Baal Game Sample - PC/DOS
0Baal is one of the lesser-known, unpopular titles released by Psygnosis and Psyclapse (subsidiary of Psygnosis) in the late 80s (originally for Amiga and Atari-ST in 1988, then for other platforms in 1989). It is an action-orientated side scroller about a "Time Warrior" who is sent to Hell to recover pieces of the "War Machine" which has been stolen by the evil Baal. The DOS game features good visuals for what it's worth, but clumsy controls, disjointed gameplay and poor level design.
In the game, you just run and shoot different enemies using a limited amount of lives and a few different weapons while bringing down barriers to progress further through the game. You have health to withstand enemy projectiles, but touching enemies, falling too far, or traps will automatically kill you. Running and shooting is a relatively simple affair, but platforming is another integral part of the gameplay and jumping forward or back requires you to at least jump up first or to be moving left or right and shooting to do so. It also seems that their is either a bug or flaw in the programming which prevents the player from outright running and jumping to the left, which can cause many deaths.
If these issues weren't bad enough, enemies respawn the second you move the screen from where they were defeated, and most enemies are planted in cheap spots. Some like flying enemies or jumping enemies can be avoided if you run under the with proper timing, but that usually just means you'll run or jump on a trap you can't see a few steps ahead, so the game moves at a grueling pace. To help somewhat, you can save, recharge your weapons, and refuel at various points in the game in case you run out of fuel while fighting or while using the game's various jetpacks (if you run out of fuel in a jetpack, you fall and die).
This is a video of the game in action. Enjoy.