The original Metroidvania FPS. Powerslave isn't without its issues (particularly in regards to awkward controls), but manages to set itself apart as one of the Saturn's best Western-developed games thanks to memorable level design, cool weapons, and a neat Egyptian theme.
leshoid approved
Non-immersive empty maps.
After beating Duke Nukem 3D on the Sega Saturn I knew I had to go check out the other SlaveDriver Engine games, and given the recent release of PowerSlave Exhumed, the Sega Saturn original seemed like a great place to start.
In a lot of ways PowerSlave plays it pretty close to the Boomer Shooter formula: run around levels gibbing enemies with increasingly ludicrous weapons while collecting keys. If reduced solely to that, PowerSlave still plays damn good. In fact, the momentum feels better here than in Lobotomy Software's Duke port, and shots line up perfectly as long as your aim on the x-axis is true (which Duke 3D was a bit finicky with.) But PowerSlave doesn't adhere strictly to convention. Perhaps the way it departs the most from its contemporaries is by melding search-action elements to level progression.
As you make your way through PowerSlave you'll acquire different skills that modify the way you traverse a level, opening previously inaccessible routes that lead to new exits and thus to new levels. For example, you might find a long stretch of poisonous ground in one level that cannot be walked across for long before you die. Returning later with sandals that negate poison damage will allow you to navigate through towards a new exit which then branches out into several new levels. This never becomes too complicated and in fact I never found myself lost or unsure of which level I should head back to next.
The world map will also have a few levels that emit beeping sounds, signaling the presence of a transmitter piece. There's eight in all and collecting them is required for the good ending. Some of these are pretty easy to stumble across but others will require a bit of thinking and skilled platforming. Oh yeah, there's a lot of that in this game. If you're like me you probably hate the idea of platforming puzzles in a first person game, but PowerSlave generally feels good with only a few sections causing me any real amount of frustration.
The same can be said of the game's difficulty in general, which is ramped up at a good even pace. Weapons also feel terrific with each having a clear utility for the challenges you're about to face. By the end of the game you feel appropriately powerful, and to draw another comparison to Duke Nukem 3D, the final boss feels like a satisfying cakewalk as you go absolutely hog on him with the weapons you picked up along the way.
So I seem very positive on PowerSlave so far. Why the 3.5 out of 5?
There are a couple notable levels that I spent entirely too long on due to irritating design choices that feel incredibly out of place given the rest of the game's quality: Magma Fields and The Sunken Palace of Khnum. The former is a literal "the floor is fire" level, but you're saddled with so much to deal with that it's easy to get overwhelmed. The platforming is hard enough here but everything else that's thrown your way pushes things a little too far for my liking, coming across as overly difficult in contrast to the "tough but fair" nature of the end game.
The Sunken Palace, on the other hand, is far worse and teeters into "time to quit the game" territory. I'm not sure who designed this or what was going through their mind, but it's hands down one of the worst water levels I've come across in a long time. Much of the level is spent navigating underwater caverns littered with mines that have too generous of a blast radius. You're only able to use three weapons underwater to disarm them: you machete (which is obviously a terrible idea), grenades, or your magic staff. If you're just a hair too close the grenades can cause you to take blowback damage, and the staff's projectile weaves around, making it less than ideal in a few spots. It also can cause blowback damage, so I relied mostly on the grenades. You have to contend with piranhas during all of this, and if you get ganged up on by them they'll melt your health bar in seconds. Whacking them with your machete is an option, but feels clumsy and won't do you much good if you're dealing with a swarm.
Alternatively, you can pitch the camera down while you're floating above water and aim at mines and piranhas with your guns. This is a bit slow but honestly the safest way to go through the level, though this really only works in a few locations with the rest only accessible while submerged. Also the piranhas like to get underneath you and bop your character around which is incredibly annoying. At the end of all of this is one last key you must collect and immediately weave into a corridor before all the doors in the room close on you, trapping you inside and leaving you to drown. The game doesn't really telegraph this, so I fell for it my first time. This is perhaps the one part of the game where PowerSlave feels outright unfair, and placing the trap at the very end of an already frustrating level is garbage. You've been warned now, at least.
