Raptor: Call of the Shadows

Story

The story of the game indicates that "In the future as a mercenary flying the super-tech Raptor, you'll be sent on interplanetary missions to knock off top competitors of MegaCorps."

Episodes

File:Raptor 1.jpg

Raptor gameplay, Wave 4 of Bravo Sector.

The game is divided into three "sectors": Bravo Sector, Tango Sector, and Outer Regions, all of which have nine sub-missions called "waves", making for a total of 27 levels. The full version of Raptor allows players to start out in any of the three campaigns, though playing them in order will help the player to more easily accumulate money for weapon and shield upgrades.

The first episode, the Bravo Sector, is the most "generic" one, with few features distinguishing each level. Starting at the coast and then moving inland, most of the targets are military bases and various industrial installations, and much of the terrain is barren land, with the occasional forests and rivers. The environment suggests that it is located in the Middle East, as large oil silos feature prominently in the early waves, while in wave eight near the end there is a petrochemical processing plant. In the final wave, the player flies offshore to ruin the Lithos Petroleum rig. However, there is no background on why Lithos is the enemy, other than being suggested as a competitor of MegaCorps.

The second episode, the Tango Sector, is more distinctive, with each level following one of several specific themes. These include a large water/chemical plant, farmland, jungle, city, and airbase. At the end, in the jungle after destroying an ancient temple, the player has to defeat a huge aircraft which splits into three modules. In the final episode, Outer Regions, the player travels from different planets; they consist of a lunar body, a red planet similar to Mars, an ice world, a volcanic world, and finally a space station. Tango Sector and Outer Regions each have a special "night wave" with its own theme music. The night level in the Tango Sector is a well-illuminated city, while the Outer Regions' is the "dark side" of the moon.

Once a player beats a Sector, they can replay it with all the money and weapons that they have accumulated.

Gameplay

Enemies and credits

As in all shoot 'em up games, there are many enemies to kill. While flying enemies are the most numerous, many ground targets (buildings, vehicles, turrets) can be destroyed as well. Bosses appear at the end of each wave, as well as halfway through the later, more difficult waves.

For each target destroyed the player earns credits. The amount of credits earned per enemy destroyed is usually proportional to how tough or dangerous it is, with some of them dropping additional credit bonuses.

Between new waves and sectors the player can use credits to buy equipment upgrades (weapons, shields, bombs, etc.) for his aircraft. Though the player can upgrade their ship, there is only one usable vessel for the player; no new or different ships can be bought.

The Raptor jet is particularly durable compared to craft of other scrolling shooters. However, there are no "lives" so the game is over when the player dies, but the player can reload a recently saved game.

Weapons and Shields

The player starts out with only the default machine guns, and will eventually be able to buy or pickup more (and stronger) weapons. There are two types of weapons: the first is always active (it will always fire whenever player shoots), and the second type is selectable. There are three fixed/active weapon types and eleven selectable weapons. During gameplay only one selectable weapon will be fired at any given time but it can be dynamically switched to deal with the appropriate situation.

Some of the more unique weapons in Raptor, compared to other shoot 'em ups, are the turrets. The Laser Turret will auto-track and hit flying targets regardless of where they are located on the screen, as opposed to shooting in a fixed direction. The Auto-Track Mini-Gun functions similarly except it can hit ground targets as well and will engage multiple targets simultaneously. However the bullets can miss enemies who are far away or moving swiftly. Both are selectable weapons.

There is also the Megabomb, a one-time use weapon which destroys everything on the screen including enemy projectiles, except for the toughest enemies in which case it will damage them. It can either be picked up or purchased; a maximum of 5 Megabombs can be carried at any given time.

The Raptor jet is protected by 100 points of regular shielding, which regenerate extremely slowly, and only when the player isn't firing. Plus, the shields do not recharge in the Elite difficulty.

There is also another kind of shields, called phase shields, which add another 100 points of shielding. Unlike regular shielding, phase shields do not recharge. Up to 5 layers of Phase Shields can be purchased, but due to a programming oversight more can potentially be picked up in-battle.

There is also a technique or programming oversight by which multiple of the selectable weapons can be fired simultaneously with little to no decrease in the firing rate of each weapon. It generally involves ultra rapid pressing of the weapon-change button (Alt by default), or at a more advanced skill level one can rapidly cycle through the numerical keys corresponding to each weapon. Remapping the keyboard can be of great aid in this technique. While theoretically possible to fire almost all the selectable weapons simultaneously at close to full power, in practice only 2-4 can be achieved given typical dexterity and timing limitations.

Reception

The game was reviewed in 1994 in Dragon #208 by Sandy Petersen in the "Eye of the Monitor" column. Petersen gave the game 4 out of 5 stars.

Gametrailers.com and ScrewAttack have labeled it as one of their "Top Ten 2-D Shooters."

Miscellaneous

A glitch/oversight in the game causes the player to keep weapons collected in a level even if the level is aborted. Money accumulated during the level is removed as it should. This means that a player can start a mission, pick up a weapon power-up, abort the mission and sell the weapon. This allows the player to gain money without having to finish any levels.

If the game is started when the computer's internal clock matches one of several predetermined dates (for instance, December 25, one of the programmers' birthdays, etc.) additional objects or enemies will appear on each stage which take the form of cows, monkeys, lizards, etc. This also changes the opening title screen and sound effects.

One can also activate these additional enemies by pressing all the buttons that appear at the bottom of the loading screen (to do this using the keyboard, not the mouse, press the 'S' key, then the '1', '2', and '3' keys at the episode selection screen).

Differences between the MS-DOS and Windows versions

The Windows version of Raptor features slightly improved graphics and audio, alongside a number of other very minor changes. The game itself remains the same between both versions, and many of the glitches and secrets are retained. However the Windows version is plagued by several issues with the controls which do not exist in the MS-DOS version. When using the keyboard in the Windows version, the player ship's mobility is restricted to half of its normal speed, which makes gameplay much more difficult. If the player chooses to use the mouse to control his ship, he is instead unable to move to the extreme right side of the screen.

New 2010 Edition

This version of the game, ported by DotEmu, is compatible with Windows XP, Vista, 7, 32 and 64 bits. It fixes all the old Windows version issues and allow you to play in different resolutions (640*400, 960*600 and 1280*800). The nostalgics can still play with the original rendering but enhanced graphics are also available.

See also

• Tyrian
• Stargunner
• Axelay
• Xenon 2

External links

• Raptor Call of the Shadows 2010 Edition page
• 3D Realms Raptor page
• Mountain King Studios Raptor page
• GameFAQs
• Raptor: Call of the Shadows at MobyGames

pt:Raptor: Call of the Shadows fi:Raptor: Call of the Shadows