Psychotoxic is a game released in 2004 developed by German game studio Nuclearvision Entertainment, and published by Vidis in Germany, with Whiptail handling the United States release in 2005.
Often described as one of the worst First-Person Shooters of all time, as well as one of the craziest games to ever exist, Psychotoxic went through hell and back during its production, which led to it being released in an unfinished state. Its negative reception and insanely poor sales led to Nuclearvision shutting down in 2009. The game's creator, Frank Fitzner, would retire from the game industry afterwards, living a quiet life until his untimely death in 2016.
The story involves Angela "Angie" Prophet, who is recruited by the FBI and tasked to take down The Fallen, a devil-worshipping cult led by the crazed Aaron Crowley, who wants to use the mythical Fourth Horseman to wipe out humanity and kickstart a new era of chaos. With Max by her side to help her out, throughout her adventure, Angie finds that she can wield several powers, from slow motion, to invisibility, that ultimately lead her to discover her true origins. What's more, Angie can also delve into the minds of people to gather information.
And it only gets crazier from there.
This game contains examples of:
- Action Girl: Angie can wield several guns and kick plenty of ass.
- The AI Is A Cheating Bastard: While stupid in many places, the AI have dead-on accuracy, can get the drop on Angie, and can potentially kill you in one hit.
- Artificial Stupidity: A lot of the enemies are more comfortable with getting stuck in the environment than actively trying to protect themselves.
- Bad Girl Comic: Angie certainly looks the part, though she's certainly more heroic than most examples. It's probably a result of the game starting production in 1998.
- Big Bad: Aaron Crowley, the leader of the Fallen, and the mastermind behind the game's events.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: A majority of the enemies are all authority figures brainwashed by Crowley, tasked to kill Angie.
- Bullet Time: Angie has the ability to enter a slow motion mode, similar to Max Payne and First Encounter Assault Recon. Though don't expect it to be as useful as the ones in those games.
- Creator Cameo: Wanted Posters for Sönke Seidel and Paul Kamma, the game's developers, can be found in the first level.
- Deep South: To complete the evil reverend getup, Crowley speaks with a very Southern accent.
- Disney Death: This happens to Dr. Saunders twice. The first time's when he's supposedly shot and killed by a brainwashed Fallen member. The second time's when he's made to have died from the invading Fallen soldiers, but he survives that encounter as well.
- Dull Surprise: The voice acting leaves a lot to be desired.
- Exposed to the Elements: Despite the latter portion of the game taking place while it's snowing, Angie continues to wear her midriff-baring outfit like it ain't no thang.
- Fake Difficulty: The game can be very difficult, but for all the wrong reasons.
- The game expects the player to engage with shootouts in a very specific way. Failure to follow its rules will often result in the player being blind-sighted by a random offscreen enemy.
- Angie's slow movement speed becomes a drag while trying to evade enemies and maneuver through wide-open areas.
- The hit detection's so poor, that enemies can take longer to kill because your bullets go right through them. And your reticle's so small, you often don't know if you're hitting them.
- The Air Force One level has you activate a countdown as you head for the escape pod. Except there's no visible timer, and the game doesn't tell you there's one in the first place. So if you quicksave right when the invisible timer's about to end, all you can do is restart the entire game.
- Falling Damage: Falling so much as one foot causes Angie to take damage.
- Hate Plague: What the Fourth Horseman spreads, and what Crowley hopes to use to wipe out mankind.
- Horsemen of the Apocalypse: With a unique twist. The Fourth Horseman turns out to be a machine that spreads a plague.
- Info Dump: Presumably due to lost time in development, a lot of the game's story is told through exposition dumps during cutscenes. Dr. Saunders in particular is the worst example of this, as a majority of his dialogue is nothing but lengthy explanations.
- Meaningful Name: Angela Prophet, in a game with a Four Horsemen motif. Which foreshadows the reveal that she's Angel One, a weapon meant to stop the Fourth Horseman.
- Mind Screw: The levels where you enter people's dreams must be seen to be believed. Highlights include a sepia tone English village infested with werewolves that can only be completed when Angie destroys some grandfather clocks, and a cartoony world where Angie has to kill cell-shaded bunnies to progress. Though justified in that they are dreams.
- Shout-Out: One level has Angie going through Air Force One, and even requires her to exit via escape pod.
- Sinister Minister: Reverend Aaron Crowley, the twisted cult leader of The Fallen.
- Tomato in the Mirror: Angie is actually Angel One, a powerful bioweapon created to stop the Fourth Horseman from destroying the world.
- Under the Sea: One mind level has Angie underwater fighting a giant squid.
- Unexpected Gameplay Change:
- The first dream sequence focuses more on platforming. Shame the jumping controls are crappy.
- One section near the end turns into a rail shooter, where Angie has to shoot down helicopters with a turret.
- Unintentionally Unwinnable: Some later copies of the game are impossible to complete, due to a bug within the game's anti-piracy system, Starforce. Fitzner had wanted to recall the game to remove Starforce from the game's code, but Vidis refused.
- Unnecessary Combat Roll: Some enemies will try to cartwheel to avoid your bullets. Needless to say, it doesn't often work.
- Wolf Man: These show up in Dr. Lindstroem's dream level.
- Wreaking Havok: Which often leads to Angie getting stuck on random objects due to poor coding.
