C-Dogs

C-Dogs description

Tired of the 16-bit limitations, I bought a Watcom C. While I was having fun, somewhere in the subconscious I have wandered the idea to make a good Cyberdogs with proper design, and I think this is an appropriate introduction to the world of 32 bit programming. This time she also got out of control and accidentally turned into a game, which is now in front of you. I hope you will like it."

Ronny Wester, from the Readme file.
As can be seen from the introduction, C-dogs, also called CyberDogs 2, is not so much a sequel, much reworked version of the game CyberDogs. Remained essentially all the same shooter with a view from the top, she worked much better with the result that the gameplay has undergone some serious changes.

If CyberDogs the choice the player was given only three characters, C-Dogs is the generation process. Yes, given a choice of only 7 persons, but you can change skin color, hair color (if any) and color of the suit (arms, torso and legs), and you can enter the name of your character and save the template, then re-creating. The game begins with the selection campaign, of which only 5, but each of them has now a text description. Each campaign is divided into missions, also equipped with its description, which vary the task, enemies, and even available in the mission weapons. And although the stories there do not Shine, because a good programmer is not necessarily a good writer, but the creativity is. As before, you can play with a partner on one computer, only now for two players there is the duel mode - Dog Fight.

As already mentioned, the list of available weapons may be different for each mission. The author for some reason decided to clean the shop and life, which were in СyberDogs: now at levels not scattered weapons and armor, and drop HP to 0 immediately leads to ignominious defeat. However, now the game has a password system which allows you to continue with the campaign with the same scenario. For each mission you can bring from one to three weapons from the list, but the cartridges do not run out. Only trigger happy is still not recommended, because the game is played for points, and for every shot glasses are removed. Moreover, the levels now roam computer-controlled allies or just civilians, the killing of which is punishable by fines. The choice of weapons is richer and has grown to 11 types, and opponents have added unique weapons - for example, turning to stone guns and bombs with harmful inverting control of gas. In contrast to CyberDogs, where the chainsaw was always active and was used in combination with any service, the C-Dogs made the knife a separate species, but it is especially convenient to use with novopavlivka reception button change weapons with the direction button allows the character to quickly slide a decent distance in the specified direction, which also greatly speeds up the research level. In the words of the Creator of the game, he tried to make a set of weapons as balanced as possible.

The levels are generated pseudo-randomly according to the specified in the editor of conditions: it is enough to change the established options random seed mission (with password) will be transformed. They became more interactive objects - for example, there are exploding boxes and barrels of Napalm. Some of the rooms are now covered with colored doors, passage through which requires a preliminary finding of the key of the corresponding color. Assignments there are five types: to search items, eliminate a certain number of certain enemies and destroy specified objects were added to the study of the level and rescue the characters. After the completion of the mission should not just to get to the specified on the zone map, but to survive 5 seconds. If the game seems too easy or too difficult - not a problem: in the settings menu you can choose one of five difficulty levels, change the maximum health of player and enemies, to increase the number of enemies on the map and turn on/off friendly fire - each one can set C-Dogs maximum suitable way for yourself.

The game still has no music, but now she can easily recognize any files in the mod format without any transcoding. It's only words, and really even the appearance of already present in the game sounds requires messing around with program settings (dsetup32.exe), for successful implementation of procured music in the game you just need the patience of a Saint.

Included with the game is the editor, campaigns - the scope for creativity. It is possible to set all text descriptions, tasks, missions, level design and characters on them. That's just to draw level is impossible - can only be set to the already mentioned conditions: the number of walls, rooms, doors and color of different objects, weapons, etc., which significantly limits the creative process. A built in character editor allows you to choose their appearance, weapons, a variety of immunities (e.g., fire) and behavior. Unfortunately, given the limited funds available, it is almost impossible to create a unique, in terms of gameplay the campaign, and all the possible artistic value of the story will be confined to text descriptions.

Thus, C-Dogs definitely looks much better than its progenitor, but its main drawback - the monotony of the gameplay - is still here, and with time, albeit not as fast, it is also boring. And let it requires messing around with the settings for a comfortable game, to give a number of pleasant hours she can, especially if you have someone to share the fun. And for a homemade game, it is very good. Woof... woof!

Play your favorite childhood game C-Dogs online in your browser for free here.

Source: Archive.org, Mobygames.com