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By Al Giovetti, 05/27/97
Price: $35 - $45
Genre: action
Release: January 1997
Developer: Psygnosis and Tantalus Intertainment
Lead Artist:
Programmer:
Producer:
Publisher: Psygnosis
Phone: 414-655-5683
Website: www.psygnosis.com
Requirements: Windows 95, Pensium 60, 8 MB RAM, 3 MB hard drive space, 2X CD ROM, sound card, Super VGA

Krazy Ivan

History

Psygnosis has produced some of the top games for the Sony PlayStation, including Destruction Derby, WipeOut, and Assault Rigs. The PC conversions of their console greats proved to be well accepted in the marketplace since the conversions were timely, well done, and most of all the control system was as responsive as the console game. Krazy Ivan is another such conversion, but this is a conversion that did not fare so well on the console.

In the past there have been many monster mech games, such as Mechwarrior 2, Mechwarrior 2: Mercenaries, Descent 2, and others. Many of these games have been very successful, because the game play was excellent. Krazy Ivan is another rock-em sock-em robot game.

Company Line (The Hype)

Krazy Ivan is a manic shoot-em-up set in the year 2018 when Siberia has been wasted in the aftermath of a brutal alien invasion. With near impenetrable force-fields protecting vast tracts of captured land the worldwide invincibility of the invading hordes seems inevitable.

Mankind's only hope comes when a team of Russian scientists manage to disrupt the force field long enough for a lone individual to enter the alien-occupied territory - and they don't send a diplomat.

Krazy Ivan is a bolts-for-brains Russian soldier on a suicide mission. His only company is a forty-foot, fifty ton mechanized power-suit.

The mission is to rescue human survivors and blast your way across a battletorn planet. Krazy Ivan is up against a myriad of malevolent, massively armoured enemies in a fight to finish.

The game boasts an amazingly fluid 3D environment set across the five distinct battle zones of Russia, Middle East, Euope, USA and Japan. Each zone features; stunningly realistic in-game graphics; fully animated and texture-mapped enemies, who come complete with bizarre mutated mechanoid characters and bug-shaped robots; masses of military hardware and one certifiable cult hero in the making - the Siberian super-soldier with no time for diplomatic talks or trade sanctions.

Game Play

This is an arcade game ported from the PlayStation without all the trappings expected in a real robot simulator designed for the PC from the ground up like Mechwarrior 2 or EarthSiege 2. There are no advanced controls for team person commands, multiple views, weapons' control, damage screens, or any of the dozens of controls normally activated by the PC 104 key keyboard. If you are looking for another robot battle simulator, this is not your cup of tea.

Enemies can drop and shoot from above, but your movement is strangely impared when compared to the Mechwarrior 2 and EarthSiege 2 standards in this game arena.

The scripted or varied computer generated missions of these landmark games are also missing, since the game is only five levels long. The game is far to short, with too little effort given to mission design, campaign play, and multiple battle theatres.

There is a green fog that covers everything in the game. The fog obscures the alien robots who can see through the fog and shoot at you even when you cannot see them. The fog is an artificial means to making the game more difficult, instead of increasing the artificial intelligence of the enemy robots. The fog frustrates and angers the gamer as being an illogical advantage over the game player. The fog also provides a means of allowing the robots to appear out of thin air or really fog.

There are a nice complement of weapons that come with the game and it is fun in its simplicity by comparison with the big boys. Too bad the game is too short.

Plot

In 2018, you, a big, bad robot pilot, are called upon to repel and destroy the aliens who have invaded the earth. The aliens have five bases, which comprise the five levels in the game. The bases are found in Russia, Japan, Middle East, United States, and Europe. Each of the bases is protected by a force field powered by a field generator and two types of robots, the mindless drones and sentient killers. Your mission is to destroy the sentients and the power generator at each base.

Graphics

The graphics are well done, but covered with a fog of green goo. It appears that the fog was used to cover the fact that there were not any great graphic effects in the game. The backgrounds lack details.

Animation

Voice Actors

Music Score

Sound Effects

Utilities

Multi-player Features

Cheats, Hints, Walkthrough

Journalists

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References