Octopus Overlords

Crime Cities is a completely forgotten game that only requires a Pentium 233, yet it delivers gameplay that surpasses a lot fo the modern games.

It's so forgotten, even its publisher don't have it on their website. (Big City Games, part of Strategy First). In fact, not even SF have it on their website.

You have to go to the deveoper's site to find info on it:
http://www.techland.pl/enProd.php?PID=PR005

For those who don't know, Techland are the people who did Chrome and Xpand Rally.

Imagine a city just like Fifth Element or Blade Runner, flyers everywhere, flying among giant skyscrapers, dip down into street level or go up high into the sky... Then throw in weapons Lots of weapons.

There are always a dozen things moving at the same time. Billboards rotate their ads, dozens of cars and buses moving to their destinations, mass transit follow their monotube routes, really makes you feel insignificant, except for your weapons.

The backstory ain't the best. They never explain how your'e supposed to investigate anything from inside a flyer that just fly around and kill things or carry things, but it's better than your average sci-fi plot actually.

Those of you who have even budget machines should be able to crank this baby up to maximum detail and view distance, and enjoy visuals that may not impress everybody, but at least entertain for a while, as you cruise the cities...

What I know about this game is that it was released 2 times, a year apart. I didn't understand the second time, but the mediocre reviews were what stopped me from buying it.
Is it a freelancing? Or is there a set mission/plot structure?

There's a plot. Best way to describe it is it's like Wing Commander except you're stuck inside a city. Perhaps the old game Quarantine where you drive a killer taxi in a city is the closest analog.

The side missions are optional but adds flavor to the backstory, as you get your behind caught in some weird situations, from alien believers, to Captain Ahab searching for his whale, to Father who needs someone to protect his daughter's limo, to Starpol needing help chasing down a mutant, to someone's fishing trip... It's actually a bit of fun, though the lots and lots of killing gets a bit tiresome, and the lack of money esp. on planet 3 makes things VERY hard.

Damn!
I saw this game every time I'd visit Big Lots for like 7 bucks, and the screenshots on the cover certainly looked intriguing. But having heard nothing about it, I left it lay. And now from your description, it sounds like something I'd actually enjoy. Last time I was there (Saturday), it was gone. Ain't it always the way.

Reminds me of "Zone Raiders". Played the demo for years before I decided to buy it. And by then I couldn't find it anywhere. Finally found a copy on eBay and paid $16 for it. Then I actually tracked down a level designer and emailed him a fan letter, and he wrote back saying he had a stack of them sitting in his office and I could have one for free. I declined because I had one already by then.

So there's only one Big Lots in your city?

There's only 1 in San Francisco, but there's one in Oakland/San Leandro I go by sometimes.

Kasey Chang wrote:So there's only one Big Lots in your city?

There's only 1 in San Francisco, but there's one in Oakland/San Leandro I go by sometimes.

Remember, I live in Bismarck, ND.
We're lucky to have the one. It could be the only one in the state. We don't have a Circuit City, a Best Buy, an EB World, an Olive Garden, or a Media Play either, among others. We're starved for stores up here. Though I can't say I miss Best Buy. The closest one is in Fargo, and they've been for shit lately.

Picked this one up on a whim, mostly because I'd never heard of it. Its okay. The main problem I had was affording both shield recharges and upgrades. Some kind of random mission system (or maybe even just bounties) would have loosened up money enough for me to get a bit more out of it. A nice little blast fest for a while, but overall I had more fun with the Scrapland demo.

Agreed, money is too tight. There should have been both random missions AND scripted missions.

Cool. I found this thing a while back in the back of an EB and paid like $7 for it, IIRC. Now there's another game in it I should probably play at some point. Darn backlog.