S.U.A.V.E (PC)

 This is another day where I review Abandoware PC game that I feel interesting enough. It’s Alan Mackey’s S.U.A.V.E (2006) this time. 

Most arcade game has demonstration before or after title screen. Then there’s this PC game with title screen is just demonstration. Classic Doom does that to some extent but it has proper title screen. This game doesn’t. Nonetheless the demonstration looks fun. The tank running around and blasting those barrels with no worry in the world. The S stands for Sport, so I assume this game is multiplayer focus. Turns out, there’s no multiplayer mode at all! It seems “Default Map” is the main single-player mode. Then there’s survival mode. You can also make your own map with the “editor” option there but I’m lazy git so I won’t do that. 

The control seems simple. “W”, “A”, “S”, and “D” to move. Left mouse button to fire my gun. Mouse motion to aim and so on. One thing that bugs me is: what’s Time Device?   

I start with wonderful lightning effect. I can tell I like this game. 

I don’t immediately pick new weapon when I walk into it. I have to press right mouse button to get it and the weapon limit is 2, including the standard plasma gun. I don’t know what’s the reason behind this. It’s probably more make sense if the game is for Multiplayer but as far as I know the game is pure single-player in this current state.

After content destroying barrels on first room, I move on to next room which is more spacious also filled with automatic turrets and Daleks. I happen to pick invincible shield so no extermination for you, Dalek!

I can’t destroy this particular orb because it has shield that reflect my projectiles. I should move on somewhere else hopefully some place where I can get some armor refill.

Soldier_paincrticialdeath03.wav. I got exterminated by another Dalek. If only I can get something that restore my armor in time. But don’t worry, I had 2 life reserves.   

I take more tactical approach this time. I stand still shoot enemies from far away and it’s safer this way to engage enemies. Although the rate of the standard gun is pretty good, the extra weapons are definitely better because all of them have bigger damage per shot than the standard gun.     

There you are, armor restore item! It’s not far from the Dalek that eliminated me previously.

This is my main problem with the camera. Everytime, my vehicle moves the camera pulls up so I can’t see further. This camera’s behavior to create disadvantage when the player shoots and moves at the same time. Maybe, it’s meant to discourage hit-and-run tactic and encourage stationary aim. That sounds fine if the game is multiplayer focus and it’s not in this case! Moreover, the CPU controlled enemies are very accurate with their aim. I mean you can dodge their projectiles when you’re moving but because the camera is bad when moving, it’s rather difficult to retaliate.  

There’s no signboard or quest marker to point where I have to go. But these crates with direction arrow work pretty well in my opinion.

Surprisingly, there’s indoor area beyond the door that I went through. The center of this room is patrolled by these gun Roomba. They gladly run along the wall and never bother to move to the middle of corridor.

This door is locked from other side? This game turns into Survival Horror, huh? But the “Survival” part probably on the point because there is not much healing item in this game. 

 

There are crates in this indoor room. Some of them have skull & crossbones sign while other have this lip tight emote. But none of them are breakable. Indestructible crates in video game? Spy_negativevocalization03.wav

Then I enter this container area that pretty much reminds me of Classic Doom’s Containment Area. Inside that container maze, there are lots of Daleks and those invincible orbs. Shooting some bullets and then retreat to cover is pretty good tactic here.

I haste to get that armor restore item because I’m desperately need it but then I got killed by that hidden turret. Demoman_jeers05.wav      

I manage to be on of top scoreboard! But seeing the tank is ruined literally and figuratively (maybe), makes me want to continue. There’s no mean to continue where I left off. No auto or manual saving. Not even password! It’s very baffling that PC game in 2000 doesn’t have any continue feature. Even Classic Doom made in 1993 has manual saving, at least!

So, I must start from the beginning again. Right in the training area with barrels to shoot. I wonder if the explosion from barrels that I destroyed are harmful to me. And the answer is big yes with big kaboom. I think this training area need message “The explosive barrel can hurt you” but that’s just me, I think.  

