Review by: Shawn Quigley
Published: September 8, 1997

When the word “extreme” is mentioned, the first thing that usually pops into peoples’ minds does not have anything to do with computer games…but all that is about to change! Blue Byte Software has taken advantage of two of the most recent technology enhancements to be offered for computer games — Intel’s MMX extensions and 3D acceleration — and molded them into an extremely fast graphics engine. By combining both of these elements into a single title, Blue Byte has been able to achieve a game that moves extremely quickly without sacrificing visual quality. But are looks all that Extreme Assault has?

When I first looked at Extreme Assault, it was back around March of this year. The game was in its early stages and represented an impressive graphics engine that did not require a 3D accelerator. Since that preview and interview, Blue Byte has been hard at work not only creating the world that Extreme Assault takes place in, but also building upon the liquid smooth graphics engine. The end product is a good mixture of both technology and gameplay.

There is a plot formed around the game that is made of your basic “aliens take over the world” story. Aliens are invading the Earth and building bases for the sole purpose of changing our atmosphere into one more suitable for their living — thus enabling them to completely wipe out the human race. It is up to you to wipe out these aliens and their bases to save the planet. This is the basic story behind the game, but it is easily lost at times with the hardcore action that takes place on the screen.

The game is not a native Windows 95 title, but will run while within Win95. It shouldn’t be long that all games being released will be Win95 / WinNT only. Extreme Assault boots up to a simple menu screen that allows players to choose the skill level that they wish to play the game in. From here the main menu appears, which is made of standard options — New Game, Continue Game, Load Game, Change Pilot, Options, and a few others. If you are playing with a 3Dfx card, you cannot change the graphics option, but, if you are not using one, you can change the graphical detail levels to suit your machine.

Extreme Assault is made of a series a missions that puts you into two different vehicles. The first vehicle is the Sioux AH-23 attack chopper and the second is a futuristic T1 battle tank. Both offer unique gameplay characteristics that allow the missions to be varied from mission to mission. There are 50 linear missions that start off relatively easy to allow players to get up to speed, but gradually become more difficult in the later stages. The missions are made of different objectives ranging from taking out convoys to destroying bases. The scenery that graces your screen varies from mission to mission. Some missions take place in frozen worlds while other take place in lush jungles. These different areas vary in realism from level to level and represent an immense feel of immersion for an action game. Blue Byte not only created a great graphics engine, but also created a great world for the graphics engine to render. There is so much detail put into every level, and little things pop out of nowhere to surprise you. I cannot think of too many games that I have played where I was consistently “wowed” by the detail on the screen. This detail is very evident from the beginning missions when you fly up close to the different building in your home base or the different vehicles parked around the base — you actually can see each element of the vehicle!