- Begin Transmission
Dear Mom,What a crappy day. What a really crappy day. It sure seemed like a sweet deal back at the base. Imitate an ice cube for three months, feed some dumb mercs for two weeks and then three more months in the fridge on the ride home. Two weeks of work for six months of pay. Not bad, not bad at all. Well, the cook is always the last to know what the hell is going on. I never would've taken this if I knew it was going to be a bug hunt. I hate bug hunts. The mercs got greased inside half an hour. No surprise, they were all a bunch of sorry-assed stim phreaks. Too bad they're the ones who knew how to move this crate. I've been awake three hours, help is three months away and the bugs have already managed to blast a few holes in the ship. I figure my chances are better in the city than being a sitting duck up here. The weapons are gone, but my frying pan and butcher’s knife have saved my ass before. Whoops! Gotta run. Things are heating up. I guess it's time to find some fresh meat.Love, Ox.End Transmission
PO'ed is a First-Person Shooter developed by The 3DO Company.
Taking ideas from earlier FPS classics (with the developers specifically citing Doom, Marathon and Dark Forces as their inspiration), the player assumes the role of Ox, a chef aboard a spaceship transporting Space Marines en-route to earth, until an accident caused the ship to crash on a military space station outpost.
Being the Sole Survivor of the crash, Ox realize the station to be abandoned and filled with monsters as result of an earlier bug infestation. And now Ox must battle his way through hordes and hordes of alien creatures as well as the base's robotic security to reach an escape vessel.
On April 1st, 2024, Nightdive Studios announced a remaster of the game for PC via Steam and GOG, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S and Nintendo Switch.
PO'ed contain examples of:
- Airborne Mooks: Flying mooks comes a plenty, from bat-like alien creatures to hovering Attack Drone robots. Good thing Ox had his own jetpack, too, with a lot of Air Jousting battles throughout multiple levels.
- Arm Cannon: The female alien grunts have cannons grafted in both arms, which they'll use to shoot projectiles from a distance. Same goes for the man-sized robot opponents.
- Armless Biped: The first, goomba variety of alien enemies are short, weak monsters resembling a butthole on two legs (!!!) which attacks by farting gas projectiles. They die in just one or two hits with a frying pan.
- Asteroids Monster: Green alien blob monsters are another recurring foe, and they have the ability to duplicate themselves repeatedly as soon as they're shot until they run out of regenerating power. It's best to save the flamethrower for these enemies, with the wide range covered by the flames scorching them instantly as soon as they split.
- Camera Abuse: While drilling guts out of alien enemies, the screen will be splattered with red, from alien blood spilling all over Ox's face. Quickly followed by Ox wiping the blood off (again, from a first-person perspective).
- Chef of Iron: Ox, the Player Character, is a chef in a military base and single-handedly fending off an alien infestation. And winning.
- Dishing Out Dirt: Muscular alien brutes have the ability to create a hail of rocks out of nowhere (seemingly from their bare hands) to hurl at Ox.
- Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: One of the first things the badass Iron Chef and alien-killing protagonist Ox is seen doing in the game is writing a letter to his mother (ending with a "Love, Ox") before he's interrupted by his ship crashing on an alien base. Forms a nice Book Ends after the final stage, where Ox wrote another letter to his mother after killing all the aliens and escaping the outpost.
- Frying Pan of Doom: Ox, being a military chef, arms himself with his trusty frying pan as soon as the alien outbreak occurs as his default weapon. It's surprisingly lethal, capable of smashing open the skulls of lower-grade alien enemies with a few hits.
- Fun with Acronyms: The title obviously is a way of placing "Pissed Off" on a game box without getting the Moral Guardians in an outrage.
- The Ground Is Lava: There are several levels where the ground is either electrified, burning hot or literally lava, the only way across being platforms that Ox needs to fly in-between while battling enemies.
- Homing Projectile: This game had one of the more unique varieties of FPS homing missiles, where Ox can control and change the missile's direction from a first-person perspective.
- Idiosyncratic Difficulty Levels: Only in the US versions:
- I like to watch (Easy)
- I'm over 30, I have arthritis in my fingers (Medium)
- I don't eat quiche (Hard)
- Invisible Monsters: Among the many alien enemies, one of them is a white orb-like floating creature which can turn invisible to ambush Ox. However, it makes an audible gurgling noise wherever it goes, and needs to become visible in order to attack.
- Jet Pack: Ox gets a jetpack as early as the second level, which he'll use throughout the game as several levels have platforms only accessible by flying, and take on airborne enemies in wide-open areas.
- Kill It with Fire: The flamethrower is one of the early weapons obtainable, and it gets the job done. Especially against the blob aliens.
- Mecha-Mooks: The alien enemies starts off organic, until mechanical opponents started showing up halfway through, starting with those stumpy miniature robots that stood up to Ox's waist and fires weak purple projectiles. Then comes various Attack Drone enemies and man-sized robots swarmoing all over the place.
- The Power of the Sun: Sketch, the second-to-last level. The exit portal leading to the Skyway and final stage is located on top of an artificial sun, high in mid-air, and Ox must fly all the way up with his jetpack, navigating around the mini-sun while avoid projectiles from enemies, battle airborne mooks and enter without getting scorched.
- Ray Gun: The first firearm Ox can obtain is a laser pistol that can be held on one hand.
- This Is a Drill: The drill can be obtained as a powerful melee weapon for ripping apart alien mooks from up close. Function-wise, it behaves roughly the same as the chainsaw from Doom, one of the games that inspired this one.
- Weak Turret Gun: Several levels have turrets all over the place and can blast Ox whenever he's in range, but these turrets have terrible aim and can be easily blown up even with the weak laser pistol.
- Dear Mom,Kicked some butt and got a great workout. Maybe I *will* lose some weight! Anyways, all that killing makes me hungry, gonna go make a sandwich, see you on Mothers' Day!Love, Ox.
