

Immercenary, by Five Miles Out/ Electronic Arts
1 player
Prepare yourself to enter the dark, future cyberspace world of Perfect and it's cybercity known as the Garden. In Immercenary, you are a time spanning virtual warrior who must fight for your own future. Blast through hordes of cyberconstructs ranging from polygonal stickman, abstract 2 dimensional assassins and topless amazonian warriors to a pantheon of cybergods.
	Immercenary is the first project by a company called Five Miles Out and after rampaging through the game, I think it's a safe bet that this company has a bright future. With it's incredibly smooth 1st person 3D engine and cinema sequences that are a mixture of live action and pop comic book art, Immercenary is one impressive title. Essentially another in a long line of games that are known simply as "Doom Clones," Immercenary's designers went the extra mile( no pun intended) to put some truly original spins and features in the game.
	Sporting RPG features as well as standard 1st person blasting power, Immercenary requires some degree of skill and strategy inorder to gain ground. At the beginning of the game, your character is very weak- barely stronger the weakest opponent, which are known as Goners. You'll probably be a goner too the first few times you play.
	In order to gain more strength and lengthen your energy bars- known as the DOA: Defense, Offense and Agility- you must destroy opponents and quickly absorb the static energy field they leave behind. This technique is called "Huffmanning" in the game and if you do it enough, you'll start to see your DOA levels increasing.
	The game gets much easier after you get some strength, but it's never a cakewalk by any means. There are some mean opponents to face off against in the cybercity of the Garden and they like to gang up on your lone soldier as well. The opponents, known as Rithms, are ranked in power. The Goners are the bottom rung and the ultimate being is the insane Sysop known as Perfect1- destroying this creature is your ultimate goal as you struggle to end the virtual nightmare formed by it. As you kill higher Rithms, your rank increases as well and when you are strong enough there are boss Rithms to destroy. The bosses are digitized actors, all other opponents are computer generated.
	Throughout the various landscapes of the city( there is the forest, lake, residential and industrial sections, among others, to traverse.) you'll find colored spires. These spires, depending upon their color, recharge an aspect of your DOA. The spires have a limited amount of energy, however, but get recharged by strange electrical storms that occur fairly often in Perfect. Also, your opponents can use the spires just as easily as you can, which adds a whole new level of strategy to Immercenary. You'll also notice that while on the battlefield, the Rithms are out to kill each other off, just as much as they are out to get you. The Happy Garden this is not.
	In the middle of the Garden lies the DOAsys and this special location adds yet another layer to Immercenary's game system. The DOAsys, known for it's huge, pulsating spire is a safe haven for all constructs. Enter it to recharge your DOA levels without fear as combat is forbidden and impossible in the DOAsys. The DOAsys also gives you the opportunity to talk to the other Rithms that are around you. They give you advice and helpful hints at times and provide useful information. Of course, once you leave the safety of the DOAsys, everybody is back to blasting at everyone else again.
	Even with the Role playing game elements, Immercenary is still definitely a seek and destroy blaster. The Garden is like a huge maze and, unfortunately, even though the scenery is filled with buildings, you can only go into a handful of them. Only the buildings containing bosses are accessible, everything else is just scenery and good cover.
	The graphics of Immercenary were done in the same style as most 3DO games- like Shockwave and Road Rash- and look great, though there is pixilation at close range. There are neat effects throughout the game, like the storms and the way the landscape turns to primitive outlines at times( whether that effect was intentional or not, I'm not sure.). The full screen 3D environment is smooth and does a good job of drawing you into the action and the simple controls make movement seem like second nature. However, at times I did encounter annoying hindrances in moving- either because of an obstacle that was off screen or an enemy somewhere behind, but it proved very frustrating in the heat of battle. The game also doesn't allow you to sidestep cleanly. The Left and Right shift keys have to be pressed repeatedly to side step, instead of just holding either button down to move continuously.
	The sound of Immercenary is also very good and EA's trademark for great sound is ever present. The music and sound effects all keep up with the game's fluid, frantic pace. The soundtrack is very good, catching the various situations and moods. Though, amidst the near constant action of the game, the music tends to become nearly invisible and only subconsciously noticeable.
	There are numerous power-ups scattered all over in the Garden and they do varying things, but only one of them is really a main weapon upgrade. I would have preferred it if the game had more weapon options then just the standard laser that you're always equipped with and the Boomarang weapon( which uses 3 times as much energy.). You can pick up high power bombs, though- including a "Nukem" nuclear weapon. Other power-ups give you extra ammo power, an energy shield, speed and weird effects like force fields that push everyone away from you. There are even power-up balls that make you switch places with other rithms, freeze them and even one that drops heavy objects from the sky.
	The story in Immercenary continually evolves, which is commendable since most games of this type have only threadbare plots and the game itself is very nonlinear. In fact, once you are powerful enough- no matter what your actual ranking is- you can go take out any of the bosses except the last three. And once the first 10 bosses are gone, you take on Perfect1 in a one-on-one duel as the whole Perfect world is starting to collapse around you. On the whole, however, the bosses tended to be pretty easy to beat and none of them really displayed much in the way of any sort of artificial intelligence at all.
	 All told, diehard gamers will probably be able conquer the game over a weekend. Even so, Immercenary should have enough in it to keep you interested long after you beat it the first time. It should also be noted that Immercenary comes with a pretty good set of manuals- one is a sort of hintbook, the other just the instructions. If you find yourself having trouble, the hintbook is very useful- though not all together accurate. For instance, Medusa is very, very easy to kill with your standard laser weapon, though manual says she's virtually immune to laser fire.
	Doom is finally coming to the 3DO and very soon the 3DO market is going to be packed with Doom wannabes, clones and variations. Immercenary, however, contains elements and features that no other game in this genre has. It looks and sounds great, plays excellently and keeps you involved with solid gameplay and an interesting storyline. Definitely another winner from Electronic Arts.
