"Da Wardenz" is the mercenary group that you recently joined as a new member. The group was born in 1994 after a civilian convoy protected by the Special Forces sustained a serious attack in the territory of Mostvia Vatska. The five men that survived the tragic incident were abandoned by the US Intelligence who declared them expendable. They now fight to restore justice in a corrupted world.
The game starts as you find yourself in the Wardenz headquarter, called The Pen. From this point, you can explore the rest of the base and meet the five members of the team. Dogg-Tagg is the leader of Da Wardenz, and before each mission, he will brief you with essential elements you need to be successful. D-Tour is the guy who will accompany you in every operation, and has been chosen for his expertise with armored vehicles. During the game, Earshot will follow up with you for information regarding your objectives, as he is in charge of communications. Further in the game, you may require some aerial backup in the toughest operations. The pilot of "Da Wardenz" nicknamed 9-1-1, will be a precious ally in the battle with his impressive A-10. The last member, Props, is the supply and weapons specialist. You will be able to buy him new pieces of equipment, and repair your battletank in exchange of money earned by completing missions.
Like Thunderhawk 2, Shellshock's missions are diversified by their goals and locations, but oddly, even if the names of the countries are fictitious, the country names and events' resemblance is far too evident to be ignored. From the east European republic that splits into three regions and enters into a civil war to an African country torn away by ethnic wars, there is not a single mission that doesn't rely on true facts. With Muwanda for Rwanda, and Mostvia Vatska for Bosnia-Herzegovina to cite only some of them, every hot spot you happened to hear in the news these few last years have been included in the different scenarios. The only things changed are the names to prevent sensibilities, which evidently facilitated the work of mission designers, apparently lacking creativity!
Despite the poor originality of the missions, Shellshock is a good action game. The first-person perspective view it uses, could have been better if it had nicer graphics than the standard VGA, but the advantage is that the program doesn't need a Pentium to run smoothly. Among the various landscapes in which you will fight there is the Paranaguan jungle, the African savanna, the canyons in Muwanda, cities of the former Slavnia, etc. The game features many 3D elements. There are some you can destroy like small buildings, guard towers, trees, metallic fences, crates and others you can't, such as the large apartment complexes in the cities.
To destroy both buildings and enemies, your tank is armed with several weapons. In the beginning you only have one 240 mm cannon and a 60mm chain-gun operated by an automatic targeting system for airborne and ground units. Later, when you have gained enough money, you can add Surface-to-Air Missiles (SAMs) for aerial targets. In the same manner, you can improve the engine, tracks, armor, reloading and targeting systems for better performances. As you progress in the missions, your enemies will become more dangerous with heavier tanks that require more shots to be destroyed. You will encounter different types of enemies in Shellshock, from guns emplacements to tanks, through gunboats and helicopters.
The tactical map will reveal itself of capital importance when you must locate your objectives. The buildings you will have to destroy will be marked in red on the map, while others will be in light green. You can also spot your enemies on the map, which is handy in a city where your enemies await you behind a corner. Last thing you can identify on the map are the supply crates you can collect while fighting. Props will pay you for each crate you bring back to The Pen, so collect them as much as you can!
Shellshock also features a multi-player mode supporting up to eight players simultaneously. There are many special game features included in this mode such as standard and special pickups that can make you temporarily invisible or give you a multi-shot plasma cannon. During game play, you even have the possibility to taunt your adversaries by sending them messages.
Click here for screen shots.
486 DX2-66 MHz or higher,
Min 8Mb memory,
MS-DOS 5.00 or higher,
Hard drive required with 1Mb free,
Double speed CD-ROM drive or faster,
SVGA video card,
Supports major sound cards,
Microsoft compatible mouse.
Works with Windows 95.
| Graphics: | 78% |
| Sound: | 82% |
| Music: | 90% |
| Gameplay: | 85% |
| Interest: | 75% |
| Overall: | 81% |
US Gold,
303 Sacramento St.,
San Francisco, CA 94111.
| Technical Support: | 415-693-0497 |
| Hint line: | 900-288-4263 |
Internet Support: US Gold Technical
Support
Web site: US Gold
In Europe:
In UK:
See developers.
In France:
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92115 Clichy.
| Technical support: | +33-1-4106-9670 |
