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  • Gohst

    This is the full, registered version of BioMenace as released by Apogee Software (now 3D Realms) in glorious, glorious freeware. Although it still runs in DOS (or a DOS window).

    Crash landing a plane in a city is normally a bad thing. It only gets worse when you are attacked by slime beasts, monsters and flaming red devils. On top of that your supplies - especially health - are limited and you must rescue kidnapped surviving humans in each level before you can continue on... Are you up to the challenge?

    Fortunately in amongst the chunky pixels of the early '90's is the hero's visage emblazoned with both a mustache and mullet. The weapon he carries along with the various upgrades plus grenades are - I'm sure - only secondary to his intense hair stylings on the alien decimation front.

    Throughout the dozen or so levels in each mission you will encounter many well drawn scenarios, such as an ant colony, space station and construction site - most inhabited by completely new artwork and monsters.

    The game is a marvel - everything on screen was created by one man (Jim Norwood) and it still stands up today as a great game. Some weapons kill enemies faster while some weapons have no effect on others. Additionally some weapons can only harm monsters when said monster is in a certain state (for example the fire devil cannot be harmed while on fire, only when in a humanoid form).

    Needless to say I am recommending this game highly to you and am strongly, strongly urging you to not only download, but to share with your friends (such are the glories of freeware). An excellent game through and through.

  • Delano501

    Sigh... overrated, overrated. While Biomenace is a competent game, it's certainly not great. Despite being published by Apogee and using the Commander Keen engine, Biomence is in fact a one-man job that ultimately results in a flat-out mediocre experience.

    Level-design is quite poor, and many of the stages consist of little more than floors and ladders, not unlike Loderunner. There are only a few levels that come close to the clever platforming tricks and amusing settings of other Apogee games like Duke Nukem and Keen.

    The balance of the monsters and weapons is way off, with monsters usually taking way too much damage and your weapons being weak and uninteresting. Power-ups exist, but they wear off too quickly and are often wasted with misjudged shots.

    In all, Biomenace is a stock-and-standard platform-shooter which didn't get much attention and deservingly so. Now it has gotten a second lease of life by being released as freeware, though frankly Apogee's other offerings are, in my opinion, more worth your time than this. Alien Carnage, also a freeware Apogee platformer, is considerably better, while even their shareware titles like Duke 1 and 2, Monster Bash, Cosmo and Commander Keen are still worth looking into.