Black Ops Entertainment has a had a checkered history developing games
for the 32-bit systems, particularly Sony's PlayStation; some games were
horrible and lackluster (the first-generation "F-111 Agile Warrior"), but
others were incredible (Namco's underrated "Treasures of the Deep").
Currently developing for MGM Interactive a " PlayStation game based on the
last year's blockbuster James Bond movie ("Tomorrow Never Dies"), Black
Ops has left its Saturn development kits behind after doing only one game
for the Sega Saturn, a port of their PlayStation spiritual sequel to
"F-111 Agile Warrior" named "Black Dawn". A storyless and fun little
helicopter shooter, obviously inspired by the likes of EA's "Strike"
series, in which you command a souped-up flying machine (that seems
inspired by the early 1980's Roy Scheider flick "Blue Thunder"), "Black
Dawn" suffers from a handful of small flaws that don't " prevent you from
enjoying the thrill of blowing enemy aircraft from the sky and SAM
batteries in the ground.
GRAPHICS / VISUALS: B- (81)
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The graphics are done in a rather extreme low-resolution that, combined
with the basic textures and serviceable use of muted colors (why do most
games with military themes think they can get away with green as their
primary color?), allows for the game to move at a decent 24-30
frames-per-second with brief moments of noticeable slowdown when there are
air battles with plenty of fireworks; considering that the PlayStation
version had constant and slowdown-free 30 fps speed at the same
resolution, the Saturn version has held its own graphic strengths
remarkably well (considering most third-parties screwed their PSX ports).
There is little variety in the terrain, which only changes every four
levels when you move to another continent and allows for Black Ops not to
strain the 32-bit system with too many texture requirement; the advantage
of this lack of background detail is the ability to see deep into the
horizon and spot incoming waves of firepower (both airborn and on the
ground) through some pixelated but well-used foggy effect to mask the
pop-up.
Special effects in "Black Dawn" aren't the light-sourcing marvels those
of us who have several systems are used to, and there isn't a rocket or
explosion in this game that approaches the glorious fireworks of
"Powerslave", "G-Police" or "Rollcage"; although meatier and looking
better than the wimpy exploions of "Soviet Strike" or "Shockwave Assault",
whenever something blows up good in "Black Dawn" it seems like an effect
superimposed (or 'mashed') directly from the CD over an underwhelming
backdrop. There are four viewpoints in the game and, although all have
their advantages and drawbacks (the behind-the-chopper view shows nicely
your texture-mapped machine, but increases slowdown and affects the
control), I believe you will settle for the frame-rate friendly cockpit
view that shows plenty of terrain and controls like butter. Menu/option
screens are very lackluster and done without much thought of style or
layout, but what's there is serviceable; since there is no FMV intro or
storyline other than the instructions and the objectives of every mission,
"Black Dawn" isn't for the eye-candy conscious.
MUSIC / SOUND EFFECTS: B- (80)
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What a lousy little videogame music soundtrack we have here, composed
of guitar and MIDI-like tunes that adapt to the actions of your helicopter
(the music is muted and low when your chopper is just cruising, but it
explodes into Van Halen-lite when the bad guys start shooting) and could
have pumped you into being the Tom Cruise of the videogame helicopter
world... instead of rushing you into muting the TV set to diminish the
uaral pain of the annoying music (but this is coming from someone who
loved the music in "Sonic R", so tkae it with a grain of salt). What saves
"Black Dawn" is a strong and well-implemented selection of sound effects,
which include a co-pilot that warns you and gives you some sound advice
("Let's get the hell out of here!") and allows you to hear the smell of
napalm in the evening/morning (sorry Mr. Duvall :-I) with booming
explosions, crystal machine-gun rattles and the never-boring sound of a
missile lock-on before you take the target down. It's no "Battletanx" but
for an aging 32-bit Saturn third-party game that can be bought for under
$10, if you can find it, but it does its military duty with relish and
asks for seconds. But that music.... ugh!
GAMEPLAY / FUN FACTOR: B (85)
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There are only six continents (or sections), and within each of them
there are four levels that consist of the same textures recycled with
different objectives tacked-on to the repeating scenery: some of it might
be set in an African desert, New York City's Central Park, military
installations in Israel or Red China... but they all look remarkable alike
(same blocky and pixelated textures with different colors) and don't give
too much variety to the 32 missions at hand. This would normally spell
doom for a game that relies solely on the repetitive task of blowing stuff
up over and over again, and even the best one-player shooters ("Mass
Destruction", "Thunder Force V", "Starfox 64") get to be a little 'passe'
after the gazillion time " you spread the ammo around without a buddy to
back you up. And yet "Black Dawn", although true to the rule of the
repetitive shooter, does two things very right that keep the game from
being a failure in the vein of "Shockwave Assault". And they both deal
with tossing realism and " true-to-life situations out the window and
providing the couch pilots who pick up the game loads of playability.
First, your heavily armed helicopter gunship can carry more missiles,
machine gun fire and explosives than the entire NATO forces ganging up on
Slobodan Milosovich as we speak (4/11/99), making your simple helicopter a
ferocious war machine that is packed for the long-run; if you are not
running out of missiles and ammunition in your campaigns (each of the 32
levels is a little short, but extremely intense and certainly hard enough
not to be defeated in a weekend), then you're not trying hard enough to
blow the bad guys back to the third-world they were spawned from. And,
speaking of bad guys, the second thing Black Ops did really well in "Black
Dawn" is provide you with settings and enemy scum that mix hardcore
military reality with the myths of over-the-top action flicks like "Die
Hard" and "Lethal Weapon". Blow up crack houses in the middle of an L.A.
suburb with minimal collateral damage, destroy the SAM batteries and radar
installations terrorists have spread all over NYC's Central Park (what
the...?!?!), save the hostages taken to a foreign country... all unreal
and out-of-the-loop plotlines that, neverthless, give this game an edge of
adrenaline sorely lacking in dull and sleep-inducing beauties like
Acclaim's "Star Fighter".
OVERALL: B- (82)
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Not the best third-party game on the Saturn, but a worthy shooter for
those who can track it and defeat the little action movie cliches Black
Ops packed the CD with, "Black Dawn" should at least be rented to
experience the vicarious " thrill of giving drug dealers a taste of their
own (pardon the pun!) medicine, and that would imply going for the more
accesible PlayStation version. One of the few games Virgin Interactive
published for the Sega Saturn before folding and going the way of "Ed TV",
Ed Asner's career and "New Kids on the Block": showbiz heaven. Oh well, at
least we got spared the pain that was "Heart of Darkness" and "SportsCar
GT".
- J.M.
Vargas
