In Road Warrior, you still play the role of Drake Edgewater, a cab driver whose only goal is to escape the hell of Kemo City. Using his cab as the only way to survive, Drake accepts a series of special missions against OmniCorp. The money is used to repair and upgrade his vehicle with new weapons, as each ride into the city is risky business. Thus, from mission to mission through different parts of the town, he finally reaches the exit way to freedom. Unfortunately, OmniCorp is not finished with him yet. The OmniCorp's leader, Torva Yul, has been told about Drake's actions against OmniCorp and he wants to make him pay for all this.
The game starts as you just reach the exit that leads from the city to the Kemo desert. On your way across the desert, you bump into a large rock that you believe is an oasis. Sometimes, mirages can be very pernicious! Shocked by the accident, you slowly get back to the reality and notice the gang outside staring at you with bloody knifes. They just found fresh meat for the kill duel scheduled tonight at the autodome where you will have to destroy all your opponents to stay alive.
Surprisingly, the introduction does not feature any rendered animation like it is common to see in most of the games these days. Instead, the introduction is made like a comic strip with only a frame at a time. The graphics are in SVGA and the style is similar to Mask. I personnally appreciated the original Mask comic, and although Road Warrior's story is totally different, they sure both contain a lot of violence, blood and cynical humour.
Before you enter the arena of the autodome, you will be given a short briefing with a map that shows the different targets. You can check them out with the left and right arrows and go through the text with the up and down arrow keys. You start your first mission with only 20 rounds of ammunition, which is not much at all. Your only chance to eliminate all the cars will be to bump into them until they blow up. During the fight, there will be men coming after you, firing their weapons against your cab. You can run into them to smash them or also use the three spikes on your bumper to spear them. The game is absolutely not recommended for sensitive people because of the massive amount of blood you receive on your windshield!
Road Warrior's action is fast and furious, especially if you play in standard VGA mode on a powerful machine. I tried the SVGA mode for a couple of hours, but although it is playable, I preferred playing in VGA because I had more control on the car. Sure, they don't look as good as they are in SVGA, but at the speed I was driving in Flagg City, I didn't have much time left for sight seeing! So unless you have a Pentium 90 or better, I recommend you play in VGA to fully enjoy the game.
The difference between Quarantine and Road Warrior lies in the missions. In Quarantine, while you were driving in Kemo City, there were passengers waiting for pickups and it was possible for you to pick them up or not, at your convenience. I remember I usually refused rides for small fares and instead looked for long and expensive drives! Then, when it was easier to raise the cash when it became necessary to find a garage and pay for repairs. If after that I had enough cash, I headed to the weapons stores to buy the newest weapons and upgrades for my yellow cab. With Road Warrior, money is no longer involved. Before you start a mission, you have to go to the next pickup location (shown in green on the map). When you pick up the passenger, he explains your mission to you with its objectives. The inboard camera lets you see the passenger if he joining you for the ride.
The other difference is that you have a limited time to complete your objectives and you can't repair your cab nor buy extra weapons and ammunition. Quarantine was a bit repetitive as you had to deliver a certain number of passengers before any special mission was offered to you. Now Road Warrior offers you a wide set of missions. To give you some examples, you will destroy billboards, blow up buildings, kill OmniCorp officials, escort vehicles, etc. Among them, some missions have very uncommon objectives such as blowing up the building of a software company because the guy who gave me the mission didn't like their last game! There is also the guy who ordered me to blow up his van that was just stolen by his ex-wife!
Among the other changes is the map that shows you thirteen different locations you have to go through to reach Kriegtown and the Kemo Prison. Within each location, you have to complete a series of missions, and even passing from one location to another will require you to conduct other missions inside the Kemo desert. Road Warrior has a total of over 100 missions that will walk you through the desert, countryside, cities, an airport, a factory etc... with each having a new set of graphics for the environment.
Gametek didn't release just a sequel with new and better graphics. Road Warrior is faster, supports a larger set of sound cards and even allows your cab to fly! The different missions integrate themselves in a storyline where you will have to defy the OmniCorp's power with the help of the Rebels. If you like action, blood and destruction, this game is yours!
486 DX-33 MHz or higher,
Min 8Mb memory,
MS-DOS 5.0 or later,
Hard drive required,
Double speed CD-ROM drive or faster,
SVGA video graphic card (VESA compatible).
Adlib Gold 1000 or 2000; Ensoniq Soundscape; ESS 488 or 688 Audiodrive; Microsoft Sound System; Gravis UltraSound and UltraSound Max; Pro Audio Spectrum 16; Creative Labs Sound Blaster, Sound Blaster Pro, 16 and AWE32; Roland RAP-10; Sound Master 2.
Microsoft Mouse and 100% compatibles; joysticks supported.
See developers
In Europe:
In UK:
Gametek UK.,
258 Bath Road,
Slough, Berkshire SL1 4DX.
In France:
Gametek France,
5 rue Jean Rostand, BP 380,
69746 Genas Cedex.
In Germany:
Gametek Deutschland GmbH,
Steinmetzstr. 20,
41061 Monchengladbach.
Overall: 85%
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