Genre: Arcade/ActionDeveloper: ShadowbitYear: 2007
Rating: 0.00 / 10.00
(based on 0 votes)
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Here is one developer team that keeps the old-school feel in mind yet nowadays, favoring addictive and innovative gameplay over ultra-realistic graphics and sounds. According to author Johan Burgler, this game was completed in 2004, but failing to find a suitable publisher, Trail blazer almost ended never seeing light of day. Almost, because Shadowbit decided to release it for free on Abandoneer, so here you have it. :)
Story doesn't take much part in the game itself, but since there actually is a plot and since they've put so much effort to create this cool 3D intro, ;P here goes: year is 3561, you're a space scout sent to check why radiation levels are so high in sector 34 X 2788. As you approach, something starts to *suck* your ship into some kind purple vortex. There's nothing you can do to stop, so your space cruiser enters the vortex and travels for some time out of control, taking heavy damage all the way through and eventually jumping to a whole different ... world? Soon you find a planet, and the heavily damaged cruiser leaves you no option other than crashing down there.
Then you wake up in a bed, and you see there's humans outside. They too went through a vortex long ago, but they say year is 5421... so either you or them traveled in time through the vortex... Anyway, your space cruiser is destroyed, so you need money to pay for repairs and see if you can go back home. So you sign up for the Trail Blazer Contest, an aggressive but lucrative racing game played in this world.
You start out with a broken down hovercraft roughly the shape of an old cab. Each game gathers three pilots trying to kill one another in an arena. How? Each vehicle leaves a beam trail that damages anything that passes through it. So you have to drive fast trying to circle or corner other contestants with your beam while avoiding theirs, also being careful not to hit the arena wall or other vehicles.
As you win games, you get money to upgrade or trade your hover for a different one. Different hovers have different strengths and weaknesses, and there's not an ultimate vehicle: I would use a slower vehicle in a very narrow arena because it's easier to control without hitting a wall. In a different situation a fast ride would be more useful. Each planet has its own arena, all rectangular but with different dimensions.
Trail blazer has decent 3D graphics (better than any DOS game I can remember, but somewhat dated in a world dominated by Playstations and X-Boxes) -- but the thrill of this game lies entirely on gameplay. The game features strategy elements, fast paced competition, growing challenge, all in a package that actually works: when at the arena, the races, the AI, the competitors, the different views, they all "feel" right. And the beam trail concept is innovative, I don't recall another game like this.
Overall, there are things that could improve Trail blazer a lot, better sound effects, any music at all, but the one and most important down side might be repetitiveness. Since all races look alike (all arenas rectangular) and the game is quite long (it takes time to really take your hover to the edge), it might be hard for some to keep interested over the second half of the game. Still the game relies on addictive gameplay and challenge to keep gamers glued to the screen... which might as well work. If you like to try unusual game concepts and other-worldly addictive arcade gameplay, this game is just the one for you.
