Zero Tolerance (Genesis)

Last time, I talked about a Genesis FPS that kind of sucked. Amazingly, despite lacking any 3D hardware of any kind and in spite of being generally limited in the graphics department, the Genesis actually had kind of a bunch of FPS games, and this one is actually pretty good.

Zero Tolerance tells the totally original tale of some military types heading to space to battle an alien invasion. You can choose from a bunch of commandos, all of whom are exactly alike, then you get dumped into a big space station with a bunch of monsters and a metric ton of bullets. The game is pretty good looking- the engine smoothly draws textured walls (ray casting, I assume) and the open view of space above, coupled with big rooms, creates a feeling of being in a pretty open environment. Enemy sprites are pretty sharp looking, and features like opening doors are well realized. Gameplay is pretty rote "find keycard find bullets shoot stuff find exit" material, but it was the 90s so we can forgive that. Controls are smooth and responsive. One nice feature is a persistent minimap which helps you find your way around.

As an aside- this game is pretty tough. But it's a fair kind of tough, unlike Corporation.

7/10