IC isn't devided at its best you'll waste IC.

Technology: This is the screen where you can research upgrades, control the training of officers (you need an certain amount of officers in your army in order to keep the organisation at 100%, when this number drops your armies will be forced to retreat because they're in lack of organization), the diplomacy points (which you need at the diplomacy screen to trade or form alliances with other nations) and espionage (you can monitor how many spies you want to train each day). However, you'll need leadership for these actions. The more leadership you have, the more leadership you can put in one of these options. I don't know how you get leadership, but I assume that it depends of how big your country is.

Politics: At this screen you can change your ministers, make a puppet state, liberate a country and change laws. Most of the time you can only change laws when your country is at war, or when your neutrality is very low. You aren't always able to change your ministers, that depends of which type of policy you have. Ministers will deliver bonus points or penalties to a certain sector. For example, some ministers will provide you with a bonus of 5% in IC while another is a backstabber and then you'll lose some IC. Most of the time you can't replace the backstabber. You can also see which party is the most favourite one, according to the civilians.

Intelligence: At this screen you can monitor your spies. You have domestic spies and spies in other countries. You can order your domestic spies to lower your neutrality, increase the unity of your civilians (the higher this is, the more provinces you can lose before your country surrenders to the enemy)or support the ruling party. The spies in other country have more options. Your spies can also support the opposition, support rebels, spy on the technology or armed forces, sabotage and increase the threat of the nation.

I found some glitches in this game while I was playing with the Netherlands. I was trying to get a war with Belgium by lowering my neutrality and increasing Belgium's threat. I succeeded and declared war to Belgium, but Belgium was already an Allies-member so I was at war with all the Allies. Suddenly, Germany declared war to me so then I automatically joined the Allies, but I was still at war with them. I was able to see all their units and they didn't attack me so I took some of their provinces for free. The second time I was again playing with the Netherlands, but now I had built a big fort at Amsterdam, so when the Germans invaded me I was able to hold Amsterdam because of the fort. The AI controlled my production and because I was at war he kept producing units even though my manpower was at zero. I think he brought the fallen men back to life or something, or maybe the AI recruited children, I don't know.

This game is different than other strategy games, it feels more like a simulation. But I think it's a very good one, definitely worth a purchase. But, when you like simple games where you just have to do as your told you better evade this game, because it's very complex and hard to master.

Tiberium Sun is a game developed by Westwood Studios and released in 1999. It’s the sequel to Command and Conquer released in 1995.

In Tiberium Sun you play in the year 2030, 30 years after the end of the game Command and Conquer. The first Tiberium War has been won by GDI. The two factions are once again in war with each other in a world that now knows a new form of Tiberium. It comes in a plant form now and is being spread by trees infected by Tiberium, releasing Tiberium spores in the air. Next to Tiberium, there are also Tiberium veins, huge plants that spread out in every direction, and visceroids, strange creatures of tiberium with organic material. An infrantry unit can become one if its dies when walking over Tiberium or over Tiberium veins.

The story of both factions are not parallel (with some exceptions) both have their own agenda. GDI’s agenda is capturing/killing Kane and destroying the Brotherhood of NOD with him, while NOD follows their prophet, Kane. Kane’s plan is to blow up the Philadelphia, the GDI command station orbiting the Earth, and to launch a Tiberium missile that will cause the world to become completely covered in Tiberium. There’s one thing that both campaigns have in common. At a point both parties are after an alien artifact called the Tacitus. While playing GDI you are also ordered to secure an alien ship and defend it, the NOD campaign orders you to secure the site.

The game has some new features. The maps now have dynamic lighting, which allows day and night cycles and special effects like awesome Ion Storms, created by Tiberium. Next to lighting, variations in height have been put in the game. Cities, trees, hills etc. are now higher and an almost 3D environment is created, compare this to the almost flat towns and trees in C&C. Craters and fires also appear on the maps when shells and grenades explode on the ground and on units.

