Ghen War

[martiniii]

I just read through the instruction manual in preparation for playing this game for the first time, and the save system... Wow. It's not quite as punishing as the one for Enemy Zero, but you can tell the developers were really, really determined that nobody was going to use save scumming to get through this game.

The mapping system looks incredibly cool, what with the trail showing where your character has gone. Seems to be quite a variety of enemies, too.

[sych]

Ghen War is such a great game, When you get to later levels the game opens up a little more. I still haven't completed it yet. I got to one of the later levels got stuck but you've inspired me to revisit it. I'll be interested to know what you think of it.

Why was Enemy Zero save file system punishing for you? You get 99 slots! I can usually complete the game and still have 91 slots remaining. Does the US version have a different save system set up to the PAL one? Because I really don't understand why you'd be struggling for save slots, you get more than the game needs and it isn't a particularly hard game to get through.

[martiniii]

Apr 3, 2019 22:34:31 GMT sych said:

Ghen War is such a great game, When you get to later levels the game opens up a little more. I still haven't completed it yet. I got to one of the later levels got stuck but you've inspired me to revisit it. I'll be interested to know what you think of it.

Why was Enemy Zero save file system punishing for you? You get 99 slots! I can usually complete the game and still have 91 slots remaining. Does the US version have a different save system set up to the PAL one? Because I really don't understand why you'd be struggling for save slots, you get more than the game needs and it isn't a particularly hard game to get through.

Hmm, I guess the PAL version of Enemy Zero is different? Which is odd, because usually if anything the PAL version is harder. Anyway, in the US and Japanese versions (I have both) you're allotted a limited number of points with which to save or load games. Every time you save a game, it consumes four points. Every time you load a game, whether because you died or because you powered off the Saturn for the night and are powering it back on, it consumes two points. If you make it to the final challenge of the game and run out of points, tough luck, you have to start the game over from the beginning. On my first playthrough I exploited the Action Replay cart so I wouldn't lose points for loading after death, and even so, I had barely any points left when I completed the game. One of these days I want to try beating Enemy Zero without memory cartridge exploitation, but I haven't gotten to it yet.

Anyway, I booted up Ghen War, and wow! That title screen music! Sega were truly the kings of cheesy video game music. Love it. I'm also intrigued to see that there are two options (Sound and Videos) which aren't mentioned in the manual and don't appear in its screenshot of the options menu.

I cruised through the first two missions. Having fun so far. I was impressed with the graphics when I saw video footage of the game, and the actual experience holds up. I love the electrical reaction when you shoot the enemies and the overall science fiction tone of the visuals. The music during combat is nice and intense, though I find the ambient music during quiet moments to be grating.

The way the HUD and viewpoint move independently is a nice touch, definitely adding to the immersion. Probably one of the first 3D games to let you freely control your view; the only earlier one I can think of is POed. The targeting and such work well, and the maps are very clear and easy to read. It feels very focused but there's still lots to explore. My only real gripe is that you have practically all of the weapons from the beginning; I like acquiring weapons gradually in first-person shooters because it gives me a chance to learn them one at a time. Getting them all at once is a little overwhelming.

Pretty easy so far, though I was stumped for a bit by the puzzle at the end of mission two. The clue that they give you was perfect. I was straining my noggin, testing the limits of my character's jumping abilities, and decided to read over the mission objective for the third time just in case I'd overlooked something... "'Terra-scraping'? Hmm... I wonder... (fires missile) Yes! Oh yeah! Deformable terrain, baby!"

The FMVs... I don't know. The video quality is pretty darn good, and the CG models are cool, but it's difficult to follow what's going on. Plus the script is bad in a way which makes me scratch my head rather than laugh, most notably the part where Jenner says completely out of the blue, "I calculate our odds of survival at 4,912 to 1", squinting and oddly pausing all through the line as though he's reading it off of a cue card written in size 6 font. It is interesting, though, that most of the main actors racked up a bunch of credits after this game.

[sych]

Apr 4, 2019 1:36:35 GMT martiniii said:

Apr 3, 2019 22:34:31 GMT sych said:

Ghen War is such a great game, When you get to later levels the game opens up a little more. I still haven't completed it yet. I got to one of the later levels got stuck but you've inspired me to revisit it. I'll be interested to know what you think of it.

Why was Enemy Zero save file system punishing for you? You get 99 slots! I can usually complete the game and still have 91 slots remaining. Does the US version have a different save system set up to the PAL one? Because I really don't understand why you'd be struggling for save slots, you get more than the game needs and it isn't a particularly hard game to get through.

Hmm, I guess the PAL version of Enemy Zero is different? Which is odd, because usually if anything the PAL version is harder. Anyway, in the US and Japanese versions (I have both) you're allotted a limited number of points with which to save or load games. Every time you save a game, it consumes four points. Every time you load a game, whether because you died or because you powered off the Saturn for the night and are powering it back on, it consumes two points. If you make it to the final challenge of the game and run out of points, tough luck, you have to start the game over from the beginning. On my first playthrough I exploited the Action Replay cart so I wouldn't lose points for loading after death, and even so, I had barely any points left when I completed the game. One of these days I want to try beating Enemy Zero without memory cartridge exploitation, but I haven't gotten to it yet.

Anyway, I booted up Ghen War, and wow! That title screen music! Sega were truly the kings of cheesy video game music. Love it. I'm also intrigued to see that there are two options (Sound and Videos) which aren't mentioned in the manual and don't appear in its screenshot of the options menu.

I cruised through the first two missions. Having fun so far. I was impressed with the graphics when I saw video footage of the game, and the actual experience holds up. I love the electrical reaction when you shoot the enemies and the overall science fiction tone of the visuals. The music during combat is nice and intense, though I find the ambient music during quiet moments to be grating.

The way the HUD and viewpoint move independently is a nice touch, definitely adding to the immersion. Probably one of the first 3D games to let you freely control your view; the only earlier one I can think of is POed. The targeting and such work well, and the maps are very clear and easy to read. It feels very focused but there's still lots to explore. My only real gripe is that you have practically all of the weapons from the beginning; I like acquiring weapons gradually in first-person shooters because it gives me a chance to learn them one at a time. Getting them all at once is a little overwhelming.

Pretty easy so far, though I was stumped for a bit by the puzzle at the end of mission two. The clue that they give you was perfect. I was straining my noggin, testing the limits of my character's jumping abilities, and decided to read over the mission objective for the third time just in case I'd overlooked something... "'Terra-scraping'? Hmm... I wonder... (fires missile) Yes! Oh yeah! Deformable terrain, baby!"

The FMVs... I don't know. The video quality is pretty darn good, and the CG models are cool, but it's difficult to follow what's going on. Plus the script is bad in a way which makes me scratch my head rather than laugh, most notably the part where Jenner says completely out of the blue, "I calculate our odds of survival at 4,912 to 1", squinting and oddly pausing all through the line as though he's reading it off of a cue card written in size 6 font. It is interesting, though, that most of the main actors racked up a bunch of credits after this game.

The cut scenes remind me so much of Solar Eclipse so I knew you'd like it just for that. It's a great game that unfortunately not enough people have experienced. I'm stuck on level 14 that doesn't seem to have any resolution to it. There's not even a guide online or on youtube to help me out on it so I put it down in frustration but I do plan to go back to it at some point. It took me awhile to get used to the map but once I did my combat skills picked up. The Ghen's are such interesting looking creatures, I take so much pleasure in shooting them. Also some of the weaponary is the best I've ever experienced in a first person-mech shooter. If you're liking Ghen War you may like Amok and Gun Griffon.

Regarding Enemy Zero if I remember correctly you only start losing saves when loading them up if you start the game on Normal or Hard Mode. If you're playing on Beginner or Easy Mode that doesn't happen. I imagine your first time playing the game you were on Beginner mode?

[zyrobs]

Didn't Ghen War have dynamic music that changed with the action? I remember the CD Audio tracks were really weird, like they had two different tracks in each stereo channel, or something like that.

[Team Andromeda]

The game was horrible and I was so looking forward to it with the Hype the early game was getting and since it was coming from the SEGA's Away team. I remember the developers telling Mean Machines SEGA that it was using a new GFX technique for the polygons,  and after all the that, the finished game looked a complete mess and played like a Dog; and was another SEGA West game simply too hard for its own good.

[xDerekRx]

At the time I remember seeing the demo video of this on the demo disc our Saturn came with and not being impressed.

However I finally got Ghen War maybe 2-3 years ago and I quite enjoyed it with less expectations.

I do recall getting to a certain level that was quite hard but have been meaning to revisit it.

