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Immercenary

May 07, 2024

Immercenary[b] is a 1995 role-playing shooter video game developed by Five Miles Out and published by Electronic Arts in North America and Japan exclusively for the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer. Set in 2004, players assume the role of PIC (Project for Intertemporal Communication) operative number five tasked with shutting down the operating system Perfect1, which trapped all humanity into the Garden core of the Perfect virtual reality network. Its gameplay mainly consists of first-person shooter action mixed with role-playing game elements. The game was conceived in 1993 by Five Miles Out, whose members were role-playing game enthusiasts, as their first project to showcase the capabilities of the then-upcoming 3DO console and was inspired by Neal Stephenson's science fiction novel Snow Crash.

Immercenary
Developer(s)Five Miles Out[a]
Publisher(s)
Director(s)J. D. Robinson
Producer(s)Jim Simmons
Marla Johnson-Norris
Designer(s)Ken Hubbell
Artist(s)Christopher Stashuk
Mitch Gates
Writer(s)Elton Pruitt
Platform(s)3DO Interactive Multiplayer
Release
Genre(s)Role-playing shooter
Mode(s)Single-player

Gameplay edit

 
Gameplay screenshot.

The player begins at the lowest rank in the Garden, number 255.[2][3] The object of the game is to destroy Perfect1, who is ranked number 1. After eliminating a rithm, the player may then absorb its energy by walking through the cloud of static it leaves behind. Doing so gives a boost to one of three statistics: maximum defense (hit points), maximum offense (ammunition) or maximum agility (fuel). The tougher the opponent defeated, the larger the boost that the player receives. The weakest are the "Goners", who are all ranked number 256. They will yield no increase in rank when destroyed, even at the beginning of the game, but may still provide a statistic boost. Picassos, Torks, Kilroys, Venuses, and Davids are more powerful than Goners, and each individual among them has a unique rank.

Movement is akin to that of a combat flight simulator, though restricted to the ground. Pressing up on the D-pad causes the player character to accelerate, which consumes agility. Once in motion, the player will continue moving forward at the same speed until it accelerates further, runs into an obstacle, or comes to an immediate stop (accomplished by pressing both shoulder buttons simultaneously). Though running into an obstacle prevents the character from advancing, its legs continue to run, and if turned away from the obstacle the character will resume moving at the same speed as before. If the player character runs out of agility, movement is reduced to a slow limping. Agility can be replenished by standing still or visiting the DOAsys, a small neutral zone where the player character can converse with other rithms, including boss characters. Offense and defense can be replenished at the recovery spires found throughout Perfect, or at the DOAsys. Other rithms also use recovery spires, and their resources are finite. However, they are regularly recharged during "storms". Standing on a recovery spire during a storm drains the player rithm's defense.

When a player's rithm is destroyed, it receives a decrease to its stats, and the player character is sent back to the real world. The player character may also voluntarily jack out from Perfect at any of the recovery spires, or at the DOAsys. While in the real world, the player may review the net gains (or losses) to the player character's stats since the last jacking out, view statistics on their performance, save the game, or load a saved game. A game over is only reached if the character's Defense stat reaches 0, or if the character loses the final boss fight.

To confront Perfect1, the player must first defeat the other ten bosses. Unlike other enemies, bosses generally do not wander through Perfect, and can be confronted at their specific lair at any time the player chooses. However, boss lairs disappear during storms, leaving the bosses to wander freely until the storm ends.

Plot edit

Immercenary is set in 2004. During the 1990s, Dr. Marcus Rand was experimenting in astral projection through time and space, and encountered a woman in the future who was able to sense his astral form. The woman (later identified as simply "Raven") told him that in her time, all of humanity is jacked into a virtual reality network called Perfect, and cannot jack out, leaving them to wither and die as their physical needs are left unattended. Determined to answer Raven's plea for help, Rand focuses his research on projecting a person's mind to Perfect. When two test subjects died using his experimental technology, Rand's project was terminated and the use of the technology forbidden. Undeterred, Rand continued research using himself as the test subject. However, during his experimentation he received a near-fatal "psi feedback"; when found in his lab three days later, conscious but unable to move or communicate, he was committed to a rehabilitation institution.[4]

