Introduction

Just what is Immercenary?

It's a first-person action-role-playing-game! And it was exclusive to the mid-1990's video game console known as the "3DO Interactive Multiplayer".

3DO? What's that?
Maybe 25% of gamers aged 25 or older have even heard of a 3DO.
10% of those have ever seen one.
1% of those owned one. I'm one of them.

3DO came out around the same time as the Super Nintendo. It had a CD-ROM, which allowed the games to pack in a lot of content. Usually, this content showed up in the form of music, voice acting, or full-motion videos (FMV's). The other killer feature was the ability for the 3DO to handle basic real-time, textured 3D graphics.

Well gosh, 3DO sounds pretty neat. I'm sorry that I ever made fun of it.
Yes, yes you should be sorry.

There were a lot of missteps in 3DO's history (like the $700 price tag at launch), but the console wasn't bad. There sure were a lot of crappy games, but this is true of any console. Considering how adoption of the console was pretty low, 3DO had a surprisingly large collection of games.

Many of the best 3DO games have either been ported to or from the 3DO, leaving less reason to actually own a 3DO. There are not a lot of good 3DO exclusives. However, this game, Immercenary, is definitely one of the good exclusives.

Hold on a second, bub. I just checked the master list, and someone else already LP-ed Immercenary!
Apparently someone else has tried about 5 years ago, but it was abandoned. Bummer. I also can't access it because it's deep in the forum "archives". Currently, the only 3DO game with a complete LP is "D".

Worry not, this game is full of 90's-era goofiness, and deserves a full LP. There's a reason it was one of only three 3DO games with a Let's Play attempt to its name.

Tell me more about, this... Immercenary
It was created by Electronic Arts, one of the better 3rd party developers that contributed to 3DO titles. It uses a first-person perspective, and includes cutscenes with live actors!

The game takes place in a "dystopian future" in which everyone plays a virtual reality game. This virtual reality is all within a big virtual city. Everyone gets a "rank" and your power goes up with your rank. Sounds pretty sweet to me, but apparently everyone's miserable inside this virtual reality, and your job is to kill the head honcho, a guy named "Perfect". If you play this game, you'll spend a lot of time stat building.

If you find that the game holds your interest, there's a very extensive article for this game on Hardcore Gaming 101: http://hardcoregaming101.net/immerc...immercenary.htm

Who are YOU? Why are you doing a Let's Play of this game?
I'm MrDudeManGuy. I also go by JohnnyDude. I'm a long time reader of Let's Play's, but first time contributor!

I've owned four 3DO consoles, and the CD drives just kept dying (those consoles got pretty cheap: $40 each!). Luckily, a lot of the games I loved, like Star Control 2, have been ported to other systems. Immercenary never got this treatment, and had never been all that well emulated. When played on the most well-known emulator, FreeDO, the game didn't look right and would freeze up at certain points of the game. So, this game was doomed to survive only with the meager few that could retain the dying hardware.

FreeDO eventually went open source. So, I worked on a new derived emulator, 4DO, to help get 3DO emulation to a better place. I'll be using 4DO for this Let's Play. Immercenary is one of the games that I gave special attention to. For example, because I'd had Immercenary's visuals burned into my retinas as a child, I was able to use the game to fix some of the alpha-blending in the graphics processing! So, arguably, all those hours of playing an obscure game for an almost-forgotten console had truly paid off. I use this fact to justify my occasional gaming binges, and so should you.

Like most people, I'm Let's Play-ing this game because I loved it and want to immortalize it in some way. And now you won't even have to play it!

So, should I play it? Has this game aged well?
Erm, well, maybe. You have to be patient to get started with it. I also think that you can stick to it as long as you are aware that the game gets easier as you play it. It took me a long time to realize that there was any stat-building going on. If you make it 1/4th of the way through the game without being severely peeved, I could safely say that you will like the rest of it.

It has aged better than most 3DO games, that's for sure. If you've never heard of "Plumbers Don't Wear Ties" (another 3DO exclusive!), you owe it to yourself to look it up!

Any audience participation in this Let's Play thread?
Possibly. You can't name your character, unfortunately...

There are several "bosses" in the game, and I think it's possible to do them out of order, which provides the obvious potential for a vote! When I get there, I'll test this out.

The Let's Play Archive

Immercenary

by MrDudeManGuy

Introduction

Table of Contents