THE First 1st Person Game - Feeling nostalgic?
BANG - a 3D FPS hits the market and wowed us all. This is the original FPS on PC that had you single handedly escaping from the German war camps whilst gunning them/Naz' down or a quick stab to the back. It doesnt stand up to the 21st century games but this was the true start for 1st-person-simulators. You needed a top system to run it then but now it runs too quickly. There was nothing like it seen before.
The levels were massive and kept you occupied for days. In fact the levels were too long at times, some even confused hek out of me. There were no maps in those days. This was where we also saw different difficulty settings. There were secret hidden walls but this ended up with you hitting the space bar all night trying to find them.
The 3D environment surrounded you with nice graphics and plenty of secret passages. Kept me going for hours. Dont expect great sounds either, instead rely on that internal beep noise.
Typical scenario of getting from A to B, collection treasures, health and ammo to end each level with a Boss.
Game play was simple and effective but probably difficult to design back then; certainly somewhat jerky for todays standards. AI was basic stuff, by simply passing a point you'd activate the guards to come at you; simple strafing had you blitzing them down. Having said that you can only take a few hits before seeing the red screen where you die. Saving at every opportunity prevents frustration.
And yes Doom came shortly after, but just remember the home PC market was only just taking off. This game set a trend. There were no frills on this game, just masses of fun; it set the scene for the FPS generation. For those who played it when it came out, it was spectacular, however today you would pass it off as an antique. One for the history books.