Eighteen months later, Rand escaped from the institution and formed a terrorist organization dedicated to answering Raven's appeal for help, called the Project for Intertemporal Communication (PIC). During their research, the PIC discovered that everyone in Perfect is engaged in a type of virtual reality MMORPG in which they have no choice but to endlessly battle each other for rank and survival. Those engaged in this MMORPG are known as rithms, and when a rithm is "killed", the human controlling it often goes into a potentially fatal state of shock. The silent protagonist of Immercenary is the latest of five PIC operatives sent into Perfect's core (called the Garden) in a mission to shut down the operating system, Perfect1.[4]

The PIC operative soon finds that he can increase the power of his rithm by crashing and absorbing other rithms, thus giving him a chance of defeating Perfect1. Once he has used this means to increase the rithm's power to many times its original abilities, Raven tells the operative that to have sufficient power to defeat Perfect1, he must crash her algorithm. The protagonist obliges, and goes on to destroy Perfect1. This not only frees all the inhabitants of Perfect, but revives those who were recently put into a state of shock, including Raven. After Dr. Rand congratulates the operative, another PIC scientist tells Rand that he was able to recover the source code for Perfect from the operative's readings, and that they can use this to recreate Perfect without the bugs which caused people to become trapped inside.

Development and release edit

In 1993, Electronic Arts producer Jim Simmons asked Five Miles Out co-founder J.D. Robinson to create a game which would fully demonstrate the capabilities of the then-upcoming 3DO. As all the members of Five Miles Out were RPG enthusiasts, they decided to make a game in an RPG vein.[5][6]

Marla Johnson-Norris, who was a veteran of television production and had a small video production company, headed the production of the video segments. She recalled, "We shot video and film sequences of the characters and tested the quality of the imagery in the game environment. We had a film specialist with EA come out and work with us. We ended up going with high quality video instead of film – it actually delivered an equal quality for a lower cost." In another cost-saving measure, some of the roles were played by members of Five Miles Out; for instance, Chameleon was played by co-founder Chris Stashuk. On the filming style used for the cutscenes, Johnson-Norris explained, "We wanted to contrast that dirty, real-world grunge feel – seen in the game 'wake up scenes' with the old barn and slow-moving fans – with the high tech, fantastic virtual world."[6]

The game was developed under the title "Perfect", but Electronics Arts renamed it to Immercenary. The story, written by Elton Pruitt, was heavily inspired by the novel Snow Crash.[6]

Reception edit

GamePro gave the game a positive review. They praised the strategy involved in building and using the player rithm's stats, the simplicity of the controls, the use of a first-person perspective, and the compelling and well-paced storyline. They concluded, "It's not the longest or most difficult game you'll play. But when a game goes for something new, rather than rehashing old themes, it's worth noticing."[21] Next Generation reviewed the game, rating it three stars out of five, and stated that "you've got a game that's familiar but different at the same time."[9]

Retro Gamer listed Immercenary in their top ten 3DO games, commenting, "RPG overtones imbue with a mesmerising soundtrack and some incredible visual fusions to create one of the rarest experiences in games."[22]

Notes edit

  1. ^ Video production work by Montserrata Productions[2]
  2. ^ Also known as Perfect World (Japanese: パーフェクトワールド, Hepburn: Pāfekuto Wārudo) in Japan.

