Attic of the Underdogs

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Review by Underdogs:

Meteor is a fun top-down on-foot shooter game that is reminiscent of Cannon Fodder and Commando, among others. You play Sergeant Ash, diehard soldier whose mission is to recapture the control center of a space-based weapon from a group of terrorists. To do this, you go through 13 main missions, each with its own objective ranging from object retrieval (usually some color-coded keycards), to search and rescue, to enemy elimination.

Although a pretty standard shoot-everything-in-sight kind of game, Meteor features some puzzle and strategic elements to make things more interesting. In some missions, you will need to disable force fields and raise bridges by finding and activating switches and buttons, taking cover behind friendly units who will attack enemy units they see, and even use helicopters to fly you over destroyed bridges or out of danger. There are ten weapons in total, each with its own characteristics and many requiring ammo to use.

The game?s user interface is not very intuitive: the right mouse button is to aim, and left button is to fire. But once you come across automatic-fire weapons, the advantages of this scheme becomes clear. One gripe I have is that you must move Ash in absolute directions (i.e. up is always toward the top of the screen no matter which direction he is facing). He also seems to move a bit far too quickly ? this makes getting into small doorways a tedious affair, although slowdown programs seem to help.

To round off this excellent freeware underdog, Meteor includes a full suite of game-editing tools that let you customize and build your own maps, as well as units and weapons. If you enjoy military shooters, Meteor is an excellent underdog that will keep you entertained for hours. Highly recommended! Version 1.2 which was released in February 2004 adds superb multiplayer support, 16-bit graphics, and numerous bug fixes and gameplay tweaks.

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