 

Now, I’m armed with rocket launcher with projectile that’s kind of similar with Quake 3 Arena's rocket launcher. But I can’t aim the rocket at the ground to ensure the enemies get splash damage from rocket’s explosion.

The game teases me with extra life and nuke weapon behind the line of indestructible orbs. Is it possible to get those items? 

There's narrow alcove with another extra tank reserve but it’s guarded by this flamethrower turret. Let’s see if that damned turret like my rocket launcher.

 

I manage to destroy it after I use my next tank because the rocket is not suitable for close combat (obviously, duh). Using standard gun is better in that situation. Thus I can claim this extra life after using life so no life surplus for me. But I can obtain the flamethrower. I’m Pyro. I love flamethrower.

 

There’s another room that I can get into from the hub room with the patrolling Roomba and crates. Unlike the container’s room, this room is spacious with some crate that you can use for cover.

Most enemies can be dealt from afar. But this kind of turret can’t. If you’re far enough from it, it will be inactive but invincible. Once you are close enough, it reveals its rocket launcher and shoot you relentlessly but that’s the moment where it’s vulnerable. Luckily, this flamethrower is pretty effective for this situation. If you imagine male’s certain body part from seeing this flamethrower that consists of 2 fuel drums and cannon in the middle of them, I suggest you take your brain to nearest laundry.

Heavy_specialweapon03. I found this Vulcan gun. It’s devastating weapon against ant enemies. Don’t let the projectile’s size which is smaller than the regular gun’s, fools you. The Vulcan gun can decimate enemy way faster thanks to its very high rate of fire. I’m not sure if the gun has smaller damage per projectile than the standard gun judging by the projectile size but it certainly has bigger damage per second.

Then I get killed by that hidden rocket turret. I should save the Vulcan weapon for them. No. The real problem here is the lack of healing item! The developer should put some around here too besides at the container’s room. I realize too late that the game is pretty jarring to play thanks to the considerable lack of healing item. The game desperately needs some checkpoint that auto-save my progress and also provide some healing.   

This time, I carry nuke weapon and I destroy everything on that area including the invincible orb! That gives me idea how I can get that extra life behind the line of invincible orbs.

I launch the nuke but it’s reflected because of the shield’s effect that also doubled as reflector. The nuke explosion clears the line of invincible orbs but it also destroys me in process. Again, I get the extra life after sacrificing one so no life surplus for me.

I found this locked door in the hub room. What’s this Spencer Mansion’s antique? Or maybe Classic Doom’s because the key is color coded and not with cryptic icon like shield, helmet, etc.

I have returned to the containers area. There’s array of invincible orbs which I can use to clear enemies within these containers because they reflect my bullets.

 

I was able to pass beyond the point where I was “Game Over” in 2 previous runs. I think I found the door that was locked from the other side in the hub room and supposedly I’m in the right side to unlock it by clearing this room from all enemies. Spy_sf12_badmagic04.wav

I found one of the key card in the heart of the maze. I grew impatient and rush in here but it’s not successful attempt. Let’s try more patient approach.

Nope. Still not success. I feel like the enemies respawn behind me and proceed to snipe my backside. I wish the game had radar to detect enemies around me so this problem wouldn’t happen.

On next attempt, I choose “Easy” difficulty and I don’t feel bad about it. The enemies have slower reaction but their aim still accurate. This time around, I manage to get the key and also move past beyond the spacious room with lots of hidden turret. I come across this room with invincible orbs that form a simple maze.

Hey! I found another key! Scout_cheers04.wav

I meet with outdoor area again. But this time it consists of long rocky corridor. There must be ambush along the way.

