(This is the 116th game in my challenge to go through many known games in chronological order starting in 1990. The spreadsheet/blog is in my bio.)
I kept this game in my playlist for the challenge because it looked unique and kind of reminded me of Hotline Miami, which is a gaming series I really like. It's a top down shoot 'em up where you pick one of 6 playable characters that differ in speed, health, weaponry and their ultra attack. Then you walk through levels and shoot up some bad guys and watch blood splatter everywhere. It's gory, it's grotesque, it's macabre. Basically, what many teenage gamers would be kind of into at the time.
Obviously, its shock factor is pretty much nonexistent by today's standards, but what strikes me as most notable about the game for its time is that unlike other criticized games like Doom, where you kill demonic creatures, or Night Trap, where you try to save the good kids, Loaded has you play psychotic killers and perverts. The goal is the same, you are supposed to stop a supervillain (likely because the game would not be allowed to release without an actual reason given to the killing in the game) but since none of the backstory is in the game, I never got the impression that I was doing any good. It feels like you enter a prison, kill its psycho inhabitants and try to escape yourself.
Anyway, while I wouldn't be bothered by this either way but just find it to be something interesting to add to this review, the gameplay itself I did take offense to. Levels were seemingly designed by an 8 year old, as they are incredibly repetitive and uninspired. Combat itself is pretty bland as well, as you can use your special attack a few times before charges run out and otherwise just have to hold down the shoot button as you run through door after door after door. Similarly to a Doom, you need to find key cards to unlock more doors and escape from each level or find a specific target.
One annoyance is that enemies get right at you when they spot you, and shooting at an enemy that is right at your face doesn't kill them for some reason. You need to find at least an inch of distance to kill the enemies, which is an odd bug. Worse, turning and shooting at enemies is pretty difficult because your shot only covers so little of the screen and enemies keep moving, so sometimes I found myself turning around multiple times to finally hit an enemy.
The worst part? After all this turning for an hour, I actually got a massive headache from my session. I don't remember which games they were but this happened to me for the 2nd or 3rd time ever over all these years that a game gave me a headache. You might not feel the same while playing this, but even without the headache-inducing nature of the game, I wouldn't recommend playing it. The soundtrack is probably the best part about it, but there are only 8 tracks or so in the game and they range from meh to solid.
I kept this game in my playlist for the challenge because it looked unique and kind of reminded me of Hotline Miami, which is a gaming series I really like. It's a top down shoot 'em up where you pick one of 6 playable characters that differ in speed, health, weaponry and their ultra attack. Then you walk through levels and shoot up some bad guys and watch blood splatter everywhere. It's gory, it's grotesque, it's macabre. Basically, what many teenage gamers would be kind of into at the time.
Obviously, its shock factor is pretty much nonexistent by today's standards, but what strikes me as most notable about the game for its time is that unlike other criticized games like Doom, where you kill demonic creatures, or Night Trap, where you try to save the good kids, Loaded has you play psychotic killers and perverts. The goal is the same, you are supposed to stop a supervillain (likely because the game would not be allowed to release without an actual reason given to the killing in the game) but since none of the backstory is in the game, I never got the impression that I was doing any good. It feels like you enter a prison, kill its psycho inhabitants and try to escape yourself.
Anyway, while I wouldn't be bothered by this either way but just find it to be something interesting to add to this review, the gameplay itself I did take offense to. Levels were seemingly designed by an 8 year old, as they are incredibly repetitive and uninspired. Combat itself is pretty bland as well, as you can use your special attack a few times before charges run out and otherwise just have to hold down the shoot button as you run through door after door after door. Similarly to a Doom, you need to find key cards to unlock more doors and escape from each level or find a specific target.
One annoyance is that enemies get right at you when they spot you, and shooting at an enemy that is right at your face doesn't kill them for some reason. You need to find at least an inch of distance to kill the enemies, which is an odd bug. Worse, turning and shooting at enemies is pretty difficult because your shot only covers so little of the screen and enemies keep moving, so sometimes I found myself turning around multiple times to finally hit an enemy.
The worst part? After all this turning for an hour, I actually got a massive headache from my session. I don't remember which games they were but this happened to me for the 2nd or 3rd time ever over all these years that a game gave me a headache. You might not feel the same while playing this, but even without the headache-inducing nature of the game, I wouldn't recommend playing it. The soundtrack is probably the best part about it, but there are only 8 tracks or so in the game and they range from meh to solid.