In a world of gross consumerism, endless competition and the feeling of being unable to unplug from our reliance on technology, the modern day can sometimes reflect the messages of works of entertainment from the past. So too is the case for the next entry in the Video Game Obscura, Immercenary. Developed for the 3DO in 1995 by studio, Five Miles Out and published by Electronic Arts, Immercenary is an open world first person shooter set in the dystopian future of a virtual reality MMORPG gone haywire.
You play as Agent Number Five, an operative of a rogue organization founded by Dr. Marcus Rand, who, in the 1990s, ran experiments on astral projection which put him in connection with a woman named Raven from the future who came with a plea for help. In her time, all of humanity was trapped within a virtual reality MMORPG called, Perfect. The only way to free humanity from the clutches of the game is to topple the number one ranked player of the game, Perfect1, but no one is capable of doing so. Raven provides Dr. Rand the technology needed to project into the future and connect to the game in an attempt to rise the ranks by defeating the top ranked players and have a chance to destroy Perfect1 and save the future.
The faces of your three sidekicks who help provide clues on what to do.
As Agent Five, you will explore the surreal cyberpunk cityscape of, The Garden, searching for the hives of the top players, kill them and absorb their power in order to be strong enough to take on Perfect1. Before you can do that, you must first survive and find safety. You see, you are not the only player within the game. Various enemy types exist within the Garden of Perfect, each with their own avatar, rank and stats. By defeating the other players, you can absorb their stats and when you reach a safe point to log out, those stats get added to your own. These stats include offense, which is the ammo you use for your primary weapon, defense, which is your overall hitpoints and agility, which is the amount of time you are able to run at full speed. Agility itself will replenish over time as you wait, but the only way to increase your offense and defense if by finding a stat generator with the corresponding stat color throughout the world, or by finding the hub.
The hub itself is where you engage in conversation with the various player types and even some of the top ranked players to learn more about the world, the weaknesses and even locations of your opponents. The hub is the one truly safe place within the Garden as the areas outside it are crawling with other characters fighting.
What makes the game so enchanting is the world itself. The city is not built around your traditional concept of a city. Enormous monuments to Perfect1 arch high into the sky. Buildings made of teeth and eyes echo out screams of agony. Huge arcs of electricity stretch out through the skyline. It is fascinating just to see what oddities you can find within each district.
The odd cityscape of Immercenary.
Add to it, the characters of Immercenary are absolutely charming! The top ranked players are all Full Motion Video of live actors in costume and they range from a Kabuki performer to large imposing orc. Each has their own personalities, beliefs and desire to stay within Perfect in order to hold control over the district. They are absolutely not willing to go quietly. Likewise, the lower ranked players of the game are all distinguished by a particular type. You have low polygon players known as Goners that represent the lowest rank players, and at each progressing rank, you come across more complex looking avatars that look almost human, like the nude women with patches of skin lacking pigment that represent that development team who are also trapped within the game.
Who doesn't love a man with electric abs?
What is even more addictive is the feeling of power you get as you progress. At first you stay close to the hub for safety, taking down various goners and increasing your power slowly, but surely. Over time you start to move out farther and farther to fight more complex enemies, discover various power-ups and then feel bold enough to take down one of the top ranked players. That feeling of power grows exponentially and it is really an addictive quality that makes you feel excited to play.
There is something else, however, that really pushes this game further for me. It isn’t just the world building, charming characters and strong feeling of progression that makes me appreciate Immercenary, no. What makes me really appreciate Immercenary is the little details. To give you an understanding, let’s talk about enemy population. The game of Perfect has a preset population of players in the game. As you progress and eradicate enemies, that population decreases. There are only a finite number of enemies. Where the Garden was once bustling with the sound of blaster fire amongst tens of hundreds of enemies, once you are ready for the final showdown with Perfect1, the city will seem quite somber and empty… silent. It is an eerie air that is haunting but so indicative of the journey you have.
When I was a kid, I dreamed of one day playing Immercenary. I saw the articles and guides of the game in issues of video game magazines and it excited my imagination to no end. It promised a huge virtual world to explore and creatures to see and interact with. It was a white whale situation for me as it was locked to a console I would never own. As time went on, I still thought of the game from time to time, but the name always eluded me. It wasn’t until the last few years that my desire to play the game became a reality as modern emulation was finally up to speed to play the game properly and play I did.
Immercenary lived up to the hype for me. It had a brilliant presentation, a tantalizing world and a series of rules that you had to experiment with to discover and understand. It was truly an alien space that eventually became a home. I still to this day visit the Garden of Perfect and talk with the denizens within. It’s a game that stayed in my memory from childhood and still stays in my memory now. It bibbled my jibblies.
Immercenary is Bibblin' My Jibblies!