There's some other issues I have here and there. Lasers killing you in one hit makes navigating some very late game areas a pain. Like Duke Nukem 3D (can you tell what game I played right before this?) the lack of check-pointing can make later levels a bit of a slog when you keep biting it right at the end. Thankfully this is an area the Exhumed edition improves upon. A more stable framerate also helps, and a better draw distance and texture clarity makes it a whole lot easier to see what's going on and where you're heading. Again, if you have your choice of versions, Exhumed is the way to go.
There's a lot of good here, Lobotomy just got so much right with PowerSlave, but a few bizarre choices makes it stop just short of being better than their Duke 3D port. It's not that the bad outweighs the good so much as the good makes the bad even more apparent.
In a lot of ways PowerSlave plays it pretty close to the Boomer Shooter formula: run around levels gibbing enemies with increasingly ludicrous weapons while collecting keys. If reduced solely to that, PowerSlave still plays damn good. In fact, the momentum feels better here than in Lobotomy Software's Duke port, and shots line up perfectly as long as your aim on the x-axis is true (which Duke 3D was a bit finicky with.) But PowerSlave doesn't adhere strictly to convention. Perhaps the way it departs the most from its contemporaries is by melding search-action elements to level progression.
As you make your way through PowerSlave you'll acquire different skills that modify the way you traverse a level, opening previously inaccessible routes that lead to new exits and thus to new levels. For example, you might find a long stretch of poisonous ground in one level that cannot be walked across for long before you die. Returning later with sandals that negate poison damage will allow you to navigate through towards a new exit which then branches out into several new levels. This never becomes too complicated and in fact I never found myself lost or unsure of which level I should head back to next.
The world map will also have a few levels that emit beeping sounds, signaling the presence of a transmitter piece. There's eight in all and collecting them is required for the good ending. Some of these are pretty easy to stumble across but others will require a bit of thinking and skilled platforming. Oh yeah, there's a lot of that in this game. If you're like me you probably hate the idea of platforming puzzles in a first person game, but PowerSlave generally feels good with only a few sections causing me any real amount of frustration.
The same can be said of the game's difficulty in general, which is ramped up at a good even pace. Weapons also feel terrific with each having a clear utility for the challenges you're about to face. By the end of the game you feel appropriately powerful, and to draw another comparison to Duke Nukem 3D, the final boss feels like a satisfying cakewalk as you go absolutely hog on him with the weapons you picked up along the way.
So I seem very positive on PowerSlave so far. Why the 3.5 out of 5?
There are a couple notable levels that I spent entirely too long on due to irritating design choices that feel incredibly out of place given the rest of the game's quality: Magma Fields and The Sunken Palace of Khnum. The former is a literal "the floor is fire" level, but you're saddled with so much to deal with that it's easy to get overwhelmed. The platforming is hard enough here but everything else that's thrown your way pushes things a little too far for my liking, coming across as overly difficult in contrast to the "tough but fair" nature of the end game.
The Sunken Palace, on the other hand, is far worse and teeters into "time to quit the game" territory. I'm not sure who designed this or what was going through their mind, but it's hands down one of the worst water levels I've come across in a long time. Much of the level is spent navigating underwater caverns littered with mines that have too generous of a blast radius. You're only able to use three weapons underwater to disarm them: you machete (which is obviously a terrible idea), grenades, or your magic staff. If you're just a hair too close the grenades can cause you to take blowback damage, and the staff's projectile weaves around, making it less than ideal in a few spots. It also can cause blowback damage, so I relied mostly on the grenades. You have to contend with piranhas during all of this, and if you get ganged up on by them they'll melt your health bar in seconds. Whacking them with your machete is an option, but feels clumsy and won't do you much good if you're dealing with a swarm.
