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Review an analysis Black Lagoon manga Volume 10. Following on from Black Lagoon: Roberta's Blood Trail OVA, volume 10 fills the gap between Rock and Revy's character speculative love interest/character progression whilst
In the mid 1990's id software was the most prominent company when it came to first person shooters. However a man named Ken Silverman had been producing a new game engine called the 'build engine' that would allow for more advanced graphics than id's games. Ken's build engine would be more powerful than id's tech, as it would allow for destructible environments, sectors that could overlap each other and more. In 1993 just a month before Ken was due to attend his first semester at college he had signed a contract with Apogee software to create a new 3D engine. Soon his programming would overtake his college classes and he would work on the engine full time. It would took Ken 3 years to finish the 'Build Engine' that was to be used for 'Duke Nukem 3d'.
Ken Silverman
For the game apogee decided to give the Duke his own personality. When the first 'Duke Nukem' was released in 1991, Duke's character had been inspired by comic book heroes and 1980's action movie stars but due to technical limitations they couldn't flesh out the character fully. Thanks to the power of Ken Silverman's build engine however Duke would now be able to speak and never before in a first person shooter did you have a character who could speak and react to the world around him during the actual game play.
To breathe life into the character Jon St. John was hired to do voice acting for Duke. Jon St. John was instructed to think of Clint Eastwood's performance in Dirty Harry but with a lower pitch to reflect Duke's larger physique. It was one of Jon St John's earliest roles in the video game industry and by far his most iconic. Like Id Software's games, Duke Nukem 3d stuck to the typical first person shooter formula of collecting key cards to progress throughout the levels.
However Duke Nukem 3d would feature real life locations to make it stand out. Throughout the game Duke would visit many real life locations such as cinema theatres, bookstores, and strip clubs. You could also interact with certain objects in the game. Using a urinal will give you ten points of health for instance. You could also use items in your inventory such as night vision googles, med-kits,a jet pack, and scuba gear. Throughout the game Duke would quote one-liners from numerous movies most notably the evil dead series. And the cover of the game bears a heavy resemblance to the cover of the film 'Evil Dead army of Darkness'.
The game would create some controversy by including sexual content meaning the game would be given an M rating. Because of the sexual content Germany and Brazil banned the game, and the game received plenty of criticism for it's objectification of women. However the game still sold over 3.5 million copies. Duke Nukem 3d did eventually receive a sequel named 'Duke Nukem Forever' which is better known for having one of the longest production times in video game history, than for it's actual gameplay, which was poor. But in any case Duke Nukem 3d will be forever known as one of the most important games in video game history because it helped to popularize the first person shooter genre alongside id software's games.
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By the mid 1990’s Warren Spector had already made a big name for himself from his involvement on the first person role playing games ‘Ultima Underworld’ and ‘System Shock’. Ultima Underworld released in early 1992. It was a technological revolution as it was one of the earliest games to display texture mapping in first person.
Spector had gotten his first taste of working on a science fiction game with 1994’s smash hit: ‘System Shock’ and now wanted to take the simulation experience. For Spector this would become the start of the long and torturous struggle that would be Deus Ex’s development. Spector’s first attempt at Deus Ex was a project called ‘TroubleShooter’. In the game the player would take on the role of a Dirty Harry inspired-ex-cop-turned security specialist. The project fell through so Spector tried again with a new concept called ‘Shooter’. In ‘Shooter’ the player would take on the role of Adam a bio-mechanically enhanced government agent tasked with defending the World against terrorist threats in a dystopian future. This project also fell through. But third time round was a charm for Spector. In the late 1990’s he started pitched a new game titled ‘Majestic Revelations’. Inspired by ‘The X-files’ this new game was set to take the player into a World of conspiracies, government cover-ups and a shadowy group named ‘Majestic 12’. Years had passed since Spector’s first attempt to make a science fiction game. When System Shock launched in 1994 consumer grade computers simply weren’t powerful enough to render graphics in 3D. But this now no longer the case.
Spector leased the powerful ‘Unreal Engine’ and expanded his team from 6 to 20 people. With this expanded team came internal power struggles that pulled the project into different directions. Individual members of the team all had opposing ideas about what the game should be. Some thought the game should be a violent fast-paced first person, others wanted an in-depth simulated role playing experience and some even wanted a strategy game. To make matters worse Spector the game to have massive outdoor levels based on real World locations. But the Unreal Engine simply didn’t have the raw power to deliver his vision. Worse still when the started early play-testing began they found that a realistic looking World was simply too boring. ‘Deus Ex’ needed to be more fantastical. The player had to become immersed in this World of conspiracies and dark cyber punk not bored by realism. The levels where changed to accommodate the limitations of the unreal engine. Also more robots and alien looking creatures including the ‘greazel' where added to make the game more fantastical.
Spector’s struggles where beginning to pay off as Deus Ex neared closer to the finish line but there were still some glaring issues. For one the source code for artificial intelligence in the game was built on top of that used for Unreal Tournament. Deus Ex was supposed to allow the player to approach combat in any way they desired. The game needed to accommodate multiple play-styles from stealth, to all out carnage. But Unreal Tournament was designed to fast-paced shooter. Fixing the AI became a nightmare for the single player campaign. But for multiplayer it didn’t turn out to be much of a problem. As the multiplayer ended up with giving players an experience that echoed Unreal Tournament’s.
In June 2000, 5 years after Spector’s journey began, Deus Ex released. Those years of struggle had been worth it as critics lavished the game with praise and awards, securing Deus Ex a place in video-game history. As time passed it became a classic in the eyes of Pc gamer and in late 2015 two teams of dedicated modders put out their final attempts to breathe new life into the game. Caustic Creative’s ‘Deus Ex Revision’ sought to expand the levels, mechanics and even include a new soundtrack. Whilst Totalitarian’s ‘GMDX’ mod expanded animations, interfaces, and more without changing the core experience. With these mods Deus Ex now became more accessible to an entire new generation of gamers. Making sure it’s place in history remains secure for years to come.
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