After completing Steel Saviour on the PC, it’s obvious that the game serves as a graphical show-case of the excellent scaling & rotation, anti-aliasing and immense layers of parallax scrolling modern 2D PC shooter are capable of. It also features Dynamic lighting and weather conditions including fog, rain, mist, and lighting/firestorms. One of the cool treats of the graphics engine, is that this one of the few 2D horizontal Shooters (If not the only) where the levels actually tilt, rotate & scale, giving the illusion of multidirectional scrolling and Depth! This features in incorporated very nicely at the 1st aquatic stage. The graphics theme and level lay out bares great resemblance to various classic AMIGA shooters like: Project X, Disposable Hero and T-Zero, so yes I would say this is what an AMIGA shooter would have looked like in a alternate parallel universe where AMIGA ruled over the PC and 3D console market and 2D Euro shooters continued to flourish! Also, some in-game level structures look similar to what you would see in Pulstar. What I can surely say is that Steel Saviour along with the following shooters has the most incredible 2D and hand drawn graphics I’ve ever witnessed on a shooter: Axelay (SNES) Blazing Star (NEO GEO) Disposable Hero (AMIGA) Gradius V (PS-2) Project-X (AMIGA) Pulstar (NEO GEO) R-Type Final (PS-2) Soldner-X (PC) Steel Saviour (PC) T-Zero (AMIGA) X-2 (Project X-2) (PSX) Here is an interview with one of the creators, where he mentions that he was influenced by AMIGA & Team 17 gaming, as well as various 2D shooters, like T-Zero, Project X, X2, Einhander, R-Type, RayStorm. http://www.gameprog.it/pub/interviste/atlanteq/ The game also features a cool intro and a dark/sinister post-apocalyptic story-line, similar to Steel Empire and Miyazaki’s Warriors of The Wind world theme. The cut-scenes and briefing text at the beginning of each level, is what you would remember from Project X on the AMIGA back in 1992, so fans should feel right at home! The difficulty level is quite high that even excels the Project X (Amiga) standards to say the least! I had to use an invincibility trainer to complete it! The weapon system (as well as the ship it self) is very similar to Einhander, but not as powerful, so it wont be a rare occasion where you’ll feel defenceless against the swarms of enemy waves charging against you! The Co-Op 2P mode is a welcomed treat that adds quite a lot to the gameplay and fan factor. Finally, I would say that Steel Saviour is a very solid shooter (Especially in the graphics department!) and along side Baryon, Kamui, Raptor and Tyrian, is one of the better PC-Only shoot em ups. Notice the Greek letters on the Nautilus submarine Mid-Boss Its European heritage is evident Here are some pics of T-Zero (AMIGA) for graphics comparison & similarities to Steel Saviour: Early production shot of Steel Saviour: Yes, the Einhander similarities are evident! http://www.gameprog.it/pub/interviste/atlanteq/img/0_RaptorT2.jpg
Wow, didn't know about this game! Looks great, makes me think of the old days . Raptor! Will definatly give the demo a shot.
Retroborg, can you play this at anything other than 800x600? It would be great if I could up the resolution. Anyway... I love shoot-em-ups and obviously you do too then check these links out... http://shoot-em-up.qarchive.org/ http://www.wayoftherodent.com/guests/shooters/bob_shooters9.htm http://shmups.classicgaming.gamespy.com/ Enjoy!
Actually, now that you mention it, I haven't found an option to increase the resolution any more than the default 640x480?! Maybe if you edit the cfg or ini file? I'll have to check it out… But with all that anti-aliasing, you can't really notice that the resolution is that low. It looks at least 1024x768 to the bare eye Thanks for the links Yeah I frequently post at the shmups.com forum "ST Dragon" I don't quite agree with that top 50 shooters list though By the way, for any EURO shooter fans, Nanostray 2 is coming out for the Nintendo DS early 2008! http://www.shinen.com/games/game.php3?nanostray2 Also "Imperishable Night" is another cool vertical PC shooter: http://shmups.classicgaming.gamespy.com/reviews/imperishable/index.html Definitely something any self respecting Shikigami No Shiro / ESP.Rade, ESP.Galuda fan should check out! Cheers.
It would be great if you could remember the tweak. Anyway, you talking about Einhander brought back some memories! Have you got any links for the other games you mention in your initial post? A couple of great shumps I love... Thunderforce 4 - Megadrive (Gens Emulator) DoDonPachi - Arcade (Mame) ThunderCross 2 - Arcade (Mame)
wow, this looks cool, pity the rez is so low though, im a huge shoot em up fan, still play loads on Mame, and i never got T-Zero on my Amiga, but i remember frothing at the mouth wanting it,lol