Alternatively, you can pitch the camera down while you're floating above water and aim at mines and piranhas with your guns. This is a bit slow but honestly the safest way to go through the level, though this really only works in a few locations with the rest only accessible while submerged. Also the piranhas like to get underneath you and bop your character around which is incredibly annoying. At the end of all of this is one last key you must collect and immediately weave into a corridor before all the doors in the room close on you, trapping you inside and leaving you to drown. The game doesn't really telegraph this, so I fell for it my first time. This is perhaps the one part of the game where PowerSlave feels outright unfair, and placing the trap at the very end of an already frustrating level is garbage. You've been warned now, at least.
There's some other issues I have here and there. Lasers killing you in one hit makes navigating some very late game areas a pain. Like Duke Nukem 3D (can you tell what game I played right before this?) the lack of check-pointing can make later levels a bit of a slog when you keep biting it right at the end. Thankfully this is an area the Exhumed edition improves upon. A more stable framerate also helps, and a better draw distance and texture clarity makes it a whole lot easier to see what's going on and where you're heading. Again, if you have your choice of versions, Exhumed is the way to go.
There's a lot of good here, Lobotomy just got so much right with PowerSlave, but a few bizarre choices makes it stop just short of being better than their Duke 3D port. It's not that the bad outweighs the good so much as the good makes the bad even more apparent.
Sega's FPS.
Bad.
Bad.
I get stuck quite often but... damn it's a good game.
PowerSlave is such an overlooked, underrated gem. I originally played it years ago on Sega Saturn, but I recently began playing through PowerSlave EX (NOT the DOS-based version available on GOG – that’s a completely different game) for PC, which is more so based on the PlayStation version of the game.
If I had to "sum up" PowerSlave in one statement, then I'd say it did the Metroid Prime thing before Metroid Prime did the Metroid Prime thing. That said, I'd consider PowerSlave a bit more similar to Tomb Raider in the sense that your challenges come more from your surroundings than your enemies, and I think critics of PowerSlave tend to sell that aspect of the game short. Sure, a first-person shooter in which you mostly shoot giant wasps and other non-human creatures may not sound very interesting, but PowerSlave focuses more on traversal than shooting from a progression standpoint.
The level design in PowerSlave is fair yet formidable, and the level of control that you have over your character is second to none as far as games of PowerSlave’s era go. You should play the Sega Saturn version if you have the means and a 3D Control Pad, as the game features analog movement and turning via the analog stick, as well as analog strafing via the analog triggers. That said, PowerSlave EX is certainly no slouch, as you’ll have access to some very solid mouse and keyboard controls (though you’ll want to track down the mouselook patch before playing on Windows 10).
PowerSlave isn’t afraid to send some really daunting-looking platforming challenges your way, which really says something for the developers’ confidence in the quality of the platforming experience in PowerSlave. Some of the jumping segments are simply exhilarating, as you’ll find yourself continually building confidence at approaching what look to be impossible jumps, and you’ll find yourself tackling them with ease as long as you use a little finesse when it’s called for.
In most cases, if you die in PowerSlave, then it’s probably your fault. That said, this does bring up one of the game’s flaws: a complete lack of checkpoints within levels. Some may consider this game-breaking, though I do think PowerSlave does an excellent job of clueing you in to threats, even those of the environmental variety. If you can’t currently see an upcoming trap, then you’re usually able to hear it. Plus, if there’s some new element introduced to the game play, such as collapsing platforms, then the game will generously introduce it in isolation to give you ample opportunity to understand it before you need to manage the same element during a tenser moment.
You’ve probably noticed that I haven’t talked much about the shooting thus far, which may seem odd given how much shooting you’ll do while playing PowerSlave. Honestly, it just “feels” so good that you really don’t think about it so much. You can tell which enemies you’re hitting very easily, as they flash briefly with each hit. A rather generous auto-aim feature helps players cope better with the sheer verticality of the levels. At the time of PowerSlave’s release, many players were still unfamiliar and unpracticed with the concept of having to look up and down to shoot enemies, so PowerSlave’s Doom-like approach to auto-aim (in the sense that it tracks vertically without altering the player’s view) makes for a very intuitive experience for beginners.
