PC - Amsterdoom - DOSBox-Pure Test + English menus!
0Having shown some A2 Racer on DOSBox-Pure, now I have decided to show off and test Davilex's incredibly obscure FPS game that they made for their native Dutch market, which also got a localized version for the Krauts by the name of Invasion Deutschland (Very creative name.... as if.....), but no localization for the UK market unlike London Racer. And before you ask, no.... SAS Anti-Terror Force doesn't really count since they were only the publishers of it. Atomic Planet made that game, remember? And speaking of SAS-Anti Terror Force, the music that plays in the game's main menu was later reused for the credits in the latter game, as you may have seen my now rather poor-quality video I made on it back in 2012.
As it is purely a Dutch game, almost everything is in Dutch except for the opening FMV which is surprisingly in English, albeit with Dutch subs. But the good news is, especially for FPS game reviewers like gggmanlives who want to check the game out for themselves and make a video on it, the game can be translated into English! As it was also the case with A2 Racer III - Europa Tour as shown earlier.
With some of my incredibly, and I do mean, incredibily limited Dutch as I am a Kraut after all, I was able to translate some of the menus and text into English, whilst for others, I had to resort to the same method that the lovely Chinese still love to use when making English translations for some of their precious GALGAMEs: "Machine translation".
Unfortunately, the in-game text cannot be translated except for the level names which were translatable, as all of the in-game text seemed to have been hard-coded into the game's executable unlike all of the other text I was able to translate. But it probably doesn't really matter all that much, since the language barrier in this game for non-Dutch speakers, even Krauts alike who grew up with Autobahn Raser and most of Davilex's games, is usually little to none.
I discovered this game in ca. early 2005 at some FPS game website with download links to the full game which I cannot name, but since this game as well as most of Davilex's games being purely abandonware as Davilex doesn't really make games anymore since 2005, it doesn't really matter all too much. This was also where I found its localized version for the Krauts at the same site, which I played first before playing the Dutch original.
As the name purely implies, it is a Doom-style game set in Amsterdam and has you visit the various key places around the Dutch capital, such as the Kalverstraat shopping street where the game begins, the Madam Tuzoo wax figure museum, the Palace, Central Station, the metro station at the Central Station, the De Wallen Red Light District, the Rijksmuseum and Schiphol airport where the game's big climax takes place, whilst battling against these so-called Grobbers who invaded the city and attempt to recreate its atmosphere via the various chemical plants they ereceted within the city, and gas the entire human population with it. The player takes on the role of a NATO agent sent by the UN to infiltrate Amsterdam and battle against the Grobbers and their leader Thor within held territory. As the name "Thor" already rings a bell for you, as their appearances may imply, they are obviously themed after Norse mythology. Even the names of the Grobbers you confront as highlighted in the game's instruction manual pretty much speak their theme for themselves.
At the end of each of the five chapters which focuses on the different districts or major sights of Amsterdam, you find a part of a super weapon which you collect all of them to put it together and then use said weapon against Thor in the final battle, similar to the way Acclaim's Turok series has you find pieces of a super weapon that you must collect to fight against the games' final boss.
As far as testing goes, I played the first level without 3D video, and the 2nd with. And both seem to be fine although the game lags somewhere here and there as you see here.