Now about the AI, it has been greatly improved. The unit’s pathfinding is finally done well. In C&C you would have units stuck behind a tree because (for some reason) they couldn’t find another route. Some units can now engage enemies while moving, but only if they have an independent turret. Where in C&C units would walk/drive happy past an enemy unit without engaging, now those units are eager to kill them all while getting to their location. Units are now less likely to drive/walk to a building to fire at it at point blank range.

A short note about basebuilding. Now it’s possible to build your buildings separate from the construction yard. This allows for bigger bases and more spread out defenses. Though the size of your base is limited by the construction range of the yard.

The game features a large number of new units in the game. GDI has access to mechs, the disruptor (a tank using harmonic beams to destroy enemy and friendly alike), the awesome Mammoth Mark II, Orca fighters and bombers, missile hovercrafts. Its infantry hasn’t changed a lot, light infantry and disk thrower (grenadiers) and engineers. Three new units are the jettrooper , the medic and the Ghoststalker (replaces commando)
Nod still has its familiar buggy and the attack cycle. New units are the stealth tank, artillery, the devil’s tongue(a flamethrower tank capable of moving underground), the Tictank ( can deploy itself), the Harpy attack helicopter and the Banshee fighter plane. Its infantry, like GDI, has some new units. The cyborg, the mutant hijacker, and the cyborg commanda (this is next to the Mammoth Mark II, the most awesome units of the game).

To comment the new units. The infantry haven’t had a make-over of their models, so they look alike. The vehicles however are rendered with voxels, these are pixels that don’t have a specific coordinates and that are used to make a 3D image with 2D images. This may sound confusing but this is the way to describe it. So they look a lot cooler.

To close this review, Tiberium Sun has some big improvements compared to its predecessor C&C. this isn’t surprising because Tiberium Sun was released five years later. The AI has improved and the terrain is now worth looking at with craters, sometimes waterfalls and good looking cities. The units are balanced and are not overpowered. So this game is a game worth playing and enjoyed it a lot.

Battlefield 1942 is the first game in the Battlefield series. The game is developed by the Swedish company Digital Illusions CE and published by EA for Microsoft Windows in 2002 and for Apple Macintosh in 2004. In 2004 DICE was purchased by EA. The game also has multiple expansion packs: 'The road to Rome', which featured the Italian Army and Free French Forces, and 'Secret weapons of WWII', which focuses on prototype, experimental, and rarely used weapons and vehicles (Such as jet packs). Battlefield 1942 is the first game that introduced Conquest mode. In Conquest mode you capture various strategic points throughout the map in order to decrease the enemy's reinforcement tickets. If the tickets of a team are decreased to zero that team has lost the game. The game's main focus is online play.

You're able to play on 16 maps in the original version. You can choose to play as either the Allied forces or the Axis forces. The Allies consists of the United States, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, Canada, and the Free French Forces, while the Axis consists of Germany, Japan, and Italy. All nations have five different infantry-classes: Scout, Assault, Medic, Anti-tank, and Engineer. Each class has its own strength and weakness. For example, the scout role has long-range surveillance, high stopping power and the ability to provide spotting for artillery shelling against an enemy position (unlike other games with a similar feature, other player characters must also supply the artillery fire). Assault is the standard class. You just wear a assault rifle, knife, pistol and some grenades. The Anti-Tank class is very effective against enemy vehicles, but useless against other infantry units. The Medic can heal himself and other players, but his rifle is less powerful than an assault rifle, but it is more accurate. The Engineer has the ability to repair damaged vehicles and stationary weapons. The Engineer also has explosives, which are effective against both infantry and vehicles, and land mines, which destroys an enemy vehicle in one hit.

You're also able to change the game's difficulty in multiple ways. You can change the enemy's difficulty or you can weaken your AI teammates. You can also put in more AI players or you can change your death penalty (so when you die your team will lose more than one ticket).

