The Collection Chamber: EXTREME ASSAULT

NON-STOP ACTION - INCREDIBLY FAST - STUNNING 3D GRAPHICS

If you're looking for an incredible adrenaline rush, you're sure to enjoy this stunning shoot 'em up from Blue Byte Software. Aliens have secretly set up operations on Earth, and it's down to you to ruin their sinister plans. Blast them from the skies with your futuristic Sioux AH-23 attack helicopter and pulverise them on the ground with the "Next Generation" T1 assault tank.

An enormous variety of tenacious and cunning opponents will be gunning for you from the air and the ground, so increase your killing potential and strengthen your defenses with bonus weapon upgrades and power-ups located in secret passages and hidden rooms.

Experience awesome real-time 3D graphics as you battle your way through deep mountain ravines, complex subterranean caves, ancient Inca ruins and the aliens' hi-tech underground complexes. Thanks to a highly advanced 3D graphics engine, this breathtaking and lifelike world will unfold before your eyes smoothly and quickly, without the need for accelerator cards. From the word go you'll be immersed in an intense, action-packed world of deadly beauty!

Features:

Single Player:
Wreak havoc across 6 enormous operation zones with incredibly diverse terrain: underground caves, man-made tunnels, narrow canyons, deep volcanoes, tropical jungles and a frozen hell!
57 massive and intense missions to keep your adrenaline pumping for hours on end!
3 devastating weapon systems, each with progressive levels of complexity and power!
Dynamic Cockpit View: Point of view automatically changes, simulating realistic head movements in turns, climbs and descents!
Easy-to-use controls allow you to jump straight into the action! choose from three preset control systems: standard, pilot and arcade, or customize your own with improved joystick calibration!
3DFX cards, MMX™ technology and Force Feedback joysticks are supported!
Stunning real time 3D graphics even WITHOUT expensive 3D accelerator cards!
Awesome CD audio and MIDI tracks!
Multi-Player:
Up to four players can compete using LAN (IPX) or the Kali™ Internet gaming network!
Specially designed multi-player operation zones!

~ from the back of the box

There was something unapologetically direct about late-‘90s PC games. Extreme Assault from Blue Byte hit in 1997 like a guided missile to the face: no frills, no cutscenes, just you, a prototype gunship, and some of the most intense arcade-style action this side of Descent. Built on the same tech as Archimedean Dynasty but going for high-octane shootouts instead of deep-sea dread, it threw you into the cockpit of the AH-23 Sioux – a futuristic chopper still in testing – and later into the driver's seat of the hulking T1 tank. Together, these two war machines would become Earth's best shot at survival.

Extreme Assault doesn't bother with exposition. There's no cinematic prologue or moody FMV intro. The story trickles in mission by mission, and for a while, it's just you shooting down helicopters and intercepting convoys, wondering if there's any point beyond blowing stuff up. Then you start noticing strange architecture, alien-looking tech, and whispered warnings about an extraterrestrial invasion. Turns out there's alien activity around these parts. It turns out they're here to strip Earth's atmosphere and turn the planet into a cosmic parking lot. And naturally, it's up to you to stop them, one obliterated mech at a time.

Third-person view looks cool, but free-aiming sucks and you lose the useful detail of the HUD (left, software).
There's power-ups aplenty. After a mission success you can scour the field for useful items like this health (right, software).

The campaign spans six gloriously unhinged episodes, though you only get to play all of them on Hard or Extreme difficulty. Play on Easy and you're unceremoniously booted out a few missions in with a message that basically says "get good". I'm not too fond of gatekeeping levels, arbitrarily reducing the length for the game for each pilot who represents the four difficulty modes. A different campaign for each would be my preferred take but at least the each mission is short and incredibly fun. They're loaded with quick, in-flight objectives delivered via terse radio chatter. No drawn-out briefings or base-return tedium and a ticker tape of text constantly scrolls by in case you forgot what to do. Once the objectives are done, it won't be long until you're off again painting the sky with missiles. The pacing is tight, almost surgical, and while the story may be skeletal, the game's rhythm never breaks.

The real draw here is the level design and enemy variety. From lush mountain valleys to sulfur-belching industrial zones, from Aztec temple ruins to the inside of a literal volcano, Extreme Assault flexes its environments with wild abandon. Enemies, too, are a joy to destroy. Agile helicopters, weird gliders and a vast variety of tanks and alien monstrosities all coalesce to attack from every angle, yet never seem to overwhelm with an unfair barrage of incoming missiles. One highlight is a boss fight against the U.S.S. CENSOR, a destroyer ship retrofitted by alien tech and manned by these invading grey bastards. What more do you want?

With less than half the game left, you'll find the Fire Flash weapon (left, 3DFX).
It will zap out a devastating short-range blast of energy. Two of them if you have the ammo (right, 3DFX)

While the game was sold as a high-octane action-focussed helicopter sim, you also get to control a souped-up tank in the later levels. Both handle beautifully, with arcade-style responsiveness and enough firepower to melt steel. You have two very different weapons in the early game; the Razor Gun and the Laser Cannon. The Razor Gun is weaker, but if you've locked on to an enemy it will automatically shoot directly at them. The Laser Cannon is a lot stronger, but can only shoot straight ahead.

Eventually a third weapon will enter your arsenal; the Fire Flash. This devastating attack lets off a short-range blast of electrical energy with a power that varies depending on how long you've held down the attack button. It's mostly used to make quick work of late-game armour-powered bosses. It's a credit to the game design that all three remain useful until the very end. I saved the Razor Gun for the nimble enemy aircraft, and kept the Laser Cannon to hand for whittling down the hoards of tanks and land-based vehicles.

Bosses are as impressive as they are easy. This cool mech went down way too quickly (left, 3DFX).
This tank spices up later stages, and plays just as well as the chopper (right).

Technically, Extreme Assault is a marvel for its time. In software mode, it ran like a dream on a modest machine without the need for a 3D accelerator. Plug in a 3DFX card and the already jaw-dropping visuals come fully into their own. It's certainly impressive for a game from 1997. The lighting and particle effects all service the impressively intertwined level design that, even if a little old-school, remain pleasant on the old eyeballs to this day. Don't get me wrong, it has aged. The low-res textures are blurry and undetailed which become even more noticeable when 3DFX enters the mix. On precisely three occasions, the latter also features some major framerate drops when a lot is going on on screen (which, considering its rarity, didn't bother me an amazing amount). There's even a decent multiplayer mode from what I hear, though, as always, I have not tested that side of the game. What I have tested is the large and unique demo that did the rounds back in the day. Even that's worth a go once the credits role.

Extreme Assault isn't a complex game, and that's exactly its strength. It delivers pure, unfiltered action with a confident swagger that never tries to be anything else. It doesn't slow down and it doesn't let up. It just throws you into a warzone, straps you into a heavily armed prototype, and dares you to survive. And sometimes, that's all a great game needs.

To download the game, follow the link below. This custom installer exclusive to The Collection Chamber uses the DOSBox-X build of DOSBox to bring the game to modern systems with dgVoodoo assisting with the 3DFX version. Manual and exclusive demo level included. Read the ChamberNotes.txt for more detailed information. Tested on Windows 10.

File Size: 330 Mb. Install Size: 472 Mb. Need help? Consult the Collection Chamber FAQ

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SOFTWARE

3DFX

SOFTWARE