Forsaken

Overview

Forsaken is a 1998 first-person shooter developed by Probe Entertainment for Windows and Playstation and by Iguana UK for the Nintendo 64, and published by Acclaim Entertainment.

Similarly to the Descent games, Forsaken puts players in control of a ship that can be used to navigate a 3D environment and shoot enemies. It had some support for stereoscopic 3D, and was used as a showcase for graphics cards at the time, often appearing as a bundled game with graphics cards or new computers.

Plot

Set in the distant future, where a sub-atomic experiment gone terribly wrong caused an uncontrolled fusion reaction that wiped out Earth's atmosphere and destroyed everything in it's orbit. The ruling inter-planetary Imperial theocracy ruled Earth condemned one year after the disaster, allowing scavengers from all across the Universe to plunder what remains of Earth's technology and resources. You take the role as a mercenary with the mission to explore Earth's underground tunnels and vaults in search of treasure, fighting off other mercenaries as well as the robotic defenses left behind by mankind.

Reception

On the online review aggregator metacritic Forsaken holds a normalized score of 75 out of 100, based on the reception from 12 different publications. MobyGames' Mobyrank for the game across the different platforms are 84/100 for the N64 version, based on 10 publications, 85/100 on PC based on 17 publications and 76/100 for the PS1 version based on 7 publications.

The Nintendo 64 version of Forsaken was reviewed for Gamespot by Jeff Gerstmann, who gave the game a score of 8.5 out of 10. Though criticizing the game's lack of originality, labeling it "a Descent clone", Gerstmann appreciated that "stunning graphics, a dazzling array of weapons, and above-average level design make the whole thing seem fresh."

Open Source development

The source code, not including music and cutscenes, was released into the public domain in 2007, after which ProjectX, or ForsakenX (Github name), was formed by members of the Forsaken and Descent fan communities. To date they have ported the game to run on Mac, Linux and modern versions of Windows, with functional online multiplayer and some graphical enhancements. There are also experimental versions running in WebGL and Ruby, playable in browsers, as well as a port to the Blender engine.

Builds are available at http://fly.thruhere.net/ and https://github.com/ForsakenX.

Forsaken Remastered

Much like Turok, Turok 2, and Doom 64, Forsaken received the EX treatment from Samuel Villarreal, making it possible to play the original PC game with some N64 levels on modern PCs. The game was further developed and eventually released as Forsaken Remastered on July 31, 2018 on Microsoft Windows, macOS, Linux and Xbox One by Nightdive Studios. Forsaken Remastered included improvements and features such as widescreen and 4K monitor support, Anti-aliasing, OpenGL 3.2 and DirectX 11 support, a new Automap, extra levels, text in five languages, a remastered HUD and more. Multiplayer support was added with the modes Free For All, Team Game (Deathmatch), Bounty Hunt, Team Bounty Hunt, Capture the Flag and Team Capture the Flag