Crimewave - Sega Saturn - Intro & Gameplay Stage 1-4 (Saturn exclusive) [4K]
16A rarely talked about SEGA Saturn title that is exclusive to the console and is an enjoyable take on the arcade chasing genre featuring games like Chase HQ and Miami Chase. A rather impressive game in terms of how the game engine works with it streaming data real time to remove any loading. Creating a truly 3D open world title with zero loading that no other game on the system was able to achieve. Developed by a very small team, sadly the lack of loading comes at a cost of frame rate drops and minor pauses as it streams the data. Resulting in a game that is unable to smoothly hold 30fps as you play and randomly dips well below.
Which is a huge shame as the game is very good looking for the system and very enjoyable. While playable the frame rate issues will put many players off. If you can get past that, this is a 3D vehicle combat game that has you driving around eight different sector in a open world city chasing down criminals and blowing up their vehicles, before the timer runs out. Defeated enemies drop power ups and you can also obtain them by destroying crates, turrets and from taking down your rival. The aim is to gain enough Mek points to move to the next area, taking down targets awards 100 points each, but destroying civilian vehicle costs you 5 points. The game uses an isometric camera view and a near and far camera angle, but the far view increases the frame drops further.
It's a lot of fun, but a rather short and small game so best played in short bursts, there are eight areas in the game and as you progressive to each area you unlock it as a starting base. Each base has a different car and if you want to beat the game you have to finish all eight city districts in one sitting. The different cars are largely a cosmetic change and don't really impact gameplay in any way. The game lacks a final ninth area and final boss to really polish off the campaign. It does include a nice split screen mode, which has both players working against one another to take down targets. Crimewave itself is rather hard due to the limited amount of time you get to take down a target.
As it standard it's an impressive game that was a tad overambitious, there an excellent interview with the main coder and creator of the game Jim Blackler here: http://www.segacollection.com/specials/jimbinterview.htm
Which suggests a lot of the game content was cut in the planning stage. The train shown in the intro was also missing in the final version as they couldn't get it working at the time. Meaning it never appears in game, not even stopped at a station. The game itself had it's own level editor using a retail Saturn that the artist used, which sadly got taken out for the final version. It also has a very cool cheat that allows you to flip the screen as well, which works really well on modern scalers and TVs. One can't help, but wonder if the game had be given a few more months and used either the 1MB or 4MB cartridge. If the frame rate issue could have been resolved. It's a game that certainly warrants a Director's Cut.
Chapter and content times for this video
0:00 - Game Details & FMV Intro
2:40 - Beach Sector
6:23 - Downtown Sector
10:18 - Industrial Sector
16:34 - Midtown Sector
Also known as: クライムウェーブ (Japan) Crime Wave (Alternative spelling)
Year: 1996
Developer: Eidos Interactive
Publisher: Eidos Interactive
Genre: Driving / Vehicle Combat
Players: 1 - 2
Version Shown: PAL
Format: Sega Saturn (SS) / セガサターン / 세가새턴
Crimewave was exclusive to the SEGA Saturn and has never been re-released.
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Outros included in this video, template from Panzoid by Magnus DZN, edited by Riven, outro music is Kawaii! by bad snacks.
Footage is captured directly from original hardware in this case a PAL Sega Saturn console at 60Hz via RGB Scart. Using an Elgato Game Capture HD60 Pro and a open source scan converter (OSSC). Upscaled to UHD 4K to improve the video bit rate, watch in HD or UHD for best video playback on YouTube.
#Crimewave #Eidos #SEGASATURN