References edit

  1. ^ "3DO Soft > 1995" (in Japanese). GAME Data Room. from the original on August 16, 2018. Retrieved June 27, 2020.
  2. ^ a b Immercenary manual (3DO Interactive Multiplayer, US)
  3. ^ Sczepaniak, John (May 2, 2014). "Immercenary". Hardcore Gaming 101. from the original on December 1, 2019. Retrieved June 27, 2020.
  4. ^ a b "The History of the PIC", New Recruit Manual [video game booklet]. Pages 3–7.
  5. ^ Westley, Dave (April 1995). "Preview: No Mercy – Immercenary from Electronic Arts". 3DO Magazine. No. 3. Paragon Publishing. p. 33.
  6. ^ a b c Szczepaniak, John (September 19, 2012). "Making a Prototype of the Future: The Development of Immercenary". Gamasutra. UBM Technology Group. from the original on January 23, 2019. Retrieved June 26, 2020.
  7. ^ "Immercenary for 3DO". GameRankings. CBS Interactive. 2019. from the original on December 9, 2019. Retrieved June 26, 2020.
  8. ^ "Immercenary". Game Informer. No. 123. Sunrise Publications. July 2003.
  9. ^ a b "Finals – Lethal – Immercenary". Next Generation. No. 5. Imagine Media. May 1995. p. 89.
  10. ^ Westley, Dave (1995–1996). "Review: Immercenary – A heady concoction of cyberspace, astral projection and Quantum leaping sets EA's latest apart from the crowd. Dave Westley explores whether the future really is Perfect". 3DO Magazine (Special Gold). No. 1. Paragon Publishing. pp. 72–73.
  11. ^ "Immercenary". Freak (in Thai). No. 175. 12Bath. May 1995.
  12. ^ Kirrane, Simon (May 1995). "Reviews – Immercenary". GamesMaster. No. 29. Future Publishing. p. 62.
  13. ^ "Review – Immercenary". Game Players. No. 71. Signal Research. May 1995.
  14. ^ Perry, Dave; King, Phil; Roberts, Nick; Butt, Ryan (June 1995). "3DO Reviews: Immercenary – The theme of virtual reality is given a parapsychological twist in EA's weird 3-D shoot-'em-up". Games World. No. 12. Paragon Publishing. pp. 76–77.
  15. ^ Virtuel, Lord Casque (May 1995). "Vidéotest: Immercenary". Joystick (in French). No. 60. p. 101.
  16. ^ Ehrle, Oliver (September 1995). "Spiele-Tests – Immercenary". MAN!AC (in German). No. 23. Cybermedia. p. 56. from the original on January 5, 2019. Retrieved June 27, 2020.
  17. ^ Buret, Stéphane (May 1995). "Vite Vu – Immercenary". Player One (in French). No. 53. Média Système Édition. p. 102.
  18. ^ "Ultimate review sector: Immercenary – Cyberspace is nothing like High Wycombe". Ultimate Future Games. No. 7. Future Publishing. June 1995. pp. 84–85.
  19. ^ Schaedle, Wolfgang (May 1995). "Real 3DO – Reviews: Das id-Syndrom? – Immercenary". Video Games (in German). No. 42. Future-Verlag. p. 84.
  20. ^ Higgins, Geoff (June 1995). "Power Reviews: Immercenary – "You're A Cyberspace Tough Guy..."". VideoGames - The Ultimate Gaming Magazine. No. 77. Larry Flynt Publications. p. 76.
  21. ^ LaMancha, Manny (May 1995). "ProReview: Immercenary". GamePro. No. 70. IDG. p. 88.
  22. ^ "Top Ten 3DO Games". Retro Gamer. Future Publishing. May 13, 2014. from the original on December 5, 2016. Retrieved June 27, 2020.

