The Chaos Engine

 

Also known as: Soldiers of Fortune
Developed By: 

• The Bitmap Brothers

Published by: 

• Renegade Software

Designer:

• Simon Knight
• Eric Matthews

Programmers:

• Stephen Cargill
• Mike Montgomery

Artist:

• Daniel Malone

Composers:

• Richard Joseph
• Farook Joi
• Haroon Joi

Platforms:

• Amiga
• Ataria ST
• Amiga CD32
• MS-DOS
• RISC OS
• Sega Mega Drive
• Super NES
• Mobile Phone

Release dates:

ALL:

• March 1993

Players: 

• Single player
• Multiplayer

Genre:

• Top Down
• Run and Gun

Check pricing here:

https://www.pricecharting.com/game/pal-super-nintendo/the-chaos-engine

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Box Synopsis

Six hard-nosed mercenaries, armed to the teeth with over 25 weapons and a host of special destructive devices, enter the World of Chaos to destroy The Chaos Engine and it's maker, Baron Fortesque. Choose two to form your party and take on the mutant creatures over four graphic worlds and 16 levels loaded with fiendish traps, puzzles and secret pssages.

Can you deal with the ultimate killing machine?
  

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Gameplay

The Chaos Engine is a top down run and gun game set in a steampunk Victorian aged realm. The player's objective is to survive 4 worlds and then destroy the engine in a final battle.

When you begin you can make up your team of two unique classes that evolve differently as you progress. Each character has a unique weapon, gadget list and starting stats. The more expensive characters have higher damage output and as you go down in cost they loss damage output but increase speed or have a useful item.

Once play begins the objective is to safely clear the starting area and then work your way along a path to the exit point. The path is not usually straight forward an requires the player to battle along and find how to access the next part.

Pathways are usually opened by defeating hordes, finding keys, shooting objects or activating nodes. Nodes are required to open the final exit and the number required is shown on screen.

All loot gathered between the two mercenaries is pooled and available to spend after every second level. On this upgrade screen, you can buy more lives, upgrade your stats, power up your weapon and buy new gadgets when they are available. As you power up your weapon it also changes the way it functions.

Once the player successfully passes 4 levels of a world they progress to the next world which changes everything design wise apart from playstyle. Once you have completed the 4 worlds you are required to destroy the engine and safe the world.

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Controls

Directional pad - movement

L - Rotate character anti clockwise

R - Rotate character clockwise

Y - Use 'special' item

X - Cycle through your partners 'special' items (1 player mode)

B - Fire/shoot

A - Cycle through your 'special' items

Select - Switch 'special' item with partner (1 player mode)

Start - Pause

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Game Videos

Introduction

Gameplay sample

Upgrading explained

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Shanwow's Review

Story and Gameplay: 2 point

The Chaos Engine is a top down run and gun game developed by The Bitmap Brothers and released to Super Nintendo and other consoles in the year 1993. It is set in a steampunk Victorian era.

The story is quite present at the beginning of the game but unfortunately it doesn't continue growing while you play. There are no in game story elements except for when you finish the game.

The gameplay is fast and dangerous and plays over 4 worlds with 4 levels each with the final boss challenge.

The game has a total of 1-2 hours play from start to finish.

Controls and Features: 2 points

The controls for this game are pretty simple and work well. It does use quite a bit of the controller layout but for a majority of the time you only need movement and shooting.

The controls do slightly change based on if your partner is a CPU or player. As a single player you can swap gadgets with your partner.

This game uses a handful of features that allows the player to choose how they want to play by the use of character choices, upgrade screen and changeable gadgets. That concept makes the game very appealing because you can always change tactics when you restart.

There is also a super handy password system for continuing.

Design and Difficulty: 1 point

This game looks pretty good for what it is and runs well unless your surrounded by foes. The character sprites look neat and the enemy designs change throughout which is refreshing.

The run speed of the game is solid and maintains throughout except for a few spots where you get ambushed and the screen fills up.

It's all about slowly progressing through this game as you will die fast when ambushed. The enemies aren't hard to dodge at distance but they explode when hit doing a bit of damage.

There are no continues in this game and your life bank is increased by collecting pickups, earning score or spending money!

  

Fun and Summary: 👍 +1 point

The Chaos Engine is a difficult title however the maze like levels, abundance of loot and password system help keep it fun.

It can be quite a drag trying to keep the AI alive so they can help and that is why I would recommend playing with a mate.

If you don't have that ability, don't be shy when experimenting with your team setup.

The Chaos Engine isn't the best top down gun game out on the console but it does deliver a unique experience with it's upgrade paths.

I say it would be a difficulty of around 8/10 and will require lots of practice and persistence but you can always return at a later date thanks to the passwords.

Issues:

• No difficulty setting
  
• No continues
• CPU is pretty useless
• Lives are hard to find and earn

                     RetroRating: 6/10