Cyberia(NA)

From 3DO World
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Overview

  • Full Name: Cyberia
  • Code:
  • Type: Action, Adventure
  • Developer: Xatrix Entertainment
  • Publisher: Interplay Productions
  • Language: English
  • Release Date: 1996
  • Region: NA
  • Barcode: 0 40421 29084 0
  • Local Title:
  • Rarity: 1
  • Notes:

Overview

In the year 2027, the world is controlled by two rival superpowers, the western-bloc Free World Alliance and the east-bloc Cartel. Transmissions from an FWA spy reveal the location of a secret multi-national laboratory deep within Siberia, the Cyberia Complex, where a mysterious weapon is being developed. FWA leader Devlin frees a cyber-hacker named Zak from prison and sends him to infiltrate the complex and discover the true nature of the Cyberia weapon.

Unfortunately, the Cartel is also interested in the weapon and will stop at nothing to get it. Not only must Zak make his way past the Cartel forces sent to stop him, but he must also overcome the Cartel agents which have already seized control of the complex. To make matters worse the Cyberian scientist's genetically engineered creations are running rampant in the same area as the weapon and Devlin also appears to be have something up his sleeve.

Cyberia is an action game with puzzle sequences and a heavy reliance on scripted events and cutscenes. The game allows limited navigation between locations, which usually lead to a puzzle or (more often) action scenes that involve either shooting down planes with a gun turret or navigating various flying vehicles, destroying enemies in a Star Wars: Rebel Assault-style confrontations.

Game Play

Cyberia uses prerendered visuals during gameplay, and boasted impressive graphics for its time. While mostly linear, there are two points in the game where the player makes a decision that can change important outcomes. There are four basic methods of gameplay which Cyberia employs: exploring the environment through walking (from node to node), attempting to complete puzzles in a full screen view, using a gun turret to shoot down planes, and flying in various vehicles. Direction and speed during flight are computer controlled; the player controls weapons firing. Vehicles include the TF-22 Transfighter stealth jet, a nanotech virus cleaner, "Charlie" the remotely operated decontamination robot, and the Cyberia weapon itself.

Weapons and methods of attack are few in the exploring sections of gameplay. Attached to Zak's suit is a heat pulse weapon that can be fired from Zak's arm. The only other modes of attack during the walking portions of the game consist of traps that must be set to outsmart an enemy, which goes hand-in-hand with the occasional demand for stealth. For the gun turret portion, two heat-charged energy blasts are released from each side of the turret when Zak fires it. When flying the stealth aircraft, Zak is able to dispense continuous bolts of blue energy at the cost of the aircraft's power supply. When controlling the virus cleaner, Zak is able to do likewise. The "Charlie" robot adds a new form of attack: a weapon which kills all enemies on the screen at the cost of a decent amount of the machine's energy. A similar electrical energy weapon seen on the virus cleaner is also used when Zak is joined with the Cyberia weapon.

The various puzzles in the game can range from requiring the player to figure out the password on a computer to disarming a bomb on a stealth aircraft. Zak can use his suit's BLADES (Bi-optic Low Amplitude Displayed Energy System) to scan the current puzzle in several ways for help in completing the puzzle. The three modes of Zak's BLADES are as follows:

  • InfraRed/Thermal Scan - Detects heat traces and marks left in the InfraRed spectrum. This scan is very sensitive, and thus very accurate.
  • Magnetic Resonance Imaging - Allows Zak to "look through" a puzzle object to determine an item's function and the way it operates.
  • BioScan - Scans the area for organic matter in a limited range.

Puzzle difficulty and arcade difficulty are set in the beginning of the game, but setting both to "easy" is not permitted; if the player attempts to do so, the game will inform the player that it will be "too easy." Arcade difficulty controls the toughness of the combat in the game (both on the ground and in the air).

Plot

Cyberia is set in the near future of the year 2027, five years after a global economic collapse. The world is under the dominion of two opposing superpowers, the First World Alliance in the west and the Cartel in the east. William Devlin, the leader of the FWA, receives word that a devastating weapon is being produced in a secret base in Siberia, referred to as the Cyberia Complex. Curious to unravel the mysteries of this weapon, Devlin pardons a cyber-hacker named Zebulon Pike "Zak" Kingston and charges him with the task of infiltrating the Complex and retrieving intel on the weapon being produced there.

Already getting wind of Cyberia's secret operations, the Cartel seizes control of the Complex with the same goal as the FWA–to discover the nature of the super weapon being produced by a third party. Zak is scheduled to rendezvous with an oil rig run by an FWA-contracted mercenary group managed by Luis Arturo Santos and his assistant Gia Scarlatti to pick up a TF-22 TransFighter, a sophisticated aircraft that will ensure Zak's arrival at the Cyberia Complex. Shortly after arriving the oil rig is attacked by the Cartel. After Zak and Gia defend the rig using gun turrets, the mercenaries, sensing betrayal, move to kill Zak by hunting him down and sabotaging the TF-22. Zak eventually steals the TF-22 and travels through several hostile locales en route to the Cyberia Complex; a mountain range infested with Cartel hoverfighters, a Cartel-run oceanlab, and a commuter tunnel are among the places visited by Zak. Eventually, the TF-22 reaches the Cyberia Complex and Zak proceeds to wreak havoc on the Cartel's analysis efforts.