External links edit

May 07, 2024
immercenary, 1995, role, playing, shooter, video, game, developed, five, miles, published, electronic, arts, north, america, japan, exclusively, interactive, multiplayer, 2004, players, assume, role, project, intertemporal, communication, operative, number, fi. Immercenary b is a 1995 role playing shooter video game developed by Five Miles Out and published by Electronic Arts in North America and Japan exclusively for the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer Set in 2004 players assume the role of PIC Project for Intertemporal Communication operative number five tasked with shutting down the operating system Perfect1 which trapped all humanity into the Garden core of the Perfect virtual reality network Its gameplay mainly consists of first person shooter action mixed with role playing game elements The game was conceived in 1993 by Five Miles Out whose members were role playing game enthusiasts as their first project to showcase the capabilities of the then upcoming 3DO console and was inspired by Neal Stephenson s science fiction novel Snow Crash ImmercenaryDeveloper s Five Miles Out a Publisher s NA Electronic ArtsJP Electronic Arts VictorDirector s J D RobinsonProducer s Jim SimmonsMarla Johnson NorrisDesigner s Ken HubbellArtist s Christopher StashukMitch GatesWriter s Elton PruittPlatform s 3DO Interactive MultiplayerReleaseNA 1995JP September 22 1995 1 Genre s Role playing shooterMode s Single player Contents 1 Gameplay 2 Plot 3 Development and release 4 Reception 5 Notes 6 References 7 External linksGameplay edit nbsp Gameplay screenshot The player begins at the lowest rank in the Garden number 255 2 3 The object of the game is to destroy Perfect1 who is ranked number 1 After eliminating a rithm the player may then absorb its energy by walking through the cloud of static it leaves behind Doing so gives a boost to one of three statistics maximum defense hit points maximum offense ammunition or maximum agility fuel The tougher the opponent defeated the larger the boost that the player receives The weakest are the Goners who are all ranked number 256 They will yield no increase in rank when destroyed even at the beginning of the game but may still provide a statistic boost Picassos Torks Kilroys Venuses and Davids are more powerful than Goners and each individual among them has a unique rank Movement is akin to that of a combat flight simulator though restricted to the ground Pressing up on the D pad causes the player character to accelerate which consumes agility Once in motion the player will continue moving forward at the same speed until it accelerates further runs into an obstacle or comes to an immediate stop accomplished by pressing both shoulder buttons simultaneously Though running into an obstacle prevents the character from advancing its legs continue to run and if turned away from the obstacle the character will resume moving at the same speed as before If the player character runs out of agility movement is reduced to a slow limping Agility can be replenished by standing still or visiting the DOAsys a small neutral zone where the player character can converse with other rithms including boss characters Offense and defense can be replenished at the recovery spires found throughout Perfect or at the DOAsys Other rithms also use recovery spires and their resources are finite However they are regularly recharged during storms Standing on a recovery spire during a storm drains the player rithm s defense When a player s rithm is destroyed it receives a decrease to its stats and the player character is sent back to the real world The player character may also voluntarily jack out from Perfect at any of the recovery spires or at the DOAsys While in the real world the player may review the net gains or losses to the player character s stats since the last jacking out view statistics on their performance save the game or load a saved game A game over is only reached if the character s Defense stat reaches 0 or if the character loses the final boss fight To confront Perfect1 the player must first defeat the other ten bosses Unlike other enemies bosses generally do not wander through Perfect and can be confronted at their specific lair at any time the player chooses However boss lairs disappear during storms leaving the bosses to wander freely until the storm ends Plot editImmercenary is set in 2004 During the 1990s Dr Marcus Rand was experimenting in astral projection through time and space and encountered a woman in the future who was able to sense his astral form The woman later identified as simply Raven told him that in her time all of humanity is jacked into a virtual reality network called Perfect and cannot jack out leaving them to wither and die as their physical needs are left unattended Determined to answer Raven s plea for help Rand focuses his research on projecting a person s mind to Perfect When two test subjects died using his experimental technology Rand s project was terminated and the use of the technology forbidden Undeterred Rand continued research using himself as the test subject However during his experimentation he received a near fatal psi feedback when found in his lab three days later conscious but unable to move or communicate he was committed to a rehabilitation institution 4 Eighteen months later Rand escaped from the institution and formed a terrorist organization dedicated to answering Raven s appeal for help called the Project for Intertemporal Communication PIC During their research the PIC discovered that everyone in Perfect is engaged in a type of virtual reality MMORPG in which they have no choice but to endlessly battle each other for rank and survival Those engaged in this MMORPG are known as rithms and when a rithm is killed the human controlling it often goes into a potentially fatal state of shock The silent protagonist of Immercenary is the latest of five PIC operatives sent into Perfect s core called the Garden in a mission to shut down the operating system Perfect1 4 The PIC operative soon finds that he can increase the power of his rithm by crashing and absorbing other rithms thus giving him a chance of defeating Perfect1 Once he has used