Onslaught (Genesis)

In late 80 to early 90s, there's number of games with barbarian protagonist which inspired by Conan the Barbarian. I reckon Nextgrand's Onslaught (1991) on Sega Genesis/Megadrive is one of them.

That's awesome title screen. Although there's misinformation here compare to gameplay: 1) No one wield axe 2) Those giants with intimidating helmet are nowhere to be seen 3) Assuming that female is 2nd player, this game only for 1 player 4) Also no playable female character. There's DOS version of this game but i persist on playing the Sega Genesis version because DOS version has less bright color tone (probably because it's released in 1989) and Genesis version obviously has easier control scheme (on 3-button controller) than random buttons on keyboard.

 

As per usual i check the option menu. Good news! There's control scheme this time unlike the terrible sport game Riot. But what's this "mode"? Ok. I have the manual at my disposal. Moreover it's for Sega Genesis Version, for real. Unlike when i reviewed Riot, i have to resort to manual for different version than i played. Let me see. Mode is about item management method, there's 3 mode: 1) Tutor, is automatic on both picking items and item selection 2) Assist, picking items is automatic but item selection is manual. 3) Human, is manual on picking items and item selection. First time, i use the "tutor" mode and it feels broken. So i decide to use "assist" mode this time. I let difficulty at "amateur" because i don't think i can take on "professional" difficulty.   

 

Once i hit "begin game", it leads me to this strategic map immediately. There's no backstory here unless you read the manual. Gargorian rules the land with dictatorship. A kingdom under that reign is Kingdom of Strakmar which is ruled by Donkar. After 20 years of cruel dictatorship of Gargorian, Donkar decides to carry a (vague conspiracy) plan to liberate his peace-loving people but he fails to do so. Thus he's imprisoned to death. Balthusar, Donkar's only son along with several loyal warriors revolting against Gargorian reign. Not only for the sake of avenge Balthosar's father but also to liberate not only Strakmar Kingdom but also entire land, from Gargorian. We assume the role of one of Balthusar's warrior  who wear nothing but leather short, how ensuring [medium sarcasm]. You can see the player's status on the left of map. You are given randomly generated name. In this case, i assume someone named Grimuz and his status is "scum". Thank you, game! [Strakmar Kingdom-sized sarcasm]

In this map screen, i can move the cursor with D-pad and selecting area to attack with "start" button. Brown squares are enemy's territory. The red area is our territory. You're given 1 area which is your homeland. For now i can only have access to 2 brown areas or that shiny circle area. Shiny circles are magic temple which i will explain later on. From now, i choose this Gobrot's territory to attack.

 

There's Grimuz, chilling near the ladder safely. Luckily, enemies won't turn around. They are either keep moving to one direction or standing still while manning the artillery. The control is simple: left or right on D-pad to move. Up on D-pad to either jump or ascend a ladder. Down on D-pad to either crouch or descend a ladder. "A" button to scroll item selection to left. "C" button to scroll item selection to right.  "B" button to use selected item which mostly weapon to deal with these enemies.

 

Turns out i can move around the siege safely from ground level. Take this mace from behind, my dear enemy! Clonk! Hey! Come back here so i can kill you for real! Unfortunately, their artillery counts as separated unit from its operator. So if the artillery destroyed, the operator will bail safely and you have to chase after him if you (really) want to kill him. This spiked mace is pretty shabby weapon. It requires significant time to swing, with short melee range, and deal the least damage. But you can hit enemies in the back or front during swinging animation. If you happen to exhaust the mace (which requires 8 times usage), it will spawn in your inventory after some time.

 

Then i found small crossbow. I never thought to see a barbarian character using smarter weapon like crossbow but here we are. Killed enemies will drop item but it won't last for long. Naturally, these melee chumps are easy target for this crossbow weapon. On the other hand that cannon that partially shown on right side of the screen, is not easy target for the crossbow because it attacks me from distance and there's bit loading time when i shoot my crossbow. Luckily cannonball can be easily avoided by jumping over it.

 

This naptha bomb is perfect to deal with artillery nest. Because it emit explosion that last quite long, it can destroy both artillery and the one who man it. The bomb also perfect for clearing mine as Jurassic Lost World taught me long time ago. Why yes! There's mine that explodes if you step on it in this game. See the one behind soldier who's in front of me. Yes. That blinking yellow sphere. That's the one. It can only detonated with either naptha bomb or your feet. If you happen to out of weapon, you can step on the landmine and the explosion can kill enemies near you at the cost of your health. Pretty lots of it, in fact.    