The graphics of this game are great for a game made in 2002, but when you play it now they will look a bit outdated. The level design is great too, and the levels are very big. When the distance is big between your camp and the enemy's camp, you just have to be sure to get some transport, because it'll be a long walk. Unfortunately there is no in-game music, so you'll have to entertain yourself when you die (sometimes you'll have to wait for 30 seconds before you respawn).

Still, this game is great. The online community is still alive and kicking. So if you want to play this game against other human players you can still do that! If you love the Battlefield series and you don't have the game that it all started with you have to be ashamed of yourself, because you must have this shooter.

Command & Conquer is a game released by Westwood Studios in 1995. This studio was founded in 1985 and was based in Las Vegas. Before being assimilated by Electronic Arts in 2003, it was best known for developing games in RTS, RPG and adventure genres. These days the studio doesn’t exist anymore. Its former employees left or joined the ranks of EA, when EA got more and more control over the C&C franchise. The employees that left the studio founded a new studio, Petroglyph.

In Command & Conquer you play on the side of the Global Defense Initiative, or GDI, and on the side of the Brotherhood of Nod. The two factions battle over a strange, alien and crystal-like resource called tiberium, that’s slowly spreads over the entire Earth and infects everything and all.

About the factions:
- GDI: the GDI is in the C&C universe the militarized branch of the United Nations. It came forth from a secret military alliance between the most industrialized and advanced countries that are part of the UN. It became known as the response of the international community to Tiberium and the ever increasing influence of the Brotherhood of NOD. It has access to the most advanced units and building existing in the C&C universe.
- The Brotherhood of NOD: the Brotherhood of NOD is an ancient and secret society that predates most of civilizations recorded history. NOD is a religious cult that follows a mysterious leader only known as Kane.

The 2 factions look almost alike but that doesn’t mean that the tactics used by the factions is the same. GDI has heavy and strong units that are expensive while NOD has weaker but way cheaper units. From this comparison you can guess that GDI goes for a more direct attack. NOD relies heavily on hit-and-run tactics, active camouflage and guerilla warfare.

In almost every battle you start with an MCV, the Mobile construction vehicle that unpacks into a construction yard, or with a construction yard already in place. From that central point you build your base. The usual buildings you would expect in a RTS are here present. Think of power plants, refineries, barracks etc. What caught my eye in C&C is that the more production buildings you have, the faster the production of a unit. So it’s a good idea to have a good number of production buildings at your base. Though this feature is very useful, there is 1 problem that rises the more buildings you have. That problem is that all, I mean all your buildings, have to touch another building. Every building in your base must have contact with the construction yard. This means that your base can become an interlocking puzzle. But the developers thought about that and made sure that every building has a space in front of it where units can move over.

Every building in C&C is used as a tech requirement. So if you want units or abilities that are higher up the tech tree, you are forced to build the required building. When a building is destroyed that was needed for a unit or ability, then the ability becomes unavailable and building the unit becomes impossible.

Your main and only resource is tiberium that ‘grows’ in fields. A harvester, that spawns with every refinery built, collects the crystals and brings them to a refinery. From the collected tiberium crystals, you receive credits of which you can buy buildings and units.

I found some little things in C&C that I found to be annoying. When you order a single unit or a group of units to a spot, they only seem to care how to get from point A to point B. So they ignore every enemy unit that crosses their path and don’t mind being shot at.
Another issue is that a unit tends to get very close to an enemy building to attack it, especially when another unit is throwing grenades at the building or a tank is firing at it.

Now, some good things. The sound when an infantry unit dies is absolutely hilarious, it sounds like someone is ripping his heart out and when it gets run over by a tank you get a nice rewarding splattering sound. The background music is, well good is a big word, it isn’t bad. The maps have been well designed and the terrain looks good for a game from 1995. Graphics aren’t a thing you should look at, that is a thing for games of today.

