"More like Mistaken"
The first thing you will notice about this game is the horrible amount of logo’s and advertising at the beginning! It’s horrendous. Look at the cheat codes for a way to get to the actual game without wafting through screen after screen of junk. Once you finally get into this Descent-inspired corridor based shoot-em-up, it’s a real toss up as to whether you are going to enjoy it or not. I didn’t.
For those unfamiliar with this genre, you fly a space vehicle through various tunnels (?) with total 360 degree movement, shooting at enemies and of course, picking up powerups. You are not on a track like in Starfox, so you can backtrack and fly back to areas from whence you came. It is seek and destroy mission based gameplay, with you against insurmountable odds. Blast or die!
Right out of the starting gate, this game takes some getting used. Because Forsaken gives you such freedom of movement, it is actually quite disorienting. Using the first person viewing perspective (Doom-like) is the most visually confusing because what you see is where you are. However, don’t mistake that for a criticism. If you really were flying a craft like this from that perspective, that’s the view you’d get. The third person mode is okay but ineffective as your see through craft is too big and tends to hide important things like enemies. Since this game takes place in a confined area, don’t expect to be flying around at breakneck speeds. It’s quite the opposite in fact. The movement falls in to the move a bit, shoot a bit, move a bit more, shoot a bit more category. Not exactly invigorating on-the-edge-of-your-seat gameplay.
One thing I must mention is the music. Man, it is ANNOYING. Turn it off. It’s not techno like a Wipeout soundtrack, it is repetition ad nauseum.
The graphics are very good and high res, so yes, Forsaken, looks pretty. Soon you’ll realize that it’s wall textures that are all you see. Whoopee. The enemies look like they were a quick after thought, with not a lot of imagination expended on them. The bosses were pretty ho-hum as well.
This game didn’t hold my attention for too long. It’s another game for N64, which is about a good as thing as any to say about it. On the plus side, I have heard that the PlayStation version of this very same game is much better. I don’t know if that’s true but it is worth checking out. I can’t even recommend this one as a decent night’s rental. Kudo’s however, do go to Acclaim for not trying to slap some bogus license on this title and making it infinitely worse. Forsaken stinks on it’s own, and somehow that is better.
Final Analysis: