Powerslave Review (Sega Saturn, 1996)

I’ve never been the biggest fan of first person shooters. This statement holds especially true during the 32-bit era. Outside of Rareware’s games, and a few other outliers, I had little to no interest. Most everything seemed like a Doom clone and the formula just didn’t hit right with me. Because of this I had never even heard of Powerslave. Until recently, that is. This Egyptian themed shooter has been mostly forgotten by the masses but it made a fair splash on the computer and home console markets at the time of release. Today I decided to dive in and give the Sega Saturn version a look. Is Powerslave worth playing today, or is it as crusty as an old mummy? Let’s find out.

The game takes place in modern day Egypt. The ancient city of Karnak has been invaded by unknown forces, and you’re a member of a crackshot team sent in to put the perpetrators out of commission. The group makes a premature landing as the helicopter carrying them is shot down. It turns out that the invaders are extra terrestrial insects of sorts, and they seek to take over the world by reviving the ancient king Ramses and using his power to put down all that oppose them. You’re guided by the spirit of this Egyptian deity to defeat these aliens and save the rest of the world from them. It’s… unique and an obvious product of the 90s. In this case it’s not such a good thing, but the cheesy story is told in short intervals spaced out during gameplay. It’s pretty easy to ignore.

Despite the unique looking Egyptian motif Powerslave is a pretty generic Doom clone. It’s an obvious product of its time that doesn’t try to push the envelope in any meaningful way. You start out with just a machete which can be used infinitely but can only make contact when you’re up close and personal with enemies. Then you find a pistol which is a big step up, but ammunition can be limited in some areas so you must plan accordingly. Then there’s an M-60 machine gun, grenade, flamethrower, and a few other less conventional tools are at your disposal here. The arsenal gets a bit weird later on but it offers a fair amount of variety. I can’t complain too much here.

What is weird however is the method by which Powerslave measures your ammunition. Instead of getting the number of bullets you have left instead there’s a blue bar on the bottom of the screen that depletes as you fire each shot. You restore this by collecting orbs which are found within pots you can break, and also dropped by enemies. The red colored ones restore your health. It’s not a big deal or downfall to the design but the ammunition meter is weird. Ammunition isn’t as scarce as in most other first person shooters. I felt comfortable enough using the guns to dispatch most foes and I only used the machete against some of the weaker enemies when I had no chance of being overwhelmed.

Powerslave has a few gameplay issues right out of the gate. First of all you can’t aim up or down in this game. This creates a big problem with many of the flying and jumping enemies you’ll frequently encounter. The inability to actually aim means you’ll often be left firing blindly. The game is very forgiving as far as your accuracy goes in these situations, but because of that the gunplay feels weirdly clunky. You turn and face the basic direction of your opponent and start shooting. Most of the time even when they aren’t lined up at all with your shot (because they’re on the ground or in the air) you’ll still hit them perfectly. It takes a little getting used to because first person shooters haven’t been this forgiving in decades.

The stage designs are also a bit of a bummer. At first you think they’re going to be huge but once you actually start exploring you’ll find that the corridors sort of lead you in multi-tiered circles. It’s not a big deal but you’ll quickly notice how claustrophobic the entire experience is. Thankfully this helps out a bit when your main goal is typically to track down keys to open specific doors. This means that even backtracking isn’t that bad. Powerslave even has some Metroid qualities to it in the way that you gain additional powers (through artifacts) which give you abilities allowing you to reach areas you previously could not. Generally I don’t care for this sort of thing but I thought it served the game well. The fact that you can even gain a mask that lets you swim underwater forever is great.

What helps alleviate the claustrophobic feelings (and makes backtracking less of a pain) is the overworld map. You move an icon around to select your destination, and can return to any area you’ve already been to. This makes things easy when you must do something like go back and look for a ledge you couldn’t jump to before you had the magic sandals. To return to the map you have to find a camel and interact with it. I didn’t care that this doesn’t make much sense (who just leaves camels waiting around) but at first I just thought they were decorations. It took a while for me to realize they’re integral to progressing to the next area. I like the map system because it makes Powerslave feel more open and less linear than it actually is.

Graphically Powerslave is pretty decent. The Sega Saturn wasn’t exactly known for its 3D capabilities but the developers made ample use of the hardware here. The engine behind Powerslave runs surprisingly smooth for its era (still sub 30fps but it’s still very playable). The environments are a bit bland (it’s supposed to be the interior of Pyramids, tombs and other places like that so I won’t be entirely critical). The textures are very blocky but at least the draw distance is decent. The lighting effects are actually fairly impressive as explosions light up dark hallways. The effect is very much appreciated. I also really like how movement animates here. It feels like the camera tilts as you turn which feels really nice. The enemies are all sprite based but that’s standard with games of this era. The soundtrack isn’t my cup of tea but it suits the action at least.

Powerslave is very standard. There’s almost nothing original or special about it. What it does do however is take these borrowed elements and blend them together in a cohesive way which makes for a mildly entertaining first person shooter. The Egyptian theme sounds like it would be more fun than it actually is though. That’s definitely a wasted opportunity. I also wish that some of the levels were a bit bigger, and that they were slightly less like labyrinths. Not everything has to be a maze nor does every room need multiple doors. If you’re looking for a Doom clone from this era then you could do worse. Powerslave is at least worth a look for fans of the genre.