Before they made Spyro, Insomniac broke onto the PlayStation platform with a Doom-like in which you play as a brick wall dense soldier who’s been granted the ability to use his mind to tap into different psionic abilities.
Disruptor should be best remembered as a successful attempt at creating a first person shooter for the PlayStation that takes advantage of the hardware’s 3D capabilities to great effect. Disruptor runs smoothly, only falters in moments of high particle nonsense, and features 13 levels that are largely navigable with a standard 4 direction dpad with ease.
It should also be remembered for its cheesy, earnestly acted FMV cutscenes. The production value is so low, and the acting so broad that you can’t help but smile as everyone chews scenery between each mission.
What it won’t be remembered for is it’s weapons, which all feel pretty mushy to blast into your enemies, and your psionic abilities that have weirdly tight collision boxes that have a tendency to miss even at close range. Or it’s lengthy levels that have a single mid-level checkpoint and only give you three chances to restart from that checkpoint. Or it’s relentless difficulty curve that continues upwards throughout the game’s 13 levels.
With some tweaks to its checkpoint system and some retooling of its weapons, Disruptor could be a really great PlayStation first person shooter. As it stands, there’s fun to be had, especially in its earlier levels where you’re comfortably zooming along, blasting dudes without a care, but it can’t sustain its level of fun under its relentless challenge.
Let’s just be glad they figured it out in time for the PlayStation 3 launch.
Disruptor should be best remembered as a successful attempt at creating a first person shooter for the PlayStation that takes advantage of the hardware’s 3D capabilities to great effect. Disruptor runs smoothly, only falters in moments of high particle nonsense, and features 13 levels that are largely navigable with a standard 4 direction dpad with ease.
It should also be remembered for its cheesy, earnestly acted FMV cutscenes. The production value is so low, and the acting so broad that you can’t help but smile as everyone chews scenery between each mission.
What it won’t be remembered for is it’s weapons, which all feel pretty mushy to blast into your enemies, and your psionic abilities that have weirdly tight collision boxes that have a tendency to miss even at close range. Or it’s lengthy levels that have a single mid-level checkpoint and only give you three chances to restart from that checkpoint. Or it’s relentless difficulty curve that continues upwards throughout the game’s 13 levels.
With some tweaks to its checkpoint system and some retooling of its weapons, Disruptor could be a really great PlayStation first person shooter. As it stands, there’s fun to be had, especially in its earlier levels where you’re comfortably zooming along, blasting dudes without a care, but it can’t sustain its level of fun under its relentless challenge.
Let’s just be glad they figured it out in time for the PlayStation 3 launch.