Here's a PC game from Apogee that I played as a kid. Back when I first got the Apogee's Greatest Games CD, I couldn't play this because the game locked up as soon as I shot something. I had to wait until I got my own computer to install the game and play it, and even then, I only had the first episode.
You are Snake Logan, a top-secret operative for the CIA ordered to complete missions that others would regard as suicidal. One day, Snake is called into headquarters and briefed on a situation that has arisen in Metro City. It seems that thousands of monster-like creatures are on a rampage of destruction through the city. Many thousands have already died, and Metro has declared martial law just before losing all communications. Snake is ordered to take a plane, fly recon over the city and then return.
Authorities receive communications from a man calling himself Dr. Mangle, just before the city is overrun. It states that Metro is to be an example of what will happen to the rest of the world if all factions of government do not comply with his wishes. Snake is then given a file of Elmo Whitecliff, alias Dr. Mangle. It seems that Dr. Mangle was once a top scientist for Operation Bug Glow, a top-secret genetics research firm.
Operation Bug Glow was a mission to take ordinary insects and mutate them to achieve extraordinary size and intelligence. Elmo was making excellent progress when he suddenly disappeared. Efforts to find him has proven unsuccessful, until now. It seems that not only has he succeeded in mutating the insects, but he has also spliced some very violent genes into the mix. Snake loads his recon equipment and his M60 pulse rifle into a civilian-looking Cessna, and departs for Metro.
While Snake Logan is flying recon over Metro City, suddenly, bolts of light appear all around him, hitting his plane many times! The plane loses engine power, and Snake is forced to make an emergency landing on a street in Metro. Losing all hope of getting back to HQ, Snake quickly gathers what resources he has, and sets out to find the source of this destruction.
If you start the game in the middle of the demo mode, you'll start out with how many keys the player in the demo had when you left it. That's really weird, and I didn't realize this until after I recorded this video. Weird glitch, that. (I think that's what's going on here.)
The default controls are the arrow keys for moving around. Control for Jump, Alt for Fire and Enter (or Up+Alt) to throw a grenade. I set them to C, X and Z, respectively, to give myself an easier time. You can also play the game with a gamepad, but I just use the keyboard. Page Up and Page Down let you look up and down, respectively, and these two buttons will come in handy, especially in the later episodes. Pressing Space tells you what you have on your person right now as well as how many points you will need for an extra life.
Downtown Metro
Man, this place is devastated. The people are dead, with some of them even half-devoured.
If you go behind the plane, you'll find some grenades and a machine gun. The machine gun lets you fire faster by holding the shoot button, but only have 90 shots. Grenades can let you attack over walls. The gems give you an extra life if you collect 50 of them. The keys let you open doors by pressing Up in front of a door. If you find an item, press Up again to take it.
By holding Up or Down, you can climb up and down ladders.
Monsters include the purple blobs that will move towards you and lunge at you in close, and the green trolls who will punch you if you are next to them.
If you find a busted-open window, use Up to go into the building.
Continue beacons act as checkpoints; in case you lose a life, you'll return to the last one you touched instead of the start of the level.
To activate a switch, press Up in front of one and you will press it. You'll have to look around to see what you messed with, however. You may get platforms moving or you may move floors, ceilings or walls out of the way
The shard is placed in a shard-shaped keyhole that is the same color as the shard. If you walk into the wall to the left of where you find the Blue Shard, you'll find a few red grenades that travels forwards and shoot out fireballs when they explode as well as the Plasma Bolts, which do a lot of damage. You'll need the shard to rescue the hostage here. The hostage will give you the key to the exit, which you'll need to place in the chip slot near the exit .
First Aid icons restore all your health.
Never touch electrical barriers. They will kill you on contact.
By finding a switch you can explore the building all the way to the left side of the level fully.
The Super Gun is just like the machine gun, except it does five time more damage. Use it wisely. Thankfully, if you have a special weapon equipped when you pick up another one, you'll save the ammo you previously had for after you use up the one you just got. The game keeps track of how many "clips" you have, and you can see how many you have when you press Space. Of course, to switch to a clip, you have to press the fire button once when you're back to the default shot to load it, which can be annoying at times.
The sparkling white-and-blue star gives you a ton of points.
The switch with the X affects the thing where the X is seen elsewhere in the level. By tripping the "X" switch at the exit, you can get rid of the bridge above, go further up and get some bonus stuff.
Be sure to save your game when you reach a new level. Of course, when you load a game, you'll start back at the beginning of the level, but you will also have full health when you do. Keep that in mind if you start a level with low health.
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