17th August 2023, already? So
it's time for me to play "militaristic lone wolf" game as celebration
of my country's independence day. Who else is the most famous
"militaristic lone wolf" other than John Rambo. So i play Sega's Rambo III (1989) for this occasion.
The game starts with image of John Rambo with wipe appearance animation then shoot the iconic explosive arrow to reveal the title along with some trademark claim. I have bad news for you. The explosive arrow doesn't work in real practice. According to some page in rambo.fandom.com. It's not aerodynamic thus it lacks of effective range and accuracy. Besides the explosive tip is too small and it can only emits minuscule explosion at best. I think dynamites tied around the arrow Looney Tunes style can works better than Rambo's explosive tipped arrow.
As for the main menu. It's pretty dull and boring. There's 2 player mode but it's not 2 player cooperation mode like what you have in mind. It's 2 players alternating mode where switch between you and your friend everytime one of you lose a life or finish a level. It's not interesting game mode but it's pretty common back in the day. Hang on! I recognize that hand cursor. It's the same with the one in Mystic Defender or Kujakuō 2: Geneijō albeit the hand is on the left side of the menu. Back in the day i owned both this game and Kujakuō 2: Geneijō. So i'm quite familiar with this Rambo game.
The story begins with 3 jeeps run in desert and later destroyed by a soviet helicopter one by one but they spare last one in the back. Logically, the easier target is the one on the back, right? Anyway, Colonel Trautman is in the last jeep and they capture him.
As you can guess. Only John Rambo can rescue him in solo suicidal mission. The image of Robert Griggs informing Rambo about the situation, is kind of low definition but the image technology is very old. I give them a break.
Mission 1 is "Infiltrate Enemy Lines!". I do so by stabbing Soviet soldiers one by one as they come out from this truck. The driver could come out and deal with me but no. He choose to escape because he value his live and truck over revenging his comrades. Coward!
The control is as follows: D-pad to move Rambo around. "A" button to switch special weapons in descending order. They are, from top to bottom: knife, the iconic explosive arrow, and time bomb. "B" button to use the special weapon. "C" button to fire Rambo's light machine gun. You probably think why not kill enemy soldiers with machine gun as John Rambo will do? First, killing with knife also what Rambo does in First Blood and Rambo II. Second, it's the most consistent way to get item in this game. Sometime enemy don't drop item when killed with knife but that's rarely happen. The chance is 10% at most. Although i said that, killing enemies with knife is extremely dangerous. Not only enemies will open fire immediately if you miss with the knife but also they're lethal to touch. It's unthinkable for the iconic rugged manly lone wolf as Rambo to die with skin contact alone but it happens in this game.
There's some item to pick up there. This is first level so they are generous but only for now. The items are "A" icon for extra arrow, "B" icon for extra bomb, and lastly also the rarest of all is smiley icon for extra life reserve.
Some enemy is reckless as he jump from high ground and later gunned down by Rambo instead of shooting from the height. On the other hand, this Soviet soldier stay on the guard tower and shoot Rambo from the height. Unfortunately, Rambo can't aim any of his weapon to reach the enemy. However there's conveniently placed explosive barrel near the tower. Rambo can destroy it by using the iconic explosive arrow or he can just place time bomb at the foot of the tower. Back in the day, there's no game standard that explosive barrel always in red (whereas in classic Doom, the barrel is grey). So you have to get used to explosive barrel is purple in this game.
There's another military truck with routine of unload 4 persons one at the time before run away. Unfortunately for the driver, there's trench up ahead so he can't escape from Rambo's wrath. The truck may be out of range of explosive barrel but single explosive arrow can destroy it. I don't know about you but the explosion in this game resembles huge fat ginger or is it just me.
You know the first boss of Contra, don't you? It's a wall armed with guns. Well. i hope you don't get too excited over first boss in Rambo III because it's also wall armed with gun. But kudo to Sega to make the boss fight in top-down perspective instead of 2D platform like in original Contra. Also Sega add 2 guard tower each on its side. Bomb the towers and shoot the wall until destroyed. Nuff said.