While exploring the Complex, Zak encounters more than Cartel soldiers, as he is forced to eradicate the Complex scientists experimental virus which killed some of the Cartel soldiers. After purging the virus from the Complex, Zak uncovers the Cyberion, an amorphous collection of miniature robots, or nanites, that has achieved sentience. Devlin then contacts Zak and informs him that the cyber-hacker himself is a weapon, which Cyberion explains to mean that a high-yield explosive device has been implanted into Zak's brain. Upon reaching the Cyberion, Devlin had intended to detonate the device from orbit, eliminating the weapon and killing Zak simultaneously. Zak, frustrated over Devlin's betrayal and upon Cyberion's suggestion, merges with the Cyberion which defuses the explosive device in Zak's head. Together, Zak and the Cyberion launch into space to confront Devlin in the FWA space station. The station's defenses are slowly crippled until the Cyberion and Zak make the final move and kill the treacherous Devlin by destroying the station. The resulting shockwave causes the Cyberion/Zak amalgamation to lose consciousness while it plummets to Earth. Upon crashing, an FWA retrieval team led by a Doctor John Corbin is heard hoisting up the remains of Cyberion/Zak into a helicopter.

Reception

Despite the praise over the game's aesthetics, reviewers found shortcomings in Cyberia's linear gameplay.

Magazine Reviews

Name Date Region Rating Notes
Video Games Mar 96
65% Grafisch macht Cyberia massig was her. Man sieht deutlich, daß hier Fachleute eine Menge Arbeit reingesteckt haben. Die spielerischen Qualitäten von Cyberia können da leider nicht so ganz mithalten. Trotz packender Story und, bei höherem Schwierigkeitsgrad schweißtreibenden Action-Sequenzen, wird mir bei Cyberia etwas zuviel zugeguckt. Ein paar Sekunden zuschauen, ein Kommando, wieder zuschauen, wieder ein Kommando, dann ein Fehler, und die ganze Szene nochmal - das sorgt nicht gerade für Hochstimmung.
SuperGamePower May 96
64% Está chovendo Cyberia na horta dos gamemaníacos. O game surgiu no PC e passou pelo Saturn (ver Detonado) antes de aparecer no 3DO. Você joga na pele de Zak, um hacker que andou roubando e agora está nas mãos do governo. Para escapar da morte o cara teve de aceitar uma missão tão kamikaze quanto eu: infiltrar-se no complexo Cyberia e descobrir o que rola por lá. O trabalho da Interplay é de primeira. Pena que a imagem ficou meio embaçada.
3DO Magazine Apr 96
60% You play superspy Zak in a varied and ambitious FMV package including plenty of arcade action and brainteasing puzzles. Well presented with excellent music from Thomas Dolby, but ultimately rather repetitive and frustrating.
  • - Need review page

Other Versions

Cyberia was originally released for MS-DOS, with Playstation, Saturn and FM Tower versions released after.

The Saturn version of the game supports the mouse and mission stick in addition to the standard controller. The 3DO version supports only the standard controller and flight stick. The PlayStation version is one of the few games compatible with the PlayStation Mouse.

Sequel

Cyberia 2: Resurrection was released in 1995 for MS-DOS and Microsoft Windows as a sequel. It features the same gameplay as the original with improved 3D-rendered graphics and an increase in the amount of in-game cinematics.

The story picks up where the first game ended. After Zak and the Cyberia weapon crash land back on Earth following the destruction of Devlin's orbital headquarters, they are intercepted by an FWA team led by a Dr. Corbin. Corbin, under orders from his FWA employers, places Zak in cryo-storage and uses the remains of the Cyberia weapon to create a deadly virus called nano-toxin. Though the FWA seeks to quell a growing rebel movement with the nano-toxin, the maniacal Corbin intends to use it to kill millions and "reshape the world as we know it." After three years in cryo-storage, Zak is thawed out by a renegade FWA major, and together the two of them set out to find Corbin and stop his plans.

Unlike its predecessor, it featured a rock soundtrack.

Credits

  • Director Drew Markham
  • Project Manager Franck De Girolami
  • Producer Joan Wood
  • Art Director Robert Stahl
  • Computer Animation Barry Dempsey
  • Technical Director Barry Dempsey, Michel Royer
  • Director of Digital Photography Jason Kaehler
  • Real Time Integration August Johnston
  • Lead Programmer Pierre Schiro
  • 3D Modelling Jason Kaehler, August Johnston
  • Lighting Barry Dempsey, Jason Kaehler
  • Animation Barry Dempsey, Jason Kaehler, August Johnston
  • Character Animation Todd Gantzler, George Karl
  • Map Painting Robert Stahl, Claire Praderie, August Johnston, Drew Markham
  • 2D Animation Claire Praderie, Ronnie Joe Blackburn, August Johnston, Mathew Beane, Drew Markham
  • Human Character Articulation Engine John P. Ornelas Jr.
  • Programmers Franck De Girolami, Pierre Schiro
  • Writer Additional Elements James B. Thomas
  • Additional Puzzles and Inspiration Chris Morrow
  • Production Assistant Ronnie Joe Blackburn
  • Business Affairs John Batter
  • Coordinator Kimberly Weeks
  • Production Secretary Elizabeth Storz
  • System Administration Stephen R. Goldburg

Headspace

  • Composer Thomas Dolby, Mike Kapitan
  • Sound Effects Alberto Garcia
  • Sound Mixer Clif Brigden
  • Project Manager Laurence Faso
  • Administration Mary Coller
  • Voice-Over Supervisor Laurence Faso
  • Voice Over Talent Drew Markham, Kathleen Beller, Philip Lewis Clarke, Roberta Farkas, Jocelyn Blue, Greg Berg

Interplay

  • Producer Dennis M. Miller, Shanti Bergel
  • Technical Writer Nick Doran
  • Cyberia Book Writer James B. Thomas
  • Cyberia Manual & Book Designer Ulises Gerardo
  • Manual Editor Bruce Warner
  • Director Quality Assurance Jeremy S. Barnes
  • Assistant Director QA Jim Boone
  • Quality Assurance Lead Derek Bullard
  • Testers Lawrence Smith, Daniel Huffman, Savina Greene

Linked Titles

Media