And what review for PowerSlave would be complete without mentioning the music? PowerSlave isn’t a particularly long game, and much of it involves backtracking through levels you’ve already explored to explore them with new abilities. This means that the music needs to be something special if you’re going to hear it again and again. Thankfully, PowerSlave doesn’t disappoint in this regard. While some tracks are slower and more so present to add to the atmosphere, most of PowerSlave’s music drives you forward with something I can only describe as an “Egypt remixed” approach to its soundtrack. Think of it as stereotypical Egypt video game music mixed with electronica and rock. It’s a very interesting mix, and it suits the action well.
If you have the opportunity to play PowerSlave, then definitely give it a shot. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised at how well it holds up, as well as how it surpasses many of its contemporaries.
If I had to "sum up" PowerSlave in one statement, then I'd say it did the Metroid Prime thing before Metroid Prime did the Metroid Prime thing. That said, I'd consider PowerSlave a bit more similar to Tomb Raider in the sense that your challenges come more from your surroundings than your enemies, and I think critics of PowerSlave tend to sell that aspect of the game short. Sure, a first-person shooter in which you mostly shoot giant wasps and other non-human creatures may not sound very interesting, but PowerSlave focuses more on traversal than shooting from a progression standpoint.
The level design in PowerSlave is fair yet formidable, and the level of control that you have over your character is second to none as far as games of PowerSlave’s era go. You should play the Sega Saturn version if you have the means and a 3D Control Pad, as the game features analog movement and turning via the analog stick, as well as analog strafing via the analog triggers. That said, PowerSlave EX is certainly no slouch, as you’ll have access to some very solid mouse and keyboard controls (though you’ll want to track down the mouselook patch before playing on Windows 10).
PowerSlave isn’t afraid to send some really daunting-looking platforming challenges your way, which really says something for the developers’ confidence in the quality of the platforming experience in PowerSlave. Some of the jumping segments are simply exhilarating, as you’ll find yourself continually building confidence at approaching what look to be impossible jumps, and you’ll find yourself tackling them with ease as long as you use a little finesse when it’s called for.
In most cases, if you die in PowerSlave, then it’s probably your fault. That said, this does bring up one of the game’s flaws: a complete lack of checkpoints within levels. Some may consider this game-breaking, though I do think PowerSlave does an excellent job of clueing you in to threats, even those of the environmental variety. If you can’t currently see an upcoming trap, then you’re usually able to hear it. Plus, if there’s some new element introduced to the game play, such as collapsing platforms, then the game will generously introduce it in isolation to give you ample opportunity to understand it before you need to manage the same element during a tenser moment.
You’ve probably noticed that I haven’t talked much about the shooting thus far, which may seem odd given how much shooting you’ll do while playing PowerSlave. Honestly, it just “feels” so good that you really don’t think about it so much. You can tell which enemies you’re hitting very easily, as they flash briefly with each hit. A rather generous auto-aim feature helps players cope better with the sheer verticality of the levels. At the time of PowerSlave’s release, many players were still unfamiliar and unpracticed with the concept of having to look up and down to shoot enemies, so PowerSlave’s Doom-like approach to auto-aim (in the sense that it tracks vertically without altering the player’s view) makes for a very intuitive experience for beginners.
And what review for PowerSlave would be complete without mentioning the music? PowerSlave isn’t a particularly long game, and much of it involves backtracking through levels you’ve already explored to explore them with new abilities. This means that the music needs to be something special if you’re going to hear it again and again. Thankfully, PowerSlave doesn’t disappoint in this regard. While some tracks are slower and more so present to add to the atmosphere, most of PowerSlave’s music drives you forward with something I can only describe as an “Egypt remixed” approach to its soundtrack. Think of it as stereotypical Egypt video game music mixed with electronica and rock. It’s a very interesting mix, and it suits the action well.
If you have the opportunity to play PowerSlave, then definitely give it a shot. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised at how well it holds up, as well as how it surpasses many of its contemporaries.
