Corporation review - Sega Megadrive

Androids play an extremely important role in 21st Century society. There emotionless, tireless machines carry out all the dirty jobs that people used to do, from simple housework through to fighting out wars on the front lines or flying 'planes. UCC are the biggest producers of androids in the world, supplying hundreds of countries with many different types of robotic machinery. The Corporation, as UCC are also known as, have a massive influence over many governments and can warp the course of justice to suit their own selfish ends.

The benevolent Agency have been alerted to a series of highly illegal genetic experiments being carried out in the Corporation's massive skyscraper headquarters. Apparently, the evil members of the Corporation board want to maximise profits by selling these killing mutants to the highest bidder. However, the Agency have no proof of this and cannot take action against the UCC. It's down to you as one of the top secret agents in the world to infiltrate the Corporation and locate some embryonic genetic mutations to use as hard evidence.

The action is portrayed in first person 3D, using a mixture of polygons (for the corridors) and sprites (for objects and enemies) to create the display. Your objective is to explore the Corporation building, collect equipment and solve puzzles in order to reach the higher floors of the UCC building.

The Corporation do not take lightly to unauthorised intruders and as such, you meet some of UCC's more gruesome genetic experiments on your path through the heart of the building. Luckily, you are armed with blasters - but will they be enough against some of UCC's deadliest killing machines?

What the Mean Machines staff thought

Corporation impressed me immediately with its excellent user interface and decent gameplay. The thing is, no matter how long I played the game I kept coming away with the feeling that I had hardly scratched the surface of the game - it's that deep and complex. The graphics (particularly the presentation screens) are very impressive, although I found that the corridors looked very samey. I got lost very quickly because there isn't that much in the way of distinguishing features. The sound is good, with a decent enough soundtrack accompanying the action. I was a tad disappointed with the sound effects though as they are flat and uninspiring. At the end of the day though, Corporation wins through in that it is a very challenging game with many levels to play through and the gameplay should appeal to most Megadrive players.

Corporation is both original and highly impressive. From the opening screens the game captures you with its excellent atmosphere and you just want to keep on playing and playing to solve its many mysteries. Making a map as you go along certainly helps since it's very easy to get lost in the massive maze of bland and empty corridors. The game is very challenging, and plenty of time and effort is required to get the most out of this game, which means ardent arcade game players with attention spans of a few hours won't really enjoy the action. But if you don't fall into that category and are after something that's different, intriguing and packs a load of long-lasting gameplay, this should be checked out as soon as it's available.