But hold one there's more to it than that. After running pass the level, Rambo tighten his headband and fight the helicopter with the bow just like in the movie. By pressing "B" button Rambo will charge up his draw, indicated by power bar on the bottom. The stronger the draw, the more powerful the arrow shot. But naturally, the gunship won't stand idle. It can also shoot or fly around left and right or up or down. While charging his bow Rambo can aim around with D-pad and while not charging his bow Rambo move left and right with D-pad. Moving him to the rock on the side to avoid gunship's shot is the only dodge maneuver what Rambo has in this section. You also need to take account of arrow's travel during your aim.
Soldier_negativevocalization01.wav. I don't get bonus score because i take too long to finish the level. Maybe that's because i take too much time waiting for the enemy soldiers come out from the truck one by one.
Rescue secret agent? I don't remember there's secret agent in the movie.
So this level is stealth mission...but not really. There's no penalty to just go gun blazing as Rambo should do. There's bit of elaborate on enemy's ai where the patrol in fixed pattern and that's the chance for you to stab them hopefully getting some loot. But sometime they can notice Rambo even when he's out of their (imaginary) line of sight. The stealth element kind of crude. I doubt i will put "stealth" tag for this game.
I find one of prisoner but this one is not the secret agent. I have to search this prison until i find him. Strangely Rambo can cut open the cell with barrage bullet. Good luck trying do that in real life. The way this mission works is as follows: The prison has 3 cell: in the west north section (which is this one), west south section, and east north section. Whoever the last you rescue is the secret agent. In my experience, the one in east north cell is the closest one to exit so save him the last and the exit only open when you rescue the secret agent. I can't tell you the detail of prison layout because it's too complex but you can easily memorize it if you play it 2-3 times.
Here's the east north cell. The corridor leading to it, is pretty narrow filled with orderly patrolling soldier so this section is perfect for knife kills. Not only you get loot but also you get stackable bonus point with knife kill.
By the way, check out the inside of the cell. There's no furniture at all. Not even a bench to sit or sleep and a bucket to dig a latrine. Soviet's prisoner is forced to sit on floor and take a leak in the corner. The humanity! 3:
Scout_sf13_magic_reac03.wav. When there's bomb activated in this place? The mission briefing never tell me about this!
During escape part, enemies will be more aggressive attacking Rambo. Turrets on the wall become active during this time too. You can see one of them destroyed there. I got lucky to be able to destroy it while the soldiers are hot on the trail.
What's the benefit of rescuing the secret agent? He tells me the basic trick of diversion. Bu the thing is that tactic only works well when there's 2 group: the diversion and the main task. The diversion group attack other part of enemy's base as distraction so the main task can carry on with the vital objective smoothly at the same time with the distraction. But in this case, Rambo is only alone. No need for the distraction tactic that's just wasteful extra effort. Rambo can rescue Colonel Trautman sneakily instead. But stealth is not Rambo's thing. He will kill every enemy and destroy any part of enemy's base whatever he like.
Also "clusely" is clearly typo from "closely".
So we're on our way to the enemy's arsenal. In front of me, there's untidy pixel of grass. That's not bug or glitch. That's enemy disguise in bush cartoon style. Obviously, you can kill him with gun nice and easy. But you can also stab him and give him taste of irony of sneak attack. But be careful doing so as he can jump on you and remember enemies are lethal to touch.
There's a line of guard tower so i can jauntily run near them and set bomb. Demoman_specialcompleted10.wav
In this open field, enemies like to set bomb time of their own. They can easily be defeated with machine gun firing however their activated bomb still possess threat even when they're dead. Be mindful of that.
On top of the bombing soldiers, there's also enemy's jeep. Because it's armored, machine gun won't work on it. You have to use either arrow or bomb against it.
