There is a patch that seems to be pretty recommended to bring the game up to version 1.3.
Also there’s a “graphics patch”, but I have no idea what it does.
I found it weirdly hard to find a vanilla CD-ROM DOS version of this game. It seems to be truly abandonware, and not available on GOG or any of the usual channels, but all the “other” sites either host demo versions or versions bundled with dosbox.
When I finally dug up a vanilla version deep in a directory tree on archive.org, I actually thought I’d found some beta version.
I’ve only played the first level so far, and the engine is pretty good and advanced for the time – better 3D than the Build Engine.
But a lot of the presentation seems a bit rudimentary. Most notably, when you die there’s no special animation or death sound or anything – the game just stops and puts up a messagebox that says “you have failed, soldier!” or something like that!
Also the enemy ai, at first blush, seems to be VERY basic.
But the movement is smooth (even if you get stuck against objects sometimes), the controls are incredibly modern, and the gameplay generally feels satisfying.
I think I’ll have fund with this next month, even if it has some rough spots.
