Wetlands (video game)
| Wetlands | |
|---|---|
_Game_Cover.jpg) Wetlands DOS cover | |
| Developer(s) | Hypnotix, Inc. |
| Publisher(s) | New World Computing |
| Director(s) | Michael Taramykin |
| Designer(s) | John Philip Sousa |
| Programmer(s) |
Thomas L. Kirchner John A. Moschetto |
| Artist(s) |
Jason M. Shenkman Robert Santiago John Skikus |
| Composer(s) | Grayscore |
| Platform(s) | DOS |
| Release date(s) | 1995 |
| Genre(s) | Adventure, First-Person Shooter |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
Wetlands is a 1995 computer game developed by created by Hypnotix, Inc. and published by New World Computing for DOS.
Story
Wetlands is set sometime in the a distant future. Most of the game's backstory is told through the graphic novel contained in game's manual.
The main catalyst leading to the creation of game's universe began with a nuclear test conducted sometime in 1995 by the government of United States of America under the name Project Othello. The two nuclear blasts this project involved altered the weather patterns of Earth resulting in years of rain resulting in Earth becoming immersed in 98% water. This resulted in the Earth becoming known as "Wetlands."
As a result, the earth's population is now forced to live in underwater cities. The rise in criminal activity along with the sudden appearance of extraterrestrials from other planets who sought to take advantage of the weakened human race also has caused the planet to become a haven for all manner of all kinds of unlikable characters.
However, a number of humans were able to leave for space. However they are an equally terrible position as war has broken out both in space and on other planets. This war is being fought between a federation that's a combination of earth's remaining governments and a group of extremists known as the Valarins who seek to end it in favor of an intergalactic empire.
The game begins begins in the year 2495, 500 years after the Project Othello blasts. The Valarans have forced the federation into a precarious position having taken over a number of their planetary colonies. During this time, a jailbreak of a man from the maximum security prison Alpha 16 is effected by three individuals who succeed in extracting him.
During this time the game's protagonist, a mercenary named John Cole, is hired by the federation through General Corbett to seek out the man who he reveals the be Phillip Nahj: a once prominent scientist turn criminal. Cole is hired to bring him back alive and is to be assigned long-distance communication from his old friend Lieutenant Christine Mills: a technician with direct access to the federation's database.
After fighting against hostile forces who attempt to destroy his transport ship, Cole arrives on earth. Cole begins his search at Omicron Station. There he enlists the aid of a local crime lord who points him to an energy station in the blue sector where an agent of the federation was found dead. After evading local mercenaries who have been tasked with killing him, Cole leaves Omicron Station towards the energy plant.
On his submarine, Cole reveals to Christine his discovery and deduction that Nahj's escape was aided by a special agent of the federation. Christine agrees also revealing the agent has a rank of A-11: a rank designated for secret federation agents. Cole adds his belief that the agent was sent on a mission to retrieve Nahj.
Cole, begins a long trek to blue sector that sees Cole fight against aggressive forces. Finally arriving at the energy plant in blue sector, he discovers the agent dead. Cole finds the body of the agent who was killed with a single shot to the back of the head Christine tells Cole that the agent was attached to "Project Othello" but beyond that there is no other information regarding the project. Cole tells to continue looking through the federation database to find out more.
After holding off an attack on the energy plant using its defense systems, Cole links up the energy planet's computer system. Using the ion trail left by two missing power cells taken from the station, Christine tells Cole that whomever has taken them has gone to an oxygen facility 300 miles northeast of the energy plant he's on.
Cole leaves and engages in a long trek that sees him repelling enemy forces. After arriving at the facility, Cole uses a probe to disable the facility's sonar security system and docks his submarine. Inside, Cole is briefly subdued by three Valarin troopers but is able to break free killing them all.
The facility's self-destruction sequence is then activated with Cole also be locked out from accessing his submarine. With only 5 minutes, Cole fights through a Valarin regiment while destroying 10 circuit breakers to end the security lockdown. With time to spare, Cole escapes.
Christine contacts Cole telling him all files related Project Othello were closed 20 years ago by General Corbett, then just a lieutenant. She adds also he was promoted to Captain just two days after.
After telling him she'll do more research, Cole tells Christine he's going to Xi colony to rest while she does so.
However, Christine urges Cole should look for Nahj's sunken research vessel which sank during 1995 to locate any clues. As it's on the way to Xi Colony, Cole agrees to look into it. After again battling through enemy forces, Cole locates the ship that he discovers to be a Navy Battleship. With the aid of a probe, Cole extracts a box of data from the wreckage.
