Catacomb Abyss

Catacomb Abyss is the sequel to Catacomb 3-D. The Nemesis was defeated, but its minions erected a mausoleum in memory of their ruler, and from there darkness spread to the liberated lands. The main character will again have to enter into an unequal battle with evil spirits and this time finally deal with Nemesis (which, of course, will not prevent him from “lighting up” in a couple of sequels).

The game is very nice, with interesting gameplay (not to mention the fact that this is one of the first games of the genre). There are more types of opponents than in Wolf, and some of them have unique features: zombies crawl out of the ground (often behind the player’s back), skeletons - from the walls; underwater trolls swim towards the player underwater (there is a similar monster in Hexen). Although all three available types of weapons are different versions of throwing clots of fire at the enemy, the second and third types of magic attacks use different “ammunition” (unlike the same Wolf, where the ammunition is the same for all firearms). An interesting feature is that accidentally falling into a useful item destroys it (except for critical items like keys, crystals or scrolls), so the player has to be careful when fighting monsters. The player carries the bottles with healing potion, and each application completely restores health. These bottles are more than enough, so there are no problems with the search for first-aid kits, as in later games of the genre.

Graphics, despite the modest palette, makes a good impression. The levels are quite diverse in visual terms, there are "thematic" opponents (zombies in the cemetery, underwater trolls in the aqueduct, orcs in the dungeon, and the like). Despite the lack of a map, navigation is not difficult due to the fact that each level is divided into locations, and the name of the current location is displayed on the screen. A crystal ball is also useful - a local analogue of the radar, which displays the opponents and their position relative to the player. To recognize different types of opponents, you need to collect several magic crystals scattered across the levels. Another interesting (and not so common) feature is the ability to stop the flow of time using special artifacts - hourglass - which can be found at some levels. As in other FPS, to advance through the levels you need to look for keys that unlock the doors inside the same level, and to go to the next. Keys come in four colors; it is interesting that a player can have several keys of the same color, unlocking different doors. There are no moving blocks of walls, as in Wolf and subsequent games, but there are destructible walls that hide both secrets and simply passages inside the level.

In general, this is a worthy representative of the genre at the initial stage of its development, and many interesting ideas implemented in this game were successfully used in the future.