There are still a couple of screens I’ve not looked at in the control room. This one gives me a lengthy log about whats been going on here for the last day. There has been some sort of problem with the reactor and the place has been evacuated.

Another screen gives me details about the emergency procedure. I’ll be needing one of those hardsuits it mentions.

There’s a repeating warning about the reactor which I shut up by pressing this button on the right. Somehow I don’t think that cured the problem.

It’s time to have a look at that cell I opened yesterday. There isn’t much in here – a log and a flute. I discover that I know how to play the flute.

The log tells me how the cells old resident came in on some sort of lost military drop ship that was captured by the “Mondites” on this moon which is called Daedalus. He hatched an escape plan with one of the security officers but they got recaptured – the security officer was the blue guy with one arm which explains why he ended up that way. The log contains a
security code which he was given. It also mentions something huge being put in cell 3 and me being brought to my cell. He has no idea who I am though.

I use the security code on the panel in the control room and I can now open the door with the appropriate palm print.

That would be the severed arm then. I can’t just use it myself though for no obvious reason. I have to get the medical robot to pick it up and drive it to the scanner, then go and stand on the panel nearby to get the door to open.

I run out into the next corridor and immediately get blown to bits by a giant robot. I’ll have to try that again.

I think this robot must have tunnel vision as it can only see in a dead straight line. I can just hide in this niche here and wait for it to pass though.

I run through into the next room which contains a load of bio-chambers.

My timings good as I’m hearing warnings about dropping cryo-fluid levels in one of the chambers when I get in. A log on the wall tells me about what is in each and I can see the temperature rising.

The moment I’m done reading, the lid flies off and a dinosaur like thing jumps out and attacks.

I kick it into unconsciousness and it does a sort of slow stagger round the room until it falls exactly onto the middle of this iris like trapdoor in the floor. It’s like one of those comedy death scenes where someone takes 5 minutes to finally keel over and a bit of a clue if I ever saw one that I’m supposed to open up this door.

I open up the door and hear some sort of commotion going on below. For good measure I turn the valve next to it and spray it in cryo-fluid.

I climb down the ladder and see that it was about to get eaten by some sort of giant scorpion thing. I definitely didn’t want to meet that. If I’d come down here first I’d have been dead meat by now.

There isn’t a lot to see down here, just a big pipe with a couple of buried holes in it. The one on the left takes me to instant death thanks to a several hundred meter fall. The one on the right takes me to the final cell which I couldn’t get into before.

There is one of the Mondites lounging around in this cell – presumably hiding from the giant scorpion. He attacks as soon as I get in but I take him down in no time.

The combat involves a new set of repeated phrases. These are silly but entertaining and I make a bit of a speech once hes down. While I’m here I grab his gun which is in essence what all this has been about.

I run back to the niche in the hall and this time use the panel to open up the elevator. I’ve got a choice of floors here. My first task is to head for the roof and deal with those marine drop ships.

When the doors open there are little security bots floating outside. These die with 2 laser hits but I don’t want to get in a straight fire fight. I have to bounce shots off the elevator walls and hit them from a covered position. Attempting to aim is impossible. The best I can do is adjust once I’ve seen where my first shot goes.

I work my way through the bots slowly and find another Mondite. This one is scared stiff of me and cowering at the back of the room begging me not to kill him.

I beat him around a bit until he promises to start up the big gun at the back of the room. Here’s my chance to do something about those drop ships.

I can aim the gun (somewhat) using left and right and just have to time it so that I shoot a dropship as it flies from left to right. All the graphics here look great – I can see where the interactive movie theme was coming from.

Once the first ship is down another pops up ready to attack. I change my aim and take this one out as well. That’s one less thing to worry about. I leave the cowardly Mondite up here.

Its back to the elevator to try another floor. This time the door opens to a full size robot. I use the same bouncing lasers trick to take it out.

The first door in here takes me to the reactor room but the moment I step in there I die. Some sort of protective clothing is called for before I attempt to fix the reactor then.

The next place on the corridor is an operating room with another cyborg like me being created.

I meet my maker, Dr. Mastaba. He has a remote control for me which renders me powerless while he does the typical villains speech. He says I should revel in my new existence before calling in a security guard.

As a demonstration he forces me to kill the security guard with some sort of gun built into my arm.

He goes on to say how the guy on the table will be just like me but he goes too close to the table he snatches his remote control and crushes it. I pass out and when I wake up everyone has gone.

There isn’t a whole lot to do in this room. Firing that shot has knackered my battery so I need a new one. When I go near the bloke on the table he asks me to kill him. I oblige with a punch to the head then steal his battery. This goes in a slot in my leg.

There is a lengthy log written by Mastaba which I work my way through. The Mondites are some sort of technology worshipping cult who aim to join man and machine. He has been experimenting towards this – previous results have driven people insane. The trick was to wipe the memory first so the new cyborg had no previous basis for comparison with its current state – I’m the first in the line to have got this treatment.

I only spent another hour or so on this. Its a pretty short game actually – the more I play the more I remember and I think I must be 1/3 of the way through already. I had forgotten just how much fun Bioforge was – it really is something of a classic. There seems to be something for everyone in here with a combination of story, movie, combat and adventure elements coming together seamlessly – it does come across as a bit cheesy at times but it all adds to the entertainment. I can see where Origin were coming from now with the interactive movie thing but its more of an interactive B movie. This is a good thing as far as I’m concerned and I don’t think it has dated at all – its one of those games where I can just forget its age and enjoy it for what it is. After a slow start I can feel a long session coming on tonight – I’ll see if I can’t get into a position to finish this off on Friday.