Chaos Engine

The Chaos Engine is a top-down shoot em-up computer game developed by the Bitmap Brothers and published by Renegade Software in 1993. It was first released for the Amiga (an enhanced version is available for Advanced Graphics Architecture Amigas) and later ported for DOS, SNES, Atari ST, AmigaCD32, RISC OS and Sega Mega Drive / Sega Genesis (USA releases of SNES and Sega versions were renamed to Soldiers of Fortune).

The setting, loosely inspired by the novel The Difference Engine is a steampunk-inspired Victorian era England. Baron Fortesque, a grand inventor has succeeded in his greatest creation yet - the Chaos Engine. Unfortunately (for the rest of the proud kingdom), the Engine then proceeds to both capture and assimilate its creator, then starting to change the countryside for the worse. Vile monsters and destructive automatons appear everywhere, bringing the citizens on the verge of panic. This lures in a number of mercenary, on a potentially rewarding quest to find the root of the problem and swiftly bring a full stop to it.

The player(s) get to choose two mercenaries from a group of six to take on the task of defeating the mad baron, Fortesque and the Chaos Engine itself. In one-player mode, the computer Artificial intelligence controls the second player, so that one never has to fight the chaos alone. The six heroes for hire (and their choices of weapon in parentheses) are the Navvie (cannon), Thug (shotgun), Mercenary (machine gun), Brigand (rifle), Gentleman (pistol), and Preacher (lightning gun).

There are 4 worlds, each consisting of 4 levels. The worlds (in order of visitation) are Forest, Workshops, Fortesque Mansion (a haunted house, in a sense), and Sewers, each with its own dynamic industrial music-inspired musical score. The players must traverse through each level, picking up power-ups, gold and keys to pass through the various puzzles and mazes. A number of nodes must be activated via weapon fire to open the final doors at the end of the level. Secret routes and hidden items are plentiful along the way, and between levels the players are allowed to buy weapon upgrades with their collected riches. Finally, at the end of the sewers the players will face up to the Chaos Engine itself in a last battle.

Developers included Steve Cargill, Richard Joseph, Simon Knight, Dan Malone, Eric Mathews, Mike Montgomery, Farook Shamsher and Haroon Shamsher.

The sequel, Chaos Engine 2 appeared in 1996 for Amiga computers only. It pits the player characters against each other as prisoners of baron Fortesque, and is basically a competition game instead of a co-operation one.

=External links=

*[http://www.amigagames.com/gage/c/chaosengine1.html Secrets of the Chaos Engine at AMIGAGAMES.COM] *[http://www.mobygames.com/game_group/sheet/gameGroupId,2940/ The Chaos Engine series at MobyGames] *[http://www.bitmap-brothers.co.uk/ The Bitmap Brothers website]