Retro Review - Raptor: Call of the Shadows
Updated
Editor’s note: I originally authored and published the below post on a now defunct site called “The Cool Ship,” where it ran in November 2011. Enjoy this reprised content!
Raptor: Call of the Shadows sounds like a perfect title for a dinosaur horror game lost in the 90s, but this vertical scrolling 2D shooter isn’t extinct yet.
Summary
Apogee games was no stranger to shooter games, having already developed Duke Nukem I & II prior to publishing Raptor in 1994. This PC action shooter demands more than a cursory look, and it deviates from the traditional horizontal side scrolling shooter games like Gradius I-V, the Darius series or the classic arcade R-Type. Those side scrolling shooters use an in game upgrade system and ships can only take a few hits before dying, so Raptor flips the screen 90 degrees and allows for a lot more hits before you go down in flames, literally.
You play in a fictional world where distant sectors in space are occupied by enemies of Mega-Corps, and mercenaries take it upon themselves to travel the galaxy to rid the world of these suicidal foes for the promise of wealth beyond their dreams. In essence, you take part in corporate espionage escalated to all out war, where your versatile and tough fighter jet and its varied arsenal are your only reinforcements. Who said it had to make sense? You get strong armor and up to 16 different ship upgrades, some for next to nothing and others that will take a few playthroughs to purchase. Not all 16 can be mounted at once, however, and in all the time I played I never found a weapon combo much better than the inexpensive auto cannon paired with micro missiles and a pulse gun. Some of the more expensive weapons pack more punch, but the autocannon could target enemies anywhere on the screen as long as they weren’t moving too fast.
You’ll be attacked from both ground and air targets, taking the form of turrets, fighters, gunships, massive airborne carriers, small tanks, spherical Borg-like hovercraft, or just about anything imaginable. All levels end with a climactic boss battle, and some harder levels contain a mini-boss battle halfway through. In the easier levels these boss battles amount to no more than dodging and shooting, but the hard bosses require a lot of shields and heavy weaponry to beat. Fortunately, the game offers 4 difficulty levels so you can start out small like I did and work your way up, if you dare. To be honest though, I would never be able to beat the game on the hardest difficulty without using the invincibility cheat.
The nostalgic perspective
I played the demo when I was only 9, but this was one of my top 3 favorite games for a while after it was released. I remember the thrill of playing the same nine levels over and over to upgrade my canard-touting fighter jet with more expensive and deadly weapons than the Duke himself could wield. The enemies appeared consistently like notes in a symphony, where my ship’s weapons fired the melody and the exploding enemies provided a staccato sounding harmony. I never played the full game back then, but I was happy to memorize the nine levels I had out of the full game’s 27. I see now that the demo was all I ever needed.
The now perspective
Although the gameplay is as fun as it ever was and the difficulty level would still challenge the quickest Tetris master alive, Raptor just doesn’t have enough depth to really pull in today’s casual or hardcore gamers. Don’t misunderstand me, I really enjoyed it as a child and again as an adult, but about halfway through the second sector of the full version I found myself thinking, “well, that’s that.” The game ends up feeling more like a job than a game. It was better off as a demo, back when I was young and naïve and didn’t know that the Bravo and Outer sectors only held a few different level and ship designs, nothing more. Say what you will about Raptor’s “cutting edge” midi soundtrack, I’m not enthralled.
The final verdict
I don’t mean to sound harsh, this was and still is a solid game, but only on the merits of its gameplay. Raptor stands strong among today’s 2D vertical shooters, but the lack of a gripping story and too few upgrade options detracts from its replayability. Play it again for nostalgia or the funny cheat codes (cows, lizards and monkeys, oh my!), but don’t expect it to provide hours of fun for years to come.
You can still purchase Raptor either on Apogee Software’s website, or at gog.com, which has a Windows 7 version available.
Genre: Action
Release date: April 1, 1994
Publisher: Apogee Software
Dev: Cygnus Studios
Platform: PC