The ultimate virtual battlegrid. A Darwinian cyberstate.

February 11, 2013 3:06 PM

Immercenary is a forgotten hybrid first-person shooter/RPG that was exclusive to the 3DO console. The game combined the aesthetics of Snow Crash, Lawnmower Man and LSD Dream Emulator into a massive open-world game. Gamasutra article.

A Let's Play. Another Let's Play. Part 2. Part 3. Part 4. Part 5.

posted by Charlemagne In Sweatpants (18 comments total)

Damn you, Charlemagne In Sweatpants! I was enjoying 18 years, 18 SWEET years of life without thinking about having to HUFFMAN anyone. Now all the consciousnesses I destroyed and absorbed will come back in my dreams to haunt me again...
posted by Smart Dalek at 3:37 PM on February 11 [2 favorites]

You're a Dalek. You don't feel bad about destroying things.
posted by Charlemagne In Sweatpants at 3:40 PM on February 11 [2 favorites]

How much longer until we get a weird dreamscape MMO so we can share the strange experiences with friends?
posted by mccarty.tim at 3:56 PM on February 11

I think the first Let's Play link is being played on an emulator (and that's why the game looks so messed up). The Gamasutra article mentions that many textures don't display properly in an emulator, which would explain why many of the buildings in the first video appear to be nothing but a single wall.
posted by strangecargo at 4:13 PM on February 11

Oh man, I remember this. I thought I just dreamed it.
posted by TwelveTwo at 4:21 PM on February 11

Dr Wallace Breen, I presume? ;)
posted by Celsius1414 at 4:27 PM on February 11

So much nostalgia. I grew up gaming in the 80s and 90s. I miss all of the frustration, weirdness, and insanity of some of those games. High production value games are glossy and cool and all, but they're just not... whatever this shit is.
posted by Stagger Lee at 5:22 PM on February 11 [3 favorites]

I kinda had this revelation that as the technology gets better the scope of games gets narrower. There are exceptions, like many indie games and Child of Eden, but the ability to be more realistic makes people want to make 'realistic' games instead of these weird, psychedelic wonderlands. And then they all get outsold by a game about suicidal birds.
posted by Charlemagne In Sweatpants at 5:24 PM on February 11 [3 favorites]

I think that, as Hollywood has discovered, the more money involved the lower the risk tolerance becomes. Huge studios with big teams working on expensive games aren't going to risk mistakes.

We've definitely seen that indie games are where you're going to find the truly weird and creative stuff these days. It seems to come with some of the frustrating game play I remember too, although as a whole I think gameplay has come a long way.

I don't actually have the time or will to play games more than twice a year, but there's still so much nostalgia from a wasted youth.
posted by Stagger Lee at 5:28 PM on February 11 [1 favorite]

So much nostalgia. I grew up gaming in the 80s and 90s. I miss all of the frustration, weirdness, and insanity of some of those games. High production value games are glossy and cool and all, but they're just not... whatever this shit is.

you know there's like a huge thriving experimental indie game environment that dwarfs anything 20 years ago by an order of magnitude right
posted by p3on at 5:33 PM on February 11 [5 favorites]

you know there's like a huge thriving experimental indie game environment that dwarfs anything 20 years ago by an order of magnitude right
posted by p3on at 5:33 PM on February 11 [+] [!]

And I wish I had the time to play with it. Glad other people get to though. :)
posted by Stagger Lee at 5:35 PM on February 11

you know there's like a huge thriving experimental indie game environment that dwarfs anything 20 years ago by an order of magnitude right

Does it involve punctuation?
posted by bongo_x at 5:40 PM on February 11 [2 favorites]

Holy crap, live action cut scenes! It's like playing a bad episode of SeaQuest DSV.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 5:52 PM on February 11

bongo_x: "you know there's like a huge thriving experimental indie game environment that dwarfs anything 20 years ago by an order of magnitude right

Does it involve punctuation?"

no
posted by DoctorFedora at 6:22 PM on February 11 [8 favorites]

Man, I miss the enthusiasm of the halycon '90s, computer gaming-wise. This, along with Majestic and 10six -- anyone remember those PC Gamer spreads? Or was it Computer Gaming World? -- pretty much locked down my imagination for a reaaaal long time.
posted by zer0render at 7:11 PM on February 11

Holy crap, live action cut scenes! It's like playing a bad episode of SeaQuest DSV.

Let's be fair - how could you tell if it was a good episode of SeaQuest DSV?
posted by Tomorrowful at 7:48 PM on February 11

So the game is actually a massively-multiplayer offline FPS, albeit for only one player.

...sure, buddy.
posted by OverlappingElvis at 9:48 PM on February 11

Let's be fair - how could you tell if it was a good episode of SeaQuest DSV?

I knew someone was gonna make this joke and me, and my first season (before Krieg and Dagwood and all that bullshit) say you can go suck a lemon!
posted by adamdschneider at 10:07 PM on February 11 [1 favorite]