Ripe for Abuse

Let’s talk about an actual game for once: Abuse!

Has anyone heard of this? It was a game released on the PC in 1996 and came to us courtesy of a group called Crack dot Com. A bizarre name of a company to be sure – Abuse was their only game – but it did have some distinction by being founded by Dave Taylor, a programmer formerly of id software.

So what type of game was Abuse? Well you ran around and blew shit up! Seriously: You control a protagonist than around maze-like environment solving minor problems and blowing away a variety of enemies with a range of weapons.

One look at Abuse however and it’s quite clearly a product of the grimdark that proliferated throughout the early to mid-nineties: there is a cyberpunk theme running throughout; there are some varied backgrounds ranging from a desolate city to a truly alien environment; the weapons range from laser guns to rocket launchers; and the plot…actually no, let’s forget about the plot.

But the thing I find most striking about Abuse is that it is clearly taking inspiration from other games and trying to prove that the PC can do the same as well – or at least give something to satisfy the obvious gazes the PC gamers have towards their console-focused brethren. The most obvious clue is the player character resembles the monster from the Predator movies and the enemies resemble the monsters from the Alien movies. True it may be trying to ape Alien vs Predator but ti is funny to see (what could well be) the Predator use a range of weapons – what wasn’t his shoulder cannon good enough? Similarly it is mind-boggling to see the not-Aliens have in-built firearms (!) and, upon their demise, drop ammo to be collected (!!!).
 Gameplay wise the obvious inspiration is Metroid, with the platform action, the shooting and puzzles inviting comparisons. The difference however is that whereas Metroid thrives on mood and non-linearity, Abuse goes in the other direction with an action overload. Enemies attack frequently in swarms and it’s all too easy to get swamped by the critters.

Nevertheless, Abuse has something of a try-hard charm to it that I somehow find appealing. Yes they were trying so very hard to prove that PC games can be just as action packed as any game on the consoles and to that end they do succeed. Okay it’s nowhere near in the same league as the immortal Super Metroid but for an action game Abuse does its job of scratching an itch. The fact that Abuse has been made available in the public domain means it can keep doing its job.