0 to Z of Playstation 1 Games - Apocalypse

      

Apocalypse is a third person shooter developed by Neversoft and published by Activision the game was released on October 31^st 1998 in North America, in November of the same year in Europe and the following year in Japan on the 22^nd of September 1999. The game is a single player game with the lead character Trey Kincaid voiced by Bruce Willis, his likeness was also used for the main character.

Apocalypse is a multidirectional 3D third person shooter, the player uses the left analogue stick to control the main character while the right stick is used for shooting in which ever direction the right stick is pointing, movement can also be handled by the D-Pad and shooting using the face buttons.

The shoulder buttons handle jumping and ducking as well as the changing of weapons, the current weapon selected appears in the top right of the screen along with a horizontal red/yellow/green bar and a vertical blue coloured bar, the blue bar indicated ammunition levels while the multi coloured bar is the players health.

The game is pretty basic the levels are linear in nature with the player progressing through and shooting enemies a little platforming in some of the levels the game has four boss battles with the four horseman, the game went through major changes during development with Kincaid originally going to be a non playable sidekick that was changed and as a result Willis’s vocals were dramatically reduced to mainly the odd one liner.

A hugely talented but evil scientist named The Reverend has created a powerful theocracy (Think Vatican City or Iran) based on the idea of a rapidly approaching apocalypse, using his great wisdom and scientific knowledge he creates four powerful horseman of the apocalypse War, Plague, Beast and Death to ensure that his plans for the apocalypse come to pass.

Trey Kincaid is the only man with the knowledge to stop The Reverend, with Kincaid a former college of the now deranged Reverend, however Kincaid must first escape from jail in order to stop The Reverend, the Horseman and save the world.

A good mix of reviews for this game ranging from very good to average starting with the best first as usual which comes from Gamezilla who scored the game a very impressive 93 they had the following to say. Activision scored a winner with this title, and it's a game you'll want in your collection. The graphics are the best I've seen in a PSX game, bar none, they were critical of the games sound however with the review saying it would have been a 100 had it been better.

Three reviews follow this all scoring the game a 90/100 Adrenaline Vault said, This is a simply beautiful game. If you’re looking for a high-octane shooter, there is nothing better on the market that you could put your money on. While Absolute Playstation had the following to say.

Certainly this style of gameplay is nothing new and has been done a few times before, most memorably with the game "ONE", but Apocalypse has taken this design and player presentation and perfected it. The game plays out like a non-stop action picture with death and destruction around each and every corner. The graphics, while not the absolute best ever seen on a Playstation game, are rock solid and attractive with enough special effects to make things intense.

GamePro praised the ichi trigger finger non stop action they also praised the look of the game as well, Dutch publication Power Unlimited summed up the game in one sentence with Running, jumping, rolling, popping, sweating, shitting, laughing, yawing, roaring: these are the key words for those who want to describe Apocalypse in a nutshell, they scored the game an 87/100 while German publication Mega Fun were just two points lower on an 85.

At the other end of the review scores is Electronic Gaming Monthly who praised the good looks of the game however once that gloss was removed it was a pretty simple shooter with an identity crisis dramatically switching between frenetic action and hyper sensitive platforming in their 65/100 review.

IGN praised the games use of the Analogue controls in their 70 rated review and concluded the game will keep you engaged at least for a couple of hours, GameSpot criticised the changed perspective of the game saying, Since all the voice work was written to work with Trey as your sidekick, it all sounds like he's talking to someone that isn't there. Plus, what was left in really isn't very good.

This is the part of 0 to Z where is visit four online retailers and see what the availability of the title is, and what price you would be looking at if you wanted to pick this title up, the sites that I will be using for this are Amazon.com, eStarland.com, retrogames.co.uk and Gamedude.com I know the last one is very location specific, but from a podcast I listen to, I've heard they have a huge stock of older games, Ebay has now been dropped unless the game is unavailable at other retailers.

So lets get down to business with Gamedude, if you are looking to trade in your copy of Apocalypse then Gamedude will pay you just $1 for your copy, if you are in the market for a copy then you will be looking at an outlay of $5.

Heading over the pound to Retrogames.co.uk who have a single copy currently available, this copy is in excellent condition and can be picked up for £7 this is for the PAL version of the game so will not work on Japanese of North American consoles.

eStarland.com is up next where we find just the one used copy of the game available, this is a copy that comes without the original case and is priced up at $9.38, eStarland also off a trade in for this game and will pay $5.50 for a copy of the game. They also have the strategy guide for the game available a used guide is priced at $2.95 while a new copy is priced at $4.95.

Like a few recent titles the cheapest copies on Amazon are either incomplete or disc only copies with prices ranging from $6 to $10 for one of these. If you are looking for a complete copy then you are looking at around £13.50 for a good quality copy with a very good copy just a $1 more, with prices for a used copy reaching as high as $30.

New copies of the game are available with prices starting at around the $41 mark once you have added in the shipping costs with prices for a new copy extending well beyond that with the current high price sitting at around $80.

Written by

P J Gibbon