So in the end Command & Conquer is a good game, with some small irritations. It has a solid campaign that has a combined mission pack of 50 missions, has funny effects and is a good strategy game. I really enjoyed playing this game.

This game was published by THQ, in 2003. The game has been created by Outrage Games, known for games like Descent 3 and Alter Echo. These three games, Descent 3, Alter Echo and Red Faction 2 were the only games ever to be released by this company, because it had a short life as a business, it was closed down in march 2004. Red Faction II was released on Ps2, GameCube, Xbox and Windows. Red Faction II is a sequel to the successful Red Faction.

Red Faction II takes place on Earth in the year 2083. The protagonist, Alias, is a genetically enhanced super soldier formerly employed by the Ultor Corporation. Nano-technology developed by Dr. Capek has fallen into the hands of the EDF (who is now associated with Ultor) and many other terrorist groups. A dictatorship, “The Commonwealth,” has employed Alias to retrieve nano-technology and other data.Eventually the research is claimed for Victor Sopot, leader of the Commonwealth as well as the first antagonist of the game. As Sopot’s soldiers become more enhanced due to the recovered technology, the more he fears them. Sopot sends lessened troops to stop all remaining nano-tech soldiers (including Alias). Alias allies with other soldiers who call themselves “The Squad”.

The Squad quickly fights off the Commonwealth and kills Sopot. As they return to the new Red Faction base, it is revealed that the Squad’s leader, Molov (as well as other squad members Quill and Repta), who is now the game's second antagonist, has turned on them and now assumes control of the Commonwealth. Molov is attacked by another Squad member, Tangier, which allows all remaining Squad members (Alias, and a Red Faction member, Echo) a chance to escape. As the game continues, Alias fights alongside Red Faction members (including Echo, who is killed by Quill), and eventually hunts and kills Quill after she kills Echo. Alias then has his last Battle with the Primary enemy of the Red Faction on the docks before heading into a Sub with Tangier to head underneath of the Statue of Sopot.

Alias proceeds to a Commonwealth nano-tech laboratory where he fights off hordes of processed civilians as well as their new friends, the processed military soldiers. After multiple battles with the processed, he encounters Repta in a dangerous nano-tech electro-chamber. After that, he eventually triggers an explosion to cause Repta to fall into the bottomless pit. Alias continues on and is told by Tangier to blow 3 containers. After that is finished, he meets a processed version of an old enemy, the nanotech enhanced Elite Guards. After fighting the processed version of Sopot Elite Guards/Leaders, he encounters a processed version of Repta (dubbed Repta+). He kills Repta+ and heads completely into the statue, which is unstable from the destruction of the nano-labs. Molov, the last remaining enemy, retreats to the top of Victor Sopot's statue, which is guarded by an army of both nano-military soldiers and Elite Guards. He attempts to flee from the statue with the nano-cell. Tangier is in pursuit of him while he is trying to defend himself with his army of processed soldiers and with his railgun against the two.

Shrike is seen with a new gunship and then betrays Molov, saying "Remember Molov, if we fight, then we finish them". Tangier manages to reclaim the nano-tech cell from Molov's possession and escapes to the observation deck.

For the finale, Alias battles Molov on foot while Molov is in his battle armor with the help of Shrike and his new self-controlled gunship. He destroys his battle armor and they both fight each other in a gun-to-gun battle. After a long fight, Molov is defeated as the observation deck begins to collapse. Shrike, now loyal to The Squad again, saves Alias from the crumbling statue. Depending on the player’s “Heroic” rating, the plot has four separate endings.

So much for the storyline. The game's pretty much a straight-forward shooter without any unique features. You just walk a certain path and kill enemies that get in your way, sometimes you'll have to deal with on-rail-shooter parts in this game, meaning that an NPC drives you around(in some cases flies you around) and you'll have to destroy as many hostiles as possible and try to keep civilians from getting hurt. There are 14 different guns at your disposal in this game.