Powerslave non è il solito clone di Doom, ma un precursore degli FPA (First Person Adventure) che ti farà esclamare più volte l'aggettivo "capolavoro", peccato solo per l'assenza dell'italiano.
Show this to a Powerslave/Exhumed player to scare them
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/UCu4tn-iRp0/hqdefault.jpg
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/UCu4tn-iRp0/hqdefault.jpg
fav boomer shooter. no modern revival has come close
He visto que mucha gente se caga en la versión de PC porque no es tan interesante a comparación de las versiones para consolas/EX, pero debo de decir que de todas formas es un juego muy entretenido, creo que hasta podría decir que es bastante infravalorado a comparación de otros juegos del Build Engine...aunque siento que es por una razón: no es tan impresionante como sus sucesores.
No quiero ser muy duro con el juego porque salió un poco después de Duke Nukem 3D, y a comparación de este...pues es un juego bastante sencillito, pero no por eso malo. A lo que me refiero se puede ver desde el principio: los primeros...7-10 niveles son muy lineales y tienen muy poca variedad de enemigos y de armas. Para este punto siempre verás a los mismos 2 o 3 enemigos: los Anubis, las momias y las arañitas rojas (por suerte no hay hitscanners como tal en el juego más que un jefe), y para matarlos tendrás que usar las mismas armas como la M16, que es bastante buena ya que la usarás por todo el juego debido a que le hace stunlock a la mayoría de los enemigos y hay un montón de munición de ella en todos los niveles, pero en cambio hay otras como el lanzallamas que...es bastante meh, muy corto alcance y su munición se acaba en chinga loca. Diría que mi favorita es la Cobra ya que es como un lanzacohetes pero que persigue a los enemigos, pero tiene varios problemas debido a que a veces no logra atacar bien la hitbox de los enemigos y se quedará rondando alrededor de ellos. No son malas armas, pero de todas formas hay muy poquita variedad de ellas y solo 2 o 3 son realmente útiles, y sumado con la variedad de enemigos se me hizo similar al Rise of the Triad donde usarás la misma arma por la mayor parte del juego. Otra razón por la que digo que es simple es por los gráficos, son bastante buenos, pero la arquitectura de los niveles es, otra vez, bastante sencilla. No se verán los edificios, ciudades o explosiones gigantes y efectos bonitos de Duke 3D, pero de todas formas se nota que si le metieron empeño, es una evolución de los juegos antes de Duke como Witchaven o TekWar.
El sistema del inventario también es un concepto bien ejecutado: a través de los niveles encontrarás objetos que hacen diversidad de cosas, desde reestablecer toda tu vida, darte invulnerabilidad o aumentar el daño que haces. Siento que no todos son útiles, como la máscara de buceo (que se me olvidó que existía hasta después de los niveles de agua) y la invisibilidad, pero los otros son bastante útiles cuando te encuentras con las madres esas gigantes de lava que salen en la portada.
Aun así, a pesar de ser algo sencillo, muchos niveles son bastante interesantes y entretenidos. Muchos son cortitos (más que nada los del principio), pero a partir del primer jefe los niveles se abren y puedes explorarlos más, algo más cercano a lo que juegos como Duke 3D, Shadow Warrior o Blood hacen, aunque no tanto como los del último. Nunca me sentí muy perdido al explorarlos ya que de todas formas los niveles eran relativamente cortos. Bueno, solo en el último nivel donde usé cheats para ir out of bounds porque se me había pasado un objetivo, softlockeandome en una parte del nivel y no quería reiniciarlo lmao
Nunca fui muy fan de los niveles egipcios o cosas así en juegos, pero...Powerslave lo hace muy bien, junto con la música que es simplemente excelente. Muy relajante de vez en cuándo, incluso.