What's more interesting boss battle than wall armed with gun? How about 2 of it? Not really. But that's what it is here. *Sigh*
Ok, this is more like it. Although there's no scene where Rambo taking on tank using arrow in the movie. Although the tank can only move left and right, but it's more challenging boss fight than the chopper due to its stronger armor. The tank takes titanic amount of hit to destroy it. It's like try to burn an iron anvil with matchsticks.
Here we're. In the arsenal. My objective is to destroy any weaponry until the counter "Hit Ratio" reaches 100% and then exit the building. Like in prison, the exit only open once the mission objective is fulfilled. These huge crate with nuclear symbol is one of the weaponry. I'm not sure what's the thing inside of it. Young Werdito assume it was miniature tank powered with nuclear so i go with that. There's also smaller crates with "Sega" trademark on them! Maybe these Soviet gits put their weapon into the "Sega" crate to trick their capitalist enemies. Each of these crate destroyed worth 4% into the counter.
In this game there's some explosive crate with cardinal arrows on it. You can destroy it to create line of explosion in 4-way a kin to bomb in Bomberman. Demoman_specialcompleted12.wav
To be honest, i'm kind of lost here. I can remember the prison's layout but for arsenal's. I'm partially forget about it. I thought the way to progress is in southern part turns out it's on the northern part of the map outside of the room with big crates like in the screenshot.
Next thing that Rambo need to destroy is choppers. There's no auto-targeting or strafing feature to deal with these enemies in open space better. But there's one feature that probably suit for this situation. When standing still, Rambo firing his light machine gun in sweeping motion left and right. It's pretty handy to kill group of enemy besides it only takes 1 bullet to kill each of them. But i think the bullet spray has decreased rate than when firing while running. Therefore the bullet spray is not ideal for concentrated fire.
Rambo can also shooting his bow in 8 direction when he charging it up. But he's locked in spot when doing so.
Did i say, the exit is open when the mission objective is fulfilled? That's fairly inaccurate. The truth is this gate can only be destroyed when the mission objective is fulfilled. Either way, you can't exit the premise without completing the mission objective first.
Mission 5 called "Penetrate the fortress". I assume that's where Colonel Trautman being held. Tank fight in interior of the fortress seems unethical but it's effective against Rambo. If he can mow down soldiers easily, might as well as bring tanks against him. But the tanks have quite significant weakness, they can't aim north or south so Rambo should place himself besides them. But it's not easy as the tank cannon's projectile is fast and they can aim diagonally. Because Rambo can approach them harmlessly besides the tank, the best method to destroy them is using bomb.
There's helicopters parked inside of the fortress. I instinctively plant bomb near them although destroying them is no longer main objective. But at least i can kill my pursuer with the bomb. They're dumb as rock.
Things getting more difficult as this corridor is guarded by camping tanks on the parking bay. I'm forced to walk up to them and set bomb. But the problem is enemy soldiers keep spawning behind me. I can barely escape from the bomb on time.
At the end of that corridor is these 3 garages that keep spawning Soviet soldiers. I forget what i have to do in this part. That purple control switch look suspicious but i can't destroy it with any of my weapon. Turns out i there's limited amount of spawn on each garage. Once i kill all of enemy soldiers, the middle garage is blown to reveal exit way.
Now, we're fighting the helicopter again but the fight is in stereo. It takes more than twice the time when i defeat solo helicopter because they taking turn to shoot me thus lot harder to aim safely. Fighting helicopter in urban area reminds me of my experience in Heavy Fire: Shattered Spear. But in that game i fought the helicopter with portable rocket launcher which is -needless to say- better weapon against armor than (fictional) explosive arrow. I wish i had rocket launcher for this boss fight.