 

Suddenly, Grimuz kneel and weep. What happens? Maybe he can't take the horror of battlefield that filled with dead bodies anymore? But i think the dead bodies is neat decoration. Let me read the manual. I see! Do you see the flag meter on both left and right inventory box? If it's filled to the top, my battle flag is captured and enemies win by occupying the battlefield. If you let enemies run to offscreen, the bar will be filled. So ignoring enemies, is not good idea.   

 

Because of that loss, i'm forced to defensive side which is not different in function than in battlefield except with different layout. This time, my health is depleted. Game Over. The health bar is on the most right of the HUD. It's red scroll and it will drain as you take damage. The blue scroll on the most left of the HUD is energy meter. If either health/life or energy meter depleted to zero, the warrior is dead and it's game over. Although i have no idea what's energy meter for or how it depleted. Not yet.

 

I retry the game but this time i use control mode Tutor. As you can see, it's broken. I can just spam "B" button mindlessly and i win. I won the battlefield and now i'm into offensive stance where i storm enemy's castle, alone like always. But when i have these demons at my side, who need companion of low soldier, right? You can see that i swing mace on thin air lots of time. That's because i try to get rid of the mace so i can pick more demonic summon weapon. There's no command to discard weapon, you see. Ok. Let's retry with control mode Assist again, next.

 

This time , i'm playing as Naffskum. You can see enemys status in area that you want to attack, on the right of the map. The most important status is: warband  which gives you the idea what army composition on the battlefield. For example: Mercenary consists of knight, spearmen and ballista. Ballistic consists of soldier, ballista, and cannon. Hillman consists of soldier, ballista, and spearmen.

 

WHAT THE FREAK IS THAT THING? According to manual, it's called tower. I wonder how it's able move back and forth? Maybe it's powered with pedaling from chaps on bottom level. This is mounted unit. It carries certain on-foot units and it's able to give you damage contact if it runs over you. Like artillery, destroyed mounted unit will spawn related units that was within it. In tower's case, 3 spearmen will be spawned when it's destroyed. You can dodge spear by crouching but you will get run over by the tower itself.

 

My general tips should you play this game is: obtain black scroll at all cost, besides red scroll that replenish your health by 25%. When you activate the black scroll, your inventory will be filled entirely with either green scroll or yellow scroll and remove any items that you kept before. Green scroll is Death Spell and it acts as screen-clearing bomb. Naturally, it's great to clear all enemies on screen regardless how big their health is. But keep in mind that artillery and mounted unit protect their occupant from 1 instance of death spell. Yellow scroll will summon red demon that will burst into 8-way fireballs. It can destroy both artillery or mounted unit along with their occupant. But the demon spawns at the spot where you activate so you have to be near the enemies in order to make it more efficient.

 

These knights also wield mace like me and net more score than defeating the soldiers. I think they're also more durable than the soldiers. I have my hand on this large crossbow that deal bigger damage than its small counterpart and they're practically sitting duck for my crossbow here. However, the large crossbow requires longer loading time than the small crossbow. So you have to keep your distance from the enemies even more should you want to use this large crossbow.

 

There's enemy's banner on the right corner of the battlefield then i took it. After defeating some enemies, i declare victory over this battlefield. Cm_demo_gamewon_rare_04.mp3

 

Winning once isn't enough to conquer a land. You have to win at least 2 battles. If you won in battlefield, you take assume offensive role and storm enemy's castle. As per usual, enemy's flag can be found on right corner. That stick with shiny symbol. Yes, that's the one. You take it by simply walking over it. Once you do that, flag meter won't rise with enemies run out of screen. They are treated as fleeing instead of occupying the battlefield so you can take breathe easier. Eliminate few enemies after that and you will be victorious. I think it's pretty neat touch that my banner and enemy's banner are related to the symbol of cult where we belong.       

 

But wait! You have to defeat enemy's leader before you can truly claim this land as yours. So what's this enemy commander look like. A giant human with large melee weapon that can breathe fires from his mouth, given the setting of barbarian. I hope you have high expectation similar to that because...

 

...he looks like medieval robocop cosplayer with 4 arms. It's really bizarre. Fighting enemy leader always in this mode called "Mind Duel". According to manual: every enemy leader's arms consist of 7 links (or to be more accurate orbs). They represents his health. Each arm's link is destroyed when the enemy leader get 3-4 hit of your projectiles. So you need to hit him 21-28 times! You're controlling the disembodied hand on the screen's border. Left on D-pad to move the hand clockwise. Right on D-pad to move the hand counterclockwise. "B" button to fire the projectile called "Mind Blast". My winning strategy is easy and simple: hold left on D-Pad and mash that "B" button as many as you finger can muster. Think that every "B" button press will send your nemesis some excruciating ache that will make them scream in agony and probably send them to nearby asylum.

Now i know what energy meter is all about! EVerytime i get hit in this "Mind Duel" phase, the blue meter is drained instead of the red ones. To summarize it: Red meter is health bar in battle mode. Blue meter is health bar in "Mind Duel" mode.

 

If you stay in the map screen for too long, this message appears. Maybe there's change but i can't see it yet. Medic_sf12_badmagic08.wav

On to next battle...

 

Naptha bombs only detonated on ground impact. So any enemy comes in contact with the bomb while in mid air, is safe from harm! It's better to engage moving enemies with crossbow instead using the bomb. However in this rare case where the tower can't run me over because it's on different platform, i can use the bomb efficiently. Another use of the bomb is to kill enemy that spawn at the edge of screen. This method is less efficient with faster enemies but it's better use than nothing.

 

Spearmen constantly lob spear at you. Naturally, he can outrange you if you wield mace. But they keep jauntily walking at you so their range advantage is diminished by their own clumsiness. You can crouch to dodge their spear plus you can swing your mace while crouching. So let them do what they want until they approach and you can give them painful bludgeon on their hip. But you can't shoot your any crossbow while crouching, though. Keep that in mind.  

 

Obviously, the conventional weapon pale in comparison with demon magic. You can activate them whenever you want. While jumping, standing still, crouching, or walking. Plus the demons can kill anything or anyone within single hit.

 So i wonder what's the good thing about the conventional weapons compare to these demon magic. I don't think they drop more frequently than the demon magic (e.g. white demon magic, blue demon magic, and the yellow scroll). The item drop is evenly distributed, in my experience. According to the manual, the demon magic last for 4 uses (while the yellow scroll only for 1 use). So there's that. Also you can't collect item of the same type more than 1. Unless you use the black scroll which remove every slot in your inventory with either green scroll or yellow scroll.

The blue demons will move around you and homing on available enemies. The white demons have the same behavior with blue ones but they last shorter and move slower yet shorter. But once they expire, they will turn into red demon that will burst into 8-way fireballs.  Heavy_sf13_influx_big04.wav

 

This time the enemy leader is chieftain. He is not different than enemy commander except for the head part. Sorry, pal. Your glorious long moustache can't save you from my mind blasts.

 

I have conquered 3 areas but my status is still "scum". It's pretty hard to make the game acknowledges me. So as i've said before that the shiny circle on the map is magic temple. Blue circle is water temple. Light green circle is swamp temple. Darker green circle is forest temple. Brown circle is mountain temple. For now, i can only go to water temple. I mean i can go to that swamp temple on the south from the cursor. But i need to liberate 3 more areas to get there.

 

Entering magic temple will take you Mind Duel against the guardian temple immediately. Like usual, i hold down the left button while mashing the "B" button. I take damage from him in minimum way. Nuff said. Do you see that horrifying face on the top of the screen? That's harmless item container. Usually, it drops blue scroll that instantly refill your energy bar when picked up.

 

So what's the benefit of winning the mind duel? During mind duel, the item container entity drop talisman besides energy scroll. Usually you will get water talisman from water temple, swamp talisman from swamp temple, and so on. These kind of talisman allow you to travel through related area. Thus water talisman allow my cursor to go through water areas. Then i check this swamp temple.   

 

I record this mind duel into animated gif so you get the idea how i deal with each and every of mind duel. Yes, i'm doing it lazily. But it works well so there's nothing to fix there. -_-

But then...

 

I lost my water and swamp amulet on the battlefield! They're removed due to black scroll's effect. I get softlocked! Amulets shouldn't be in inventory that i carry in battlefield! There's use of amulets in battle phase. They will erase all enemy's projectiles on the screen. That's barely useful! Obviously, it's not worth to sacrifice the ability to walk rough terrain for projectile-clearing magic. So i can't return to my starting area. Let's hope there's no rebellion on areas around it. I have no choice but to travel to that mountain passage. Luckily i can get to that mountain temple without the need of any amulet and get mountain amulet later.

By the way, my status change to beggar! What kind of beggar that single-handedly conquer 5 area from horde of vicious warband? Go figure! 

 

In this battle, we're introduced with cavalry. Naturally, knights must know a thing or two about equestrian. At first, i was overwhelmed by these cavalries. But i find the anti-cavalry solution. With 1 hit of magic mace, the horse goes down. You may think mace isn't exactly anti-cavalry weapon unlike spear or pike which is the tried and true weapon against cavalry due to their length. But then i remembered infantry unit in Age of Mythology called "Katapeltes" which is infantry armed with mace and excel against cavalry.  Anyway, magic mace is effective against these charging horsemen. Note that i say "magic mace" which deal double damage than regular mace. Maybe you can use the regular mace against them but you have to take some damage in process. The magic mace icon has blue background. While the regular mace icon has red background.

Heya! What are you cooking, doc? Do you know about method to fend off soldiers attacking castle by pouring them boiling water or oil from battlement? That's what this guy do. Obviously, it doesn't work well here because i'm on the same level as him! Ballista and cannon work better against me than this guy who keep stirring and pouring hot tomato soup below. He's both worst chef and artillery at the same time. Congratulation, dummy!    

 

Yes. Yes. Keep what you're doing, dolt! Ignore the scream of your comrades or white demons near you. The only way for him do better is if you keep walking on lowest ground level so don't do that. Seeking higher ground often good idea.

 

They're disciplined. So disciplined that they following order to fire their cannon to the left and they can't be bothered to look back where i throw a bomb at them. Lo. I'm stealth bomber!

Sometime bag of gold dropped from above. Once i pick it, it will fill one of slot in my inventory and you can see it on the most right of my inventory right now. When activated it will raise my glory. The baffling thing is only for score points! So the money bag's purpose is nothing but to fill the empty slot in your inventory unnecessarily!

 

I don't need any siege machine to storm castle successfully. Why would i need catapult or trebuchet when i have deadly demons at my disposal, huh? Also they are kindly open the drawbridge for me. They have good sportsmanship, i tell you. 

 

In this battlefield, i encounter these monks which are the suicide bomber in this game. I like to fight them because they're slow and fragile. If i manage to shoot them down, they create explosion that kill other enemies. Demoman_specialcompleted12.wav

 

Then there's clones of my warrior but with longer trouser berserkers. They swing their mace in one direction while standing or crouching alternatively. Obviously, they're weak to any of ranged weapon. If only they have mind to walk up to me and smash my torso with their mace.  

The enemy leader is lord. I think he's the best looking enemy leader in this game but he's still weak to my cheesy strategy. That's all i can say.

 

Finally, i arrive at  mountain temple. The background looks like coffee beans to me. What do you think?

If you happen to lose in mind duel, you don't get game over. You are just kicked out of magic temple with condition the same as before entering the magic temple. The game is generous sometime.  

 

Now i encounter Amazons. They're not as special as other infantry. Except maybe they swing sword faster. So i advise you to deal them from distance.

 

The enemy leader is demon which is similar to temple guardian. The game has exhausted everything on me and i feel exhausted myself with these all same battle and mind duel.

 

There's still long way to go to starting point. But at least there's nothing bad happens there. Hey my status goes up to Merchant now! My plan was stop the playthrough when i defeat at least 1 boss. But apparently those mind duels are the only boss fight that we can have here. Pretty disappointing, i must say. There's lore about each of cult's leader. For example: Nuada the God of Silver Hand and the leader of Hand Cult, is Celtic God of war has appearance of a man with an artificial hand. It's said that he is invulnerable to any magic. Or Brobek, The Sun God and the leader Brobek cult, is weather deity and controls all of Gargore's weather. He can cause unlimited damage if angered. Hey! I just realize my warrior Naskum, is from Brobek Cult! Or Shesh, The Dark God and leader of Shesh Cult, has appearance of normal human but he's powerful wizard and possess the ability to strike opponents down with two death spell projected from his eyes. Look at those epic lore! I thought i have to defeat each and every of those cult's leader/deity but no. Maybe there's plan for that kind of boss fight but scrapped and we are left with these rather monotonous battles and very identical mind duels.

Oh, look. There's skull icons on those land beyond the mountain range! Skull icons on map means there's undead plague. Let's check that undead plague then i can quit.

 

These wizard behave exactly like spearmen only they throw lightning bolt from their wand instead of throwing spear. Oh look! Some of them ride a magic carpet. I will show them a whole new world...netherworld!

 

Finally, i can reach the plagued land. I was afraid getting softlocked for second time because i lost my mountain amulet. But this time, i can go back to mountain temple easily through my lands anytime. Plague spreads to adjacent lands everytime that "time has passed" message appears. Let's what other unique symbol on the map this time. There's eye symbol near bottom right corner, which is oracle that tells me hints. It will be much better if the oracle is near my starting point because this game barely tell you any hint from starter! There's also red cross symbol on far south of my starting point which means crusade. Enemies in land with crusade symbol deals double damage. As if the game isn't already difficult for me. -_-#

 

There's skeleton soldier armed with pitchfork trident. Unlike other enemies that fall down a la Super Mario when defeated, skeletons explode into bones. Other than that the skeleton behaves identical to other walking melee infantry. But somehow you get 15 score point defeating them while other melee infantry  gives you 10 score points when defeated.

 

There's also skeleton monk that instead exploding themselves like their mortal counterpart, they spread around skull that later become skeleton soldier. Medic_sf12_badmagic07.wav

 

Of course, there's undead cavalry. No need to raise that flag, you undead smug. We know that i'm fighing against undead, hinted by you, your comrades, and your horse. Now, i really have a bone to pick with all of you!    

 

After defeating non-undead Lord *lame!* that leads the undead army in mind duel, i have cleansed this 1 land from undead plague. My status become sergeant. I think i'm good for now!

Nextgrand's Onslaught (1991) is refreshing take on video game with barbarian protagonist. Usually barbarians depicted as mindless brute with skimpy cloth and well built muscles and usually armed with melee weapon only. However this one able to use crossbow, bomb, and even array of magic. He even up for magic duel! Sadly the gameplay core need thorough overhaul to make it even more enjoyable. My advice is: button for weapon select only 1 button, 2nd button to use melee/main weapon, and 3rd button to use selected sub-weapon. Glory in this game is just score point! In around early 90s, score is everything in video games. But for today, it's next to useless. If glory is currency to buy upgrade or item, the game will be so much better. Instead fighting temple guardian, you will engage trading if you enter the magic temple where you can buy related amulet, sub-weapon or upgrade for your barbarian with said glory. Or maybe recruit computer-controlled partner that will help you in battle akin to Magic Sword. The only way to heal yourself is to rely on blue and red scroll that refill your energy and life respectively. Each scroll refill roughly 25% energy or life. But you have to make space in your inventory in order to pick up and use it. In heated battle it's pretty hard to manage your inventory especially if you want to make room for the red scroll that's very essential in battlefield. To make thing worse white scroll has quite identical color as blue scroll. While yellow scroll is quite identical to red scroll. Yellow scroll is pretty fine though because it can summon powerful red demon when activated but white scroll is pretty useless because it only cause enemies on the screen stand on the spot. Clearly artillery which already immobile unit, don't feel harmed with the immobilize magic. If only there's health/energy refill item that instantly heal you when picked up regardless of space in your inventory, the game will be better. Also amulets should be in separated pool from battle item inventory. Speaking of amulet, there's more than just for passing rough terrain. There's one that instantly conquer a land, remove undead plague, or remove crusade. There's no need for 3 phase of battle because the game becomes really tedious to play. There's should be only 1 battle and after that mind duel. Simple! Also add the boss battle i mentioned that consist of same phase: battle and mind duel.

Your barbarian only have 1 life (which can be considered realistic). But you can restart where you left off by soft resetting the game while in game over screen. But due to emulation error, the game crashes instead. The game isn't meant to be finished within 1 sitting. You can have password if you soft reset the game while in map screen (maybe). But -again- the game crashes if i reset the game via emulation. So if you play this game in emulation, might as well as use savestate instead. Perhaps the DOS version has appropriate save/load feature. The music has rather slow and mild pace but it's pretty memorable.

Onslaught (1991) is rough game and it takes forever to finish. But i respect the creativity of the gameplay. Set aside the inventory management problem, the battle is enjoyable and pretty good. The hit detection is appropriate. The jump is bit floaty and slow but it's not big problem. There's not much variety on battle except from enemy set variety. My suggestion is you play it for 5-8 lands. There's not much variety beyond that. I wish the game will get remake with redesign from my idea. -_-