If anyone ever plays Congo, it feels incredibly similar as Away Team used the same engine. Id say I probably prefer Congo because of the Jungle setting and vibe, but since it uses the Ghen War engine, which was built for your character to control like a vehicle, it can feel a bit floaty. Congo also has the exact same mapping system as Ghen War to show where you have gone.

[martiniii]

Apr 4, 2019 2:45:01 GMT sych said:

The cut scenes remind me so much of Solar Eclipse so I knew you'd like it just for that. It's a great game that unfortunately not enough people have experienced. I'm stuck on level 14 that doesn't seem to have any resolution to it. There's not even a guide online or on youtube to help me out on it so I put it down in frustration but I do plan to go back to it at some point. It took me awhile to get used to the map but once I did my combat skills picked up. The Ghen's are such interesting looking creatures, I take so much pleasure in shooting them. Also some of the weaponary is the best I've ever experienced in a first person-mech shooter. If you're liking Ghen War you may like Amok and Gun Griffon.

Regarding Enemy Zero if I remember correctly you only start losing saves when loading them up if you start the game on Normal or Hard Mode. If you're playing on Beginner or Easy Mode that doesn't happen. I imagine your first time playing the game you were on Beginner mode?

Yeah, if I can make it through the game, I'll have to throw together a rough guide for the game to post on GameFAQs. And yes, the Ghen are extremely cool looking!

Already tried Gun Griffon. I could never get into it, and after hitting the difficulty spike that is mission 4, I gave up on it. The whole experience just felt very grey and uninteresting.

I can't remember for sure, but I think in the U.S. and Japanese versions of Enemy Zero, there are only two difficulty modes, easy and normal, and while they allot different numbers of points for the save system, they both use the point-based save system. I tried normal mode first, ran out of points somewhere on disc 1, and started again on easy.

Apr 4, 2019 3:26:23 GMT zyrobs said:

Didn't Ghen War have dynamic music that changed with the action? I remember the CD Audio tracks were really weird, like they had two different tracks in each stereo channel, or something like that.

Yeah, it's a dynamic soundtrack. Must be one of the first video games to have that feature, yes?

I cleared out mission 3 no problem, but ran into trouble on mission 4. It felt more like sloppiness than anything else, but I lost two lives on that one, and for some reason the game isn't throwing out many spares. Lost another life on mission 5, which leaves me with just one. Seeing as I don't enjoy having to restart games that are over two hours long from the beginning whenever I run out of lives, I may have to exploit my action replay saves, or better yet, use the infinite lives cheat included on the cart. Since you lose all your items and have to start the level over whenever you lose a life, that cheat would take away the annoyance of having to restart from the beginning without reducing the challenge in any way.

Part of the difficulty is that I haven't yet figured out an effective way of dealing with Marauders. They're too durable to be taken out with lasers in an efficient manner, but far too nimble to be hit with high-damage weapons. Of course, the lasers work on them like a charm if you have the supercharger, but that lasts too little time to clear an entire level of Marauders. Maybe the mine is the answer, but the limited lives thing has made me hesitate to experiment with those, even though the manual assures me that your hypersuit won't set them off.

One of the things I continue to be very impressed with is the different mission objectives. In most mission-based games, the mission objectives sound interesting on paper but once you start playing you find they're all just fancy ways of saying "go here" or "blow up this". In Ghen War, all five of the missions I've played thus far have felt genuinely distinct. It brings me into the game more and makes everything feel a bit more varied.

[martiniii]

I finished mission 5 on my second try. Completing the actual objective is another interesting challenge - gotta put those spatial geometry skills to use! The combat was pretty hot and heavy, but I think I'm starting to get a handle on it.

Mission 6 (Deimos) was no trouble. I like it when an otherwise challenging game throws in a level where you can just blow off steam and have fun.

Mission 7 is where I lost my last life. I was at full health, when all of a sudden I started taking damage for no apparent reason. No enemies on either visual or radar, and no environmental hazards either. I tried running back to the area I came from, but I just kept taking damage until I was dead.

So, on to using the infinite lives cheat, but I've still been stuck on mission 7 for the past three days. The Behemoth wipes out my life in seconds, even when I have full shields, and there's no apparent way of dodging its attacks. What's really annoying, though, is the level makes you go through so much before you even reach the Behemoth: more enemies than any previous mission, the new Homer, Burner turrets everywhere, and a Marauder coming at you right at the beginning in a charge that you have no way to avoid. Carefully working my way through all that only to get killed by the Behemoth before I can even try anything new with him makes me want to pull my hair out.