The graphics in this game are decent, even though it seems impossible to create round objects such as a barrel of a gun, leaving you with octagonal shaped gun-barrels. The enemies and your fellow squad-members are pretty detailed and you can see that there was a lot of effort put into them, even though they talk like hand-puppets. The game uses scripted death-animations for your enemies, which means that you'll see the same animation over and over again. If things explode in this game, especially vehicles, they'll instantly turn into a heap of steel.

In this game you'll be playing in closed environments, pretty much getting from point A to point B. In various parts of the game, you'll be barraged by an infinite amount of enemies that keep spawning until you leave. As far as the level-design goes, there's little variation in types of surroundings, you'll find yourself fighting indoors around offices. In some parts of the game, you're able to destroy objects such as walls, whilst in other parts you can't, meaning that you'll often find yourself wandering around, puzzled about what to do, when the solution is to blow up a wall.

The sound in this game isn't really noteworthy and the music is pretty much absent throughout the game, only on some occasions, usually boss-battles, will you get to listen to some music.

It's safe to say that if you're looking for a standard shooter in order to kill some time, and you're not really looking for something unique or fancy, this game could suffice. If you're looking for a unique or a innovative experience, you should look somewhere else. The game is fun for a while, but can get stale over time. I'd suggest that you don't pay more than $10 for it.

Rayman is the first game I owned for the PC. I got it on my fifth birthday. I'm talking about the original game. I say this because there were some updated versions released years after the original version, like Rayman Gold, Rayman Forever, Rayman Collector etc. Rayman is designed and published by Ubisoft. The game was released in September 1995 for the Atari Jaguar and MS-Dos and in November 1995 for the Playstation and Sega Saturn. Rayman is a side-scrolling platformer in which you collect bubbles, called 'Tings'. When you've collected 100 of these Tings you'll receive an extra life.

Rayman is a special guy, he has no arms, legs and neck and he has a big nose. He usually wears a purple shirt, a red scarf, white gloves and yellow sneakers. The white ring on his shirt has magical powers. Each time when you're granted a new power from Betilla The Fairy the ring sparkles. During the game Rayman will learn multiple powers, such as throwing his fist at enemies, the power to hang, the grappling hook power, the power to fly, the power to run and some other powers which are temporarily.

Rayman's story: In Rayman's world, nature and people live together in peace. The Great Protoon maintains the harmony and balance of the world. One fateful day, the evil Mr. Dark defeats Betilla The Fairy and steals the great Protoon. The Electoons, who used to gravitate to it, lose their natural stability and scatter all over the world. In the now unbalanced world, strange phenomena begin to occur: hostile characters appear capturing every Electoon they can find! The disappearance of the Great Protoon also neutralized all of Betilla The Fairy's powers, and she needs time to regenerate before she can help in any way. Rayman to the rescue! He must free the Electoons, defeat Mr. Dark, save the Great Protoon from its mysterious kidnapper, and restore harmony to the world.

During the game there are a couple of things you can find. The most important things are the Electoons trapped in cages. Other objects you can find are a golden glove (which instantly kills a normal enemy), a shiny glove (you can shoot further and faster), extra life statues, a red P (you'll get more HP) and the earlier mentioned Tings, which you can use for bonus levels to get an extra life, or you can collect 100 of them to get an extra life.

The graphics of this game are timeless, they can even match todays Gameboy Advance games. That's why the game was released for the GBA in 2005, but the quality of the game music isn't as great as on the original version due to the GBA's limitations. And that's a shame, because the game's music is great, it really fits in the game as you can hear in the video below.

This game is a classic, I think it's the best one in the series of Rayman, because of the great music composing and the addictive gameplay. The game also received some awards in EGM's 1995 video game awards: Best music in a CD-ROM game and best animation. You can play this game for hours without getting bored, so maybe you should check it out too.