No es el mejor shooter del Build Engine porque existe SHADOW WARRIORGOD pero de todas formas hay que decir que está bastante entretenido, dentro de su simpleza hay un juego muy bueno y divertido, y a veces solo se necesita eso para ser bueno, aunque claro, juegos posteriores lo superan con creces. Me hubiera gustado jugar la versión EX para poder hacerle una reseña también, pero eso tendrá que ser en el futuro ya que el port está roto en Windows 10 ayúdenme por favor
No quiero ser muy duro con el juego porque salió un poco después de Duke Nukem 3D, y a comparación de este...pues es un juego bastante sencillito, pero no por eso malo. A lo que me refiero se puede ver desde el principio: los primeros...7-10 niveles son muy lineales y tienen muy poca variedad de enemigos y de armas. Para este punto siempre verás a los mismos 2 o 3 enemigos: los Anubis, las momias y las arañitas rojas (por suerte no hay hitscanners como tal en el juego más que un jefe), y para matarlos tendrás que usar las mismas armas como la M16, que es bastante buena ya que la usarás por todo el juego debido a que le hace stunlock a la mayoría de los enemigos y hay un montón de munición de ella en todos los niveles, pero en cambio hay otras como el lanzallamas que...es bastante meh, muy corto alcance y su munición se acaba en chinga loca. Diría que mi favorita es la Cobra ya que es como un lanzacohetes pero que persigue a los enemigos, pero tiene varios problemas debido a que a veces no logra atacar bien la hitbox de los enemigos y se quedará rondando alrededor de ellos. No son malas armas, pero de todas formas hay muy poquita variedad de ellas y solo 2 o 3 son realmente útiles, y sumado con la variedad de enemigos se me hizo similar al Rise of the Triad donde usarás la misma arma por la mayor parte del juego. Otra razón por la que digo que es simple es por los gráficos, son bastante buenos, pero la arquitectura de los niveles es, otra vez, bastante sencilla. No se verán los edificios, ciudades o explosiones gigantes y efectos bonitos de Duke 3D, pero de todas formas se nota que si le metieron empeño, es una evolución de los juegos antes de Duke como Witchaven o TekWar.
El sistema del inventario también es un concepto bien ejecutado: a través de los niveles encontrarás objetos que hacen diversidad de cosas, desde reestablecer toda tu vida, darte invulnerabilidad o aumentar el daño que haces. Siento que no todos son útiles, como la máscara de buceo (que se me olvidó que existía hasta después de los niveles de agua) y la invisibilidad, pero los otros son bastante útiles cuando te encuentras con las madres esas gigantes de lava que salen en la portada.
Aun así, a pesar de ser algo sencillo, muchos niveles son bastante interesantes y entretenidos. Muchos son cortitos (más que nada los del principio), pero a partir del primer jefe los niveles se abren y puedes explorarlos más, algo más cercano a lo que juegos como Duke 3D, Shadow Warrior o Blood hacen, aunque no tanto como los del último. Nunca me sentí muy perdido al explorarlos ya que de todas formas los niveles eran relativamente cortos. Bueno, solo en el último nivel donde usé cheats para ir out of bounds porque se me había pasado un objetivo, softlockeandome en una parte del nivel y no quería reiniciarlo lmao
Nunca fui muy fan de los niveles egipcios o cosas así en juegos, pero...Powerslave lo hace muy bien, junto con la música que es simplemente excelente. Muy relajante de vez en cuándo, incluso.
No es el mejor shooter del Build Engine porque existe SHADOW WARRIORGOD pero de todas formas hay que decir que está bastante entretenido, dentro de su simpleza hay un juego muy bueno y divertido, y a veces solo se necesita eso para ser bueno, aunque claro, juegos posteriores lo superan con creces. Me hubiera gustado jugar la versión EX para poder hacerle una reseña también, pero eso tendrá que ser en el futuro ya que el port está roto en Windows 10 ayúdenme por favor
Quite good looking, but fails to clear a certain level of playability. The controls are busted and all movement feels like crap.
Criminally overlooked. Metroidvania FPS is a rare breed, (the only other game I know of that fits the description is Metroid Prime, maaaaybe Prey 2017) and this really really makes me want to see more of that.
Would recommend picking up the EX version on PC, if you can be able to find it.
Would recommend picking up the EX version on PC, if you can be able to find it.