Bedlam
Preview by Al Giovetti, 09/15/96
Price: TBA
Genre: action
Release: 4Q 1996
Developer: Mirage
Producer:
Art:
Music:
Programmer:
Publisher: GT Interactive
Phone: 800-305-3390
Website: http://www.gtinteractive.com/minisite/bedlam/intro.html
Requirements: Windows 95

History: Syndicate by Bullfrog, a real-time isometric, overhead oblique third person view combat game, was released and the public enthusiastically responded with dollars. After Syndicate came Crusader: No Remorse by Origin and Domark’s Total Mayhem all futuristic, Blade Runner-like settings with an extremely violent premise in an absolutely morally bankrupt world. There are a plethora of real time strategy games and some tend toward action, so it will be tough to stand out from the crowd.

Plot: Mirage, another company based in Brittain, is trying to repeat the formula that made these other games successful with Bedlam. The earth is overrun by malfunctioning BioMech droids. Spacers are a race of people who were born and have stayed in space their whole lives in zero-G space stations. Their bones are more brittle and their muscles weaker than other men.

In order to save the earth from the BioMechs who have caused a terrible amount of damage to the earth, the Spacers sign a deal to clean out the mechanical infestation in exchange for the salvage of destroyed or damaged components. You take the role of the Spacer mercenary who must use three Spacer combat droids to defeat the BioMechs in a series of 25 missions in five different industrial zones and the intervening wasteland in a totally linear plot line.

Interface: The mouse controls everything. A left lick moves a robot to a location. A right click fires the active weapon. The weapons and BioMechs are many and varied. Weapons include needle cannon, grenades, flame bombs and a Nuke explosive, which seems to be very popular in games today. The biomechanical robots are intelligent and deadly with a variety of different types with different characteristics.

Multiplayer: Two multiplayer modes include cooperative and head-to-head. The cooperative allows players to control one robot each up to twelve player on network or internet, with each player working toward the mission objectives. The head-to-head, deathmatch or free for all (FFA) mode will have twelve players enter the game on a network with the goal of killing every one else.

References:
Trent Ward, http://www.gamespot.com/previews/bedlam/index.html