Finally, we get to rescue Colonel Trautman! Soldier_battlecry01.wav
There's nothing else to offer in this level than in previous ones. Except, different maze layout but that's barely exciting. There's these anti-air guns and i can't destroy them because they're just decoration. Demoman_negativevocalization04.wav
Great! Another dead end. Not even the unfinished floor on that corner can cheer me up. Maybe Soviet doesn't have much budget to finish this room's floor. Oh look, train tracks! Train track usually landmark toward progression like in arsenal map. So if i go to the area where the train track lies, i will be in the right track of progress! Theoretically. Hopefully.
Guess what? Col. Trautman's cell is freaking near the train track. I was damn right! Once i destroy the cell, colonel quickly run to the train track like being chased by dozens Soviet soldiers. Oh, wait! We are chased by dozens Soviet soldiers, for real.
The final boss fight is tank and helicopter. Remember when i said the boss fight with two helicopters takes long time? Well, this boss fight takes even longer time than the duo choppers. Personally, i deal with the tank first because it's much easier to hit (although takes significantly more arrow to defeat than the chopper). There's another difference between the chopper and the tank. The chopper shoot 2 projectiles whereas tank only shoot 1 projectile. But it doesn't matter anyway as it only takes 1 cannon fire to kill Rambo. So what matter is the hit projection. Chopper has wider hit projection so it's harder to dodge.
With the final boss fight finished, Rambo wins and return to America with Col. Trautman. I think those are Mousa and Hamid witness departure of Rambo and Trautman on jeep. There's no helicopter attack in this scene which is a hint that Soviet Helicopters are nocturnal and can only attack jeep at night only. Why Soviet fear of second Vietnam? Soviet won that one, right? That's why Vietnam is socialist republic and not democratic republic. Maybe the excuse is to cover up that Soviet no longer have tank and helicopter in Afghanistan land because Rambo destroy them all. Anyway, the end.
Sega's Rambo III (1989) is quite good top-down shooter game. It's pretty simple yet unique. Each special weapon is useful. Use knife to kill enemy soldier in close range and get item drop. Arrow is good against military vehicle and kill a line of enemy soldier. Time bomb is useful to destroy tank in close range and guard tower. But also good against chasing enemies. Luckily, they don't have neither sense of self preservation nor intelligence to stay away from the bomb. Although enemy soldiers in level 2 and beyond has ability to throw high explosive grenade. It can travel through any terrain, including walls! Because there's no ground indicator where the grenade lands, you're forced to take guess where and can feel paranoid about it. The game has (unwritten) 3 continues which is quite lacking. I played this casually until i realize that the continues are limited. When i'm down to last life, i start using savestate. However each stage can be finished quickly. Therefore it doesn't take too long to finish the game. Maybe half an hour without taking account of replaying. Bullets can be identified distinctively. Rambo's bullet is red and travels pretty fast whereas enemy's is black and travels slow. So ideally you can win gunfight against enemy soldiers quite easily unlike in Front Line. Speaking of enemy soldiers, they're not bullet sponge. It takes 1 bullet hit to kill them. So you can live up the imagination of Rambo's mowing down enemies with machine gun which is very relevant. Also i like that they're given different color uniform on each stage. The boss fight is rather monotonous. It's like cat-and-rat chase. You hide on the side when tank/helicopter attack and you take small potshot when it's save. If only Rambo has whatever strong machine gun is powerful enough to destroy enemy vehicle that's wielded by unknown soldier in Cabal. The sound effect is pretty good. The graphic is quite remarkable although i'm still bothered with explosion's shape like ginger.
Rambo III (1989) is very alright. It's solid good top-down shooter with monotonous boss fight sadly. Someone at Sega think hard for the boss fight then they remember that scene where Rambo destroy helicopter by using the iconic arrow and modify it, make Rambo fights tank, duo helicopter, and helicopter-tank combo. Also there's no presence of Mujahidin (Afghanistan Freedom Force) in the game. I think they're quite big deal in the movie. All things considered Rambo III gets my recommendation.
I'm very sorry for the delay and there will be another delay because i'm forced to change my OS. See you later!