this means to increase the rithm s power to many times its original abilities Raven tells the operative that to have sufficient power to defeat Perfect1 he must crash her algorithm The protagonist obliges and goes on to destroy Perfect1 This not only frees all the inhabitants of Perfect but revives those who were recently put into a state of shock including Raven After Dr Rand congratulates the operative another PIC scientist tells Rand that he was able to recover the source code for Perfect from the operative s readings and that they can use this to recreate Perfect without the bugs which caused people to become trapped inside Development and release editIn 1993 Electronic Arts producer Jim Simmons asked Five Miles Out co founder J D Robinson to create a game which would fully demonstrate the capabilities of the then upcoming 3DO As all the members of Five Miles Out were RPG enthusiasts they decided to make a game in an RPG vein 5 6 Marla Johnson Norris who was a veteran of television production and had a small video production company headed the production of the video segments She recalled We shot video and film sequences of the characters and tested the quality of the imagery in the game environment We had a film specialist with EA come out and work with us We ended up going with high quality video instead of film it actually delivered an equal quality for a lower cost In another cost saving measure some of the roles were played by members of Five Miles Out for instance Chameleon was played by co founder Chris Stashuk On the filming style used for the cutscenes Johnson Norris explained We wanted to contrast that dirty real world grunge feel seen in the game wake up scenes with the old barn and slow moving fans with the high tech fantastic virtual world 6 The game was developed under the title Perfect but Electronics Arts renamed it to Immercenary The story written by Elton Pruitt was heavily inspired by the novel Snow Crash 6 Reception editReceptionAggregate scoreAggregatorScoreGameRankings80 7 Review scoresPublicationScoreGame Informer8 0 10 8 Next Generation nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp 9 3DO Magazine nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp 10 Freak90 100 11 GamesMaster92 12 Game Players81 13 Games World53 100 14 Joystick80 100 15 MAN AC34 16 Player one65 17 Ultimate Future Games74 18 Video Games70 19 VideoGames9 10 20 GamePro gave the game a positive review They praised the strategy involved in building and using the player rithm s stats the simplicity of the controls the use of a first person perspective and the compelling and well paced storyline They concluded It s not the longest or most difficult game you ll play But when a game goes for something new rather than rehashing old themes it s worth noticing 21 Next Generation reviewed the game rating it three stars out of five and stated that you ve got a game that s familiar but different at the same time 9 Retro Gamer listed Immercenary in their top ten 3DO games commenting RPG overtones imbue with a mesmerising soundtrack and some incredible visual fusions to create one of the rarest experiences in games 22 Notes edit Video production work by Montserrata Productions 2 Also known as Perfect World Japanese パーフェクトワールド Hepburn Pafekuto Warudo in Japan References edit 3DO Soft gt 1995 in Japanese GAME Data Room Archived from the original on August 16 2018 Retrieved June 27 2020 a b Immercenary manual 3DO Interactive Multiplayer US Sczepaniak John May 2 2014 Immercenary Hardcore Gaming 101 Archived from the original on December 1 2019 Retrieved June 27 2020 a b The History of the PIC New Recruit Manual video game booklet Pages 3 7 Westley Dave April 1995 Preview No Mercy Immercenary from Electronic Arts 3DO Magazine No 3 Paragon Publishing p 33 a b c Szczepaniak John September 19 2012 Making a Prototype of the Future The Development of Immercenary Gamasutra UBM Technology Group Archived from the original on January 23 2019 Retrieved June 26 2020 Immercenary for 3DO GameRankings CBS Interactive 2019 Archived from the original on December 9 2019 Retrieved June 26 2020 Immercenary Game Informer No 123 Sunrise Publications July 2003 a b Finals Lethal Immercenary Next Generation No 5 Imagine Media May 1995 p 89 Westley Dave 1995 1996 Review Immercenary A heady concoction of cyberspace astral projection and Quantum leaping sets EA s latest apart from the crowd Dave Westley explores whether the future really is Perfect 3DO Magazine Special Gold No 1 Paragon Publishing pp 72 73 Immercenary Freak in Thai No 175 12Bath May 1995 Kirrane Simon May 1995 Reviews Immercenary GamesMaster No 29 Future Publishing p 62 Review Immercenary Game Players No 71 Signal Research May 1995 Perry Dave King Phil Roberts Nick Butt Ryan June 1995 3DO Reviews Immercenary The theme of virtual reality is given a parapsychological twist in EA s weird 3 D shoot em up Games World No 12 Paragon Publishing pp 76 77 Virtuel Lord Casque May 1995 Videotest Immercenary Joystick in French No 60 p 101 Ehrle Oliver September 1995 Spiele Tests Immercenary MAN AC in German No 23 Cybermedia p 56 Archived from the original on January 5 2019 Retrieved June 27 2020 Buret Stephane May 1995 Vite Vu Immercenary Player One in French No 53 Media Systeme Edition p 102 Ultimate review sector Immercenary Cyberspace is nothing like High Wycombe Ultimate Future Games No 7 Future Publishing June 1995 pp 84 85 Schaedle Wolfgang May 1995 Real 3DO Reviews Das id Syndrom Immercenary Video Games in German No 42 Future Verlag p 84 Higgins Geoff June 1995 Power Reviews Immercenary You re A Cyberspace Tough Guy VideoGames The Ultimate Gaming Magazine No 77 Larry Flynt Publications p 76 LaMancha Manny May 1995 ProReview Immercenary GamePro No 70 IDG p 88 Top Ten 3DO Games Retro Gamer Future Publishing May 13 2014 Archived from the original on December 5 2016 Retrieved June 27 2020 External links editImmercenary at GameFAQs Immercenary at Giant Bomb Immercenary at MobyGames Portals nbsp 1990s nbsp United States nbsp Video games Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Immercenary amp oldid 1192093384, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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