Forsaken is a "Six-Axis" First-Person Shooter published by Acclaim in 1998. The PlayStation and PC versions of the game were developed by Probe Entertainment, while the Nintendo 64 port was developed by Iguana Entertainment. A remastered version combining the PC and N64 campaigns along with adding the expected modern graphical features was released for PC and Xbox One in 2018, by Nightdive Studios.
In the distant future, a subatomic experiment causes an uncontrollable fusion reaction, leaving the surface of Earth destroyed. A year later, Earth has now been classified as condemned by the government, which leaves Earth open for salvaging, leading mercenaries to battle each other, as well as robot sentinels left by the government for what ever may remain on the husk of a planet.
Not to be confused with a Pokémon fanfic of the same name.
Tropes present in this game:
- After the End: The game takes place on a ruined Earth, devastated after an experiment gone wrong.
- Bag of Spilling: No matter how many support weapons you might have acquired by the end of one level, you'll always be back to basics at the start of the next one.
- Covers Always Lie: Between the game's title and the cover art of a woman staring against a grey desert, many assumed it to be a horror or adventure title in the vein of Acclaim's Turok or Shadowman, rather than a Descent-style space shooter.
- Darker and Edgier: The game is rather like a darker version of Descent, with a post apocalyptic setting and the characters being on flying motorcycles rather than in spaceships, so that when they die gore splatters everywhere.
- Defeat Equals Explosion: All the robotic enemies blow up upon their destruction.
- Deflector Shields: All the hover bikes you drive are protected by these.
- Excuse Plot: The reason you're on an abandoned Earth? To salvage anything along the way while killing some mercenaries in your path.
- In a World…: Used by the narrator in the intro.
- Kill It with Fire: The specialty of the Pyrolite Rifle, which shoots out fireballs.
- Lady Not-Appearing-in-This-Game: The woman on the cover art does not appear in the game.
- Lethal Lava Land: The Vulcano level plays this to the max.
- Ludicrous Gibs: This is the fate of your character when you die. Same applies to the other bounty hunters.
- Mecha-Mooks: Most of the enemies are robotic tanks, drones and turrets.
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Nintendo Hard: Oh yes. The enemies are relentless and their AI is quite smart, perfectly leading their shots in a stark aversion of Hero-Tracking Failure. Other mercenaries that turn up to fight you consistently dodge your shots and don't even pretend you might hit them without a hitscan weapon at your disposal. This is compounded in the N64 version, which only lets you save every few levels. Expect to either restart or die a lot, even on the easiest difficulty. In fact, Acclaim actually ended up releasing a patch for the PC port to make the game easier (relatively speaking, of course). - Sex Sells: The marketing campaign largely consisted of naked pictures of model Donna Decianni with the game's logo tattooed on her body. Boxed copies even included a calendar consisting of these photos. This backfired, though less from controversy and more from confusion over the genre of the game, and became the first of several marketing blunders Acclaim would be known for.
- Super Title 64 Advance: The N64 version.
- Tech-Demo Game: The advanced lighting and textures of the PC version pushed contemporary systems to their limits, and it was frequently used alongside the likes of Quake II to benchmark hardware.
- Timed Mission: Some levels requires the player to reach the exit before the timer runs out.
- Verbed Title: As the title is a past tense verb.
- Video Game Flamethrowers Suck: Averted with the Pyrolite, it may have a short range, but it has devastating damage capable of making quick work of enemies and even bosses. To balance it out, it isn't a very common weapon and is usually found in secret areas.