Upon revealing his findings to her, Christine concludes that Nahj's importance to the government was what saved him from execution in favor of being cryogenically frozen at the Alpha 16 prison instead. Cole sends Christine to work in decoding the data in the box.
After fighting his way to the Xi Colony, Christine confirms his deduction about Nahj working for the military. From the data files he recovered, Nahj's role in Project Otherllo was to develop nuclear bombs that leave no radioactive fallout.
Despite Nahj's warnings about side effects, the military forced Nahj speed up the test process resulting in Earth becoming Wetlands. Rather than assume responsibility, the military framed Nahj for the bomb's failure resulting in him being sentenced to indefinite suspended animation at Alpha 16. Cole asks Christine to discover why Nahj was kept alive while he rests at Xi Colony.
During his sabbatical, Cole is taken captive by Valarins who take him to Nahj. Cole reveals that Nahj isn't seeking revenge on the people who have framed him due to them being dead for hundreds of years but rather revenge for being used by the federation. Nahj admits Cole is right but refuses to reveal his plans to Cole.
Nahj leaves Cole be killed. Cole escapes and kills his captors before navigating the Xi Colony highway on a hoverbike while fighting off opposition. He arrives at a docking station and calls Christine to get a pinpoint on the tracking device he placed on Nahj during their encounter. The signal is coming from the planet's surface. Cole acquires a new ship capable of flying above water and leaves Xi Colony in pursuit of Nahj.
On the surface, Christine reveals that Project Othello was never at all cancelled but placed on hold until the rains caused by the bomb tests ended. Nahj was to remain frozen until the rains ended to head the project. As they continued for years, Nahj instead remained frozen for 500 years until his escape from prison.
Christine furhter adds that a day before that, the project was reactivated. Cole realizes that General Corbett helped initiated the prison break sending the secret agent to reacquire Nahj. Not only has he been set up by General Corbett but he realizes that someone else took Nahj thus preventing the agent from returning Nahj to Corbett.
Cole's tracker takes him to land: something that was previously believed to no longer exist on Earth. Christine reveals the landmass has been cloaked rendering it impossible for scans to pick it up. Cole destroys the defense systems of the landmass and flies into the ruins of New York City where his ship is shot down.
Escaping into a nearby subway, Cole drives a train to a large Valerin gathering. Cole discovers Phillip Nahj is both the leader of the Valerins and about to lead an armada of Valerin ships to launch a final assault against the federation to force its surrender. Cole hijacks a spaceship after killing both its pilots and flies the ship the federation homeworld.
After breaking through a squadron of Valaran fighters and a battleship, Cole reaches Nahj's lead gunship which contains a weapon capable of destroying planets. Nahj seeks to use the weapon to destroy the federation homeworld thus compelling the remain fragments of its government to surrender to the Valerins.
Without any support due to Valrin forces rendering federation forces unable to send out ships, Cole is able to fly into the ship's interior and destroys its core. Cole flies out of the ship as it explodes killing both its the crew and Nahj.
Cole flies to the federation homeworld with Christine contacting him telling him she monitored his accomplishment in single-handedly defeating the Valerins. However, Corbett, she says, is upset he and the federation didn't get the gunship.
Sometime later, Cole is seen spending time with Christine on the federation homeworld. As Christine takes a shower, Cole watches the news on television to discover that the news station has been manipulated to make it appear that federation fighters, under the command of General Corbett, defeating the Valerin armada.
Upon learning that Corbett is to be given a commendation for his commanding skills, Cole shoots the television causing the screen to fade to black.
Gameplay
The game is a rail shooter with 20 levels. Movement is handled for the most part by the computer, with players instead focusing on shooting enemies with the aid of a mouse or joystick.
Players are able to move their view left and right slightly to better shoot at enemies. Level 6, in which players control a gun turret, is the only time in the game where players can move their view up and down as well.
On some occasions, a player can take different routes which is essential on select levels levels to achieving goals. These goals typically require players to shoot a minimum number of specified targets before the level ends. Failure to do so results in the player being automatically killed.
During level 9, the game briefly becomes a kind of shoot 'em up with players controlling a small, robotic drone to disable the security system of a oxygen facility.
The game is notable for its extensive use of cutscenes that utilize a mixture of both hand drawn and 3D animations.