Play Powerslave Online Free for Sega Saturn.

The MS-DOS version of PowerSlave was added to the GOG store on November 19, 2020. PowerSlave, known as Exhumed in Europe and 1999 AD: Resurrection of the Pharaoh in Japan, is a 1996 first-person shooter game developed by Lobotomy Software and published by Playmates Interactive Entertainment in North America, and BMG Interactive in Europe and Japan.

How to Play Powerslave

The app maps Powerslave for you out of the box; the table below is the starting point, and Controller Mapping tunes it to a keyboard or any USB / Bluetooth pad.

The Story Behind Powerslave

The MS-DOS version of PowerSlave features many differences from the console versions. Checkpoints are placed throughout the level by indication of golden scarabs and saving happens automatically between levels. Players have usable Mana energy that can cast spells once the spell has been acquired (e.g. collecting a torch allows the player to use energy to illuminate dark areas).

Programmer Ezra Dreisbach thought to incorporate dynamic light sourcing into the console versions after seeing Loaded on the PlayStation, since the walls in PowerSlave were already being Gouraud shaded for the static torch lights. The light sourcing from the SlaveDriver engine is not used; the Build engine's own light sourcing is used instead; the game also uses "fake" dynamic lighting where sectors light up as projectiles or "glowing" objects in general pass through. The version used is a slightly earlier version of the engine, made sometime before the version used in Duke Nukem 3D.

What You'll Play

Developed by Nightdive Studios in partnership with Throwback Entertainment, an enhanced port for the PC and modern consoles combining elements of the Saturn and PlayStation versions, PowerSlave Exhumed, was announced on August 14, 2021, and released on February 10, 2022. In the good ending, the protagonist has collected eight pieces of a radio transmission device, so he can send a rescue signal and be extracted from the Valley. Gameplay in both the original PC version and console versions follows the first-person shooter gameplay.

Sprites are represented in 2D, similar to games such as Doom and Duke Nukem 3D. The player is sent in to the valley as the hero to save Karnak and the World. Villarreal, who had since joined the studio, was set to continue his work on this new, official remaster.

Why It Still Hits

The Saturn version of PowerSlave sharply divided critics. GamePro said it was "not as polished as the Saturn version," but still outstanding in absolute terms. In his review of the PC version, Stephen Poole of GameