Posted August 20, 2010
Raptor comes from a time when SHMUPS were fairly plentiful on home computers, when we already had the likes of SWIV, Xenon and Battle Squadron, and Tyrian was already in the works. Raptor itself, however is a very uneven game.
When you look at the screenshots, you can't help but be amazed by the graphics, with large sprites and VGA color. Unfortunately, typical for a DOS game, the frame rate is low and there is very little animation - the initial part of intro sequence consists of six or seven frames blown over several seconds, and it doesn't get better. Furthermore, only the player's ship is properly animated - nearly every other enemy just slides across the screen. The size of all sprites is also detrimental to the gameplay - the actual play area is small, there is little space to dodge and little time to react to new enemies. This, combined with huge inertia and slow movement makes your ship feel like a huge, sluggish brick that somehow must anticipate and dodge shots even before there any actual enemies get onscreen.
The bosses though are a different sort and very predictable - they shoot a bit, pause, the shoot a bit more, pause again, and so on - until either side dies. The only challenge from fighting them comes from tight no-shoot windows, which - combined with aforementioned inertia - might easily kill the player at the slightest miscalculation.
There is a shop system, sure enough, but the weapons only come in four varieties: shoot air in front, shoot ground in front, shoot both in front, or shoot both while tracking, and there's only two or three of each kind. Some weapons are useful, some weapons are bad, but until you get the final, incredibly expensive weapons, you'll have a hard time with most levels.
Oh yes, there is midi music, but it's easily the worst SHMUP music I've heard, consisting of ten or fifteen-second tracks looped endlessly.
All in all, if you wish to revisit your memories, are tired of completing openTyrian on Suicide for the -teenth time, or any other classic shooter, you might give Raptor a spin - just don't expect to be blown away.
When you look at the screenshots, you can't help but be amazed by the graphics, with large sprites and VGA color. Unfortunately, typical for a DOS game, the frame rate is low and there is very little animation - the initial part of intro sequence consists of six or seven frames blown over several seconds, and it doesn't get better. Furthermore, only the player's ship is properly animated - nearly every other enemy just slides across the screen. The size of all sprites is also detrimental to the gameplay - the actual play area is small, there is little space to dodge and little time to react to new enemies. This, combined with huge inertia and slow movement makes your ship feel like a huge, sluggish brick that somehow must anticipate and dodge shots even before there any actual enemies get onscreen.
The bosses though are a different sort and very predictable - they shoot a bit, pause, the shoot a bit more, pause again, and so on - until either side dies. The only challenge from fighting them comes from tight no-shoot windows, which - combined with aforementioned inertia - might easily kill the player at the slightest miscalculation.
There is a shop system, sure enough, but the weapons only come in four varieties: shoot air in front, shoot ground in front, shoot both in front, or shoot both while tracking, and there's only two or three of each kind. Some weapons are useful, some weapons are bad, but until you get the final, incredibly expensive weapons, you'll have a hard time with most levels.
Oh yes, there is midi music, but it's easily the worst SHMUP music I've heard, consisting of ten or fifteen-second tracks looped endlessly.
All in all, if you wish to revisit your memories, are tired of completing openTyrian on Suicide for the -teenth time, or any other classic shooter, you might give Raptor a spin - just don't expect to be blown away.