Part 1: Episode 1: Intro and Plot Dump
To watch the intro video yourself, go here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuCu8BUClXYThere's plenty of opening video to sit through. Starting the game up now!
What you see here is a splash screen. Please excuse me while I spout some trivial 3DO information.
All 3DO games have a splash screen when they boot. Some of the better developers made use of the "custom" splash screens. I personally think you can tell the better games with this little mark of quality.
For example, all "Studio 3DO" games have custom splash screens. Most crappy PC ports do not.
I think all "Electronic Arts" games have this splash screen.
This is the end frame on an old-style Electronic Arts splash video.
Does Electronic Arts even make anything other than once-a-year sports games anymore?
Next video!
Some metallic guy.
This guy is apparently the mascot for "Files Miles Out". He's be tossing us a green ball...
I know pretty much nothing about Five Miles Out.
However, this opening video was still interesting to me for one reason...
Their mascot is one of the three forms of the final boss of this game! It will either be this metallic robo-guy, a beefy skinhead guy, or a nekked babe. This fact reminds me that I'm going to have to put some censorship bars in this thread to keep it work safe.
So, yes, there's nudity to come, but it's very minor. Come to think of it, I respect that the game didn't seem to draw unwarranted attention to the slight bit of nudity in the game. When I was a young boy with this game console, this nudity was pretty dern sweet.
Anyway, we see these three final boss figures in various places in the game.
On to the next video, the real intro.
Brrzz! Brraafffffft! You're seeing some fake signal distortions there. Segments like these are going to make me wish I did a video LP.
The character you see here is Raven. I think you only learn this if you run into her in the game and ask for her name. The "characters" in this storyline are not really prominent in the game, and I won't be making a big deal of them.
I believe the area behind her is "the Arena", an area of the game. There seems to be a big screen TV on it, which has a slideshow going. Currently, on the right-half is another character/boss named Chance. I never noticed the image on the left before. Looks like some guy in a bathrobe. I suspect that's supposed to be one of your predecessors (we'll meet one of them, Number Four).
Anyway, she starts talking to you:
Raven: "Listen to me, for your own sake, your children's sake, and the sake of every generation to come."
Raven: "Listen to me, and behold your future. What you now know as virtual reality will in your future become a virtual armageddon."
Raven: "Your children's children will become enslaved, and forced to fight each other to the death, unless you listen and do what I say. I know what must be done, but I am powerless to act on my own. We must have a warrior from your time. Someone outside this world we call Perfect."
Raven: "Here's the information you need. Analyze this data, and you will see that everything I say is true. You must send us a warrior to destroy Perfect. Analyze the data... everything is in the data."
I kinda wonder where they got that font from. Some of it is decipherable.
*Gasp* The video cuts out.
Hey, I think the DRAM and VRAM values are actually correct for the 3DO hardware! Wow!
Someone make note of June of 2027 for us. Apparently we'll be deep in dystopian future by then.
And the intro video is over.
By the way, I'm documenting the videos just for completeness. Immercenary's story never really held my interest. I'm not really expressing an opinion here, either. It's just a fun game, dammit.
Now we're at the main menu. Selecting "New Game" starts us off.
To watch the "new game start" video yourself, go here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMnWjIEpjpE
The "present day" year is actually 2004. That message from before was from the future.
There's no significant dialog for a long time.
We see a guy in what looks like a dentist's chair.
The cinematography is a little difficult to explain. The different rectangles on the screen are individual images that could be "playing" at any moment. This isn't a cost-savings mechanism, though, the whole screen is actually playing a video. The areas of the screen that are not currently playing are showing up blurry. It's kinda comic-book like.
Notice, this man is "Number Four", seen on the badge on his shirt.
He's balding a bit, yet he has a mullet. This is hard to spot, but I found it amusing when I played it. If the actor of this game finds me out for this, I'm sorry.
Wuh oh! This wild apparatus is cooking his brain!
"Dr. Collier!!" (I don't know how this is spelled)
"What happened!!"
"We're losing sync. We've got to pull him out!"
Oh no! Injection fumble!
There are plenty of videos in this game. I don't think this black guy shows up again. "Number Four" probably won't either!
Yep, he's dead.
So, everyone looks sullen, and they cut the power.
The cleanup crew saunters in. Just another day at the office...
Some doctor guy shows up.
Doctor: "Are you ready, Number Five?"
This was good for a chuckle. The body's not even cold, and they're calling you in!
Even after seeing all the videos, I don't really know if the game was intentionally trying to be hammy. The videos communicate the story at a good pace, in my opinion.
So, your character starts following this Doctor character down a stairwell into the previously-seen set.
Here they are rolling off "Number Four".
Some gal with a clipboard says to the doctor: "This is all we got from Number Four!"
They even painted on their unusual font onto this stage prop.
There's that font again. That's not a TV screen, just some backlit transparent display. A lot like on Star Trek: The Next Generation.
There's your seat! So, your character sits down and looks around...
Your character looks up and sees a red tube with sparks on it.
That's the loading screen. You see it whenever you enter the program (the program being "Perfect").
Doctor: "We haven't determined what happened yet. But, be careful in this area. This is where we lost contact with Number Four."
He points to a portion of the "Perfect" universe's world map. To my knowledge, that map is accurate to the game!
However, I don't think he actually pointed to anywhere of interest. That's a bit of a red herring, so don't expect anything there.
Doctor: "I think they're ready whenever you are. Good luck number five."
Girl: "Waveform status."
Guy: "Approaching Synchronous Status.... Waveform Sync... Check."
Girl: "Interference patterns."
Guy: "Zero point five milliseconds.... Forward... Check."
Girl: "Ready to link."
Guy: "Jump in Three... Two... One..."
That's the end of that video. Then it's straight to the loading screen...
You see this fairly often, and loading takes up to 30 seconds. But, after loading, everything is "streamed" in game as you're roaming around, and you don't have to re-enter this loading screen. It's quite nice, for it's time. It's just one of those things that keeps this game bearable to this day.
And so the game has started, and we now have control of the character. And now to explore virtual land of "Perfect". Woo!
On the exciting next update: We don't die because I know things that the game has yet to tell you!