PO'ed: Definitive Edition

I can't speak to the extra elements as I'm speaking from memory of the 3DO version, but PO'ed was a big game with big ambitions and limited means. It actually handled fairly well and looked great compared to the other FPS games on the 3DO, half of which were botched ports and half were similarly weird, experimental titles (Iron Angel of the Apocalypse, Immercenary.) You also had dull Doom clones like Escape From Monster Manor, but catch me some other time if you want to hear about that atrocity. See, in 1995 the FPS was a fresh genre, so people were constantly trying to anticipate where it might go next. Immercenary was one of the first to have a wide open world map, and PO'ed tried to get away from tunnel gameplay by making mind-shearing levels you had to explore with a jetpack. The results were usually interesting but full of the kind of mixed bag hit-and-miss design you'd expect. In the case of PO'ed, you're treated to equal doses of frantic, flight-enhanced combat with enemies swarming you from literally every direction, but also an equal amount of confusing backtracking and getting lost in these insane levels that were often as tall as they were wide. And keep in mind, when I praise the controls, I'm comparing it to other 3DO shooters. They didn't come close to beating Doom or Duke. You can get good with the controls here and have a lot of fun, but you can also slip up and wobble around a little too often to call this a great game. Plus, it really was a personal project that got a full game treatment, and can feel unfinished. PO'ed was also a funny game, if psychedelic weirdness and non-stop farting is your bag. I'm not judging, I ate it up as a kid. It was a good contrast to the (admittedly corny) seriousness of mainstream shooters. My recommendation, which I will follow, is to wait on a sale. PO'ed is a worthy curiosity, especially if you want to see the path not taken in FPS games. Wouldn't mind seeing a bundle of this, Iron Angel, and Immercenary.

I never thought I'd see PO'ed on a modern system, for this reason alone it should be bought, but let me tell you about the port. It's faithful to the 3DO original (so no Boot Camp that was in the PSX version) and Nightdive have done a great job of upscaling the sprites for modern resolutions. There are a couple of instances of low resolution sprite (such as a few frames when you stop attacking using the drill). Sound effecets are all present and correct as well, and the sound those green slimes make still creeps me out. Controls are faithful, but weapons witching works with the mouse wheel now (although be careful not to cycle past the last weapon and end up at the beginning again, like I did a few times.) You may find it a bit tricky to play at times due to how fast he moves when in run move, but I think you will get used to it. The actual game itself is a mixed bag, the levels make almost zero sense, ammo is really scarse (unless you get the power ups that can double or triple health and double ammo, from within the secret levels). While the levels are mostly random geometric shapes, they are quite spacious a lot of the time, allowing you to fly around in your jetpack firing missiles at everyone. The best weapon in the game (and in almost any FPS really) is a controllable camera mounted missile, so you fire it off then you control where it goes and you see the view from its perspective. It has 2 of the most annoying enemies ever in the entire world, and they are both flying enemies, especially the red demon thing that shoots teeth at you. They react very quickly and turn around on a penny, so you will miss them very often. Only 2 weapons are useful at hitting them, and one of them runs out of ammo quickly. Objectively it's an average game, for its time it was pretty advanced (Jetpack before Duke Nukem 3D), and has some satisfying weapons to use, with levels that make you go "Why?" For what it is (a forgotten 90s FPS) you need to check it out.

Um es kurz zu machen: Man muss beinharter Shooter-Fan sein um dieses skurrile kleinod zu zocken. Skurril bedeutet in diesem Fall, das das Spiel nicht zwingend schlecht sein muss, es hat eben seinen ganz eigenen Charme. Als riesengroßer Nightdive-Studios-Fan musste ich mir dieses wundervolle Remaster natürlich zulegen, vielleicht nicht am Tag 1 aber nun habe ich es mir geholt und ich zocke es sehr gerne. Die Nightdive Studios haben bewiesen, das April-Scherze durchaus auch mal ernst gemeint sein können und dieses mal auf eine sehr unterhaltsame weise. :-) Man fühlt sich nicht verschaukelt, sondern man bekommt eben das was man eben haben wollte: Eine Reise zurück in die spät 90er Jahre. Auf der ersten PlayStation habe ich POed sehr gerne gespielt, damals günstig vom Trödelmarkt gekauft und zuhause sehr gemütliche Tage damit verbracht und jetzt kann ich das wieder haben. Mir ist doch vieles in Erinnerung geblieben (Po-Alien auf zwei Beinen, muss man sich erstmal ausdenken ^^) und genau deswegen kauft man sich in erster Linie dieses Remaster. Zur Unterhaltung und nicht um das beste Shooter-Game aus der alten Zeit zu haben. Unterhalten tut es, aber man muss verglichen mit heute viele Abstriche machen, aber vielleicht will man solche "skurrilen Kleinode" heutzutage wieder haben... weil es einfach nur albern war und spaß gemacht hat.

I love it. It's the cheesy B movie of video games.