There’s some labyrinth in the middle of previous long corridor. Then I found this alcove with time restore item and plasma shotgun. But I prefer armor restore item. Anyway, I know what’s Time Device is all about. It’s slow-motion function. By holding the space bar, I can slow down entire world including myself so I can aim and dodge more precisely at the cost of Time Device meter. Theoretically, it’s not bad feature. I forget to tell you that the tank has high acceleration resulting in very fast tank’s speed. It’s good to have to dodge enemy’s projectiles but the nigh-uncontrollable speed also reduces my aim’s accuracy. On top of that, there’s the awful camera view when moving. Thus, hit-and-run tactic is hard to apply in this game. I prefer slower tank’s movement and the slow-motion feature is replaced with nitro boost instead.  

I knew it there’s ambush besides the loot that I found. I deal with this ambush with no problem but I didn’t notice there’s another turret ambush on the opposite direction of this one and that one kills me.

 

So, I restart the same area. There’s some enemy placement at the end of corridor. This like shooting fish in a barrel.

 

On one of branching path in the corridor I find enemy and another locked door. I can get through it because I have the corresponded key but I want to clear this area first. Oh, duh! I was dumb. The letter on key card indicates the color. “O” for orange. “B” for blue.

 

Another branching path is pack jammed with turrets but I found this shield power up to protect myself from their projectiles. I think they can get hurt from their own projectile if reflected by my shield.

I found another locked door but this one requires purple keycard.

Here, you are witnessing an intense rocket launcher duel. My enemy is stationary target but it only vulnerable when I’m close enough to it, making dodging rocket even more challenging. In fact, this entire room is solely filled with this type of enemy.

Then I end up in this indoor maze. I can see slightly inside that wall and there’s extra life inside of it! At first, I thought this is just another narrow maze area. But me and my enemy can destroy a block of a wall! There’s no crack on the wall or anything that indicate the wall can be destroyed. It looks the same as the indestructible wall that I have seen so far. The game changes the rule abruptly!

I desperately search my way to that extra life by shooting rocket on the wall and I incidentally kill myself. That’s it! I’m done!

 

At least, I’m on the top score 3 times consecutively. I uninstall it right away.

Alan Mackey’s S.U.A.V.E. (2006) is interesting tank game at the glance but the more I play it the more I hate it which is a darn shame because I want to like this game. If the game was PVP multiplayer, the game would be better in execution. I think. There’s lots of problem that I can address here. First, the overly long single-player map with very little amount of armor restoration. The map should be cut shorter to make it less slogging. Like 5 – 6 areas at most. Then the developer can make more maps in the selection. Another alternative is adding either manual or auto saving. Other problem is how accurate the enemy’s aim. Make either their aim has angle deviation by small degree or they can only aim at fixed direction. Then there’s the bad camera behavior when moving, which can be simply solved with fixed camera angle. The slow time ability feels nigh unnecessary. In the 2000s, slow motion feature in the video game is trending thanks to Max Payne. So, S.U.A.V.E must follow that but the implementation is not good. The last problem is the lack of healing mean but it can be easily solved with adding more armor restore item in significant number. Now on to the good things. The core gameplay is good. The weaponry is well varied and has their own use/benefit. Plasma shotgun has bullet spread with slower firing rate than the standard plasma cannon, but it becomes more powerful when use in close combat. Flamethrower doesn’t have bullet spread but only strong and useful in close combat. Rocket launcher is powerful from distant but dangerous to use in close range. Nuke is enormously powerful but it’s more dangerous than rocket launcher and you can only have 1 stock. Vulcan is all around good and definitely stronger than the standard gun. Apparently, there’s lightning gun but I can’t find it yet. No music to be judge in this game. The sound effect is fairly fantastic. Note that explosion sounds are stacking. So, if there’s multiple explosions happen, the BOOM sound also multiplied. Beware of that.

I think, S.U.A.V.E. (2006) needs multiplayer mode and focus on it. It will be like 3D Mass Destruction where you can choose between speedy tank or durable tank along with some customization. Maybe they can also add special ability to each tank like nitro boost, or smaller speed boost but you can use it to ram enemy. But as it is, the game feels lackluster and quite tedious to play. At least, it’s bit more playable than War World –Tactical Combat and the control is much simpler too.