Cyberdogs

Game: Cyberdogs
Developer: Ronny Wester
Platform: PC
Release Year: 1994

Basic Plot

The scenario is that you are a mercenary for hire who has to complete a series of missions to earn money. There is no "plot" as such but that is the setting.

Gameplay

Cyberdogs is a top down action shooter which can be played as a single or two player shared screen co-operative campaign.

Players choose between three characters; Jones, Ice, and Warbaby. Your choice of character is entirely aesthetic, they have no special abilities or functional differences.

Before each new mission the player is able to purchase weapons. Without weapons (or if you run out of ammunition) you'll be forced to fight with your bare hands. You start with a small amount of money at the beginning of the game, and obtain additional money from each mission you complete. One unique weapon is the chainsaw which does not use ammunition but replaces your bare fists as your melee weapon. The better the weapon you buy the more expensive the ammunition is; so there is a risk/reward game mechanic here. If you buy an expensive weapon you need to make the most of it otherwise you won't have the funds to keep using it.

A second mechanic that comes into play is the need to purchase additional lives and armour. These are important; you need to stay alive, but the more you spend on these the less money you have remaining to purchase weaponry.

The actual missions themselves pan out like a top down action/shooter. Objectives involve finding items, killing certain numbers of enemies, or destroying structures/bases (or a combination of the above). Every mission the enemies get harder, so you need to continually improve the gear your characters are holding.

To obtain money you need to:

• Kill enemies
  
• Complete objectives and leave the level within the allotted time
  
• Selling weapons and other items found during a mission
  
• Finding items while on a mission

The game is over if the player loses all of their lives. In co-op mode one player can die, and the other can keep on fighting. If they are able to complete the mission then the other player is able to re-join the game (without their items, but with some lives restored).

Choose your hero. Why wouldn't you go Warbaby? I mean... he's wearing a beret.

Positives

Along with Sopwith 2 and The Lost Vikings this was one of those games my brother introduced me to. This had an air of "cool" about it, and I really enjoyed the times I played it.

Having co-operative campaign play was pretty new and fun for the era. Multiplayer games were just so much fun back before the age of fast internet (because of the novelty). Now we expect it (I'm looking at you Bethesda...).

Negatives

The view and controls were a bit confusing at times, shared screen even more so. The perspective was unusual for other games of that era.

During a mission.

Memorable Moments

I remember there were some pretty amazing guns you could obtain if you saved up enough money. I played split screen a lot with my brother and other friends. Writing this blog post makes me want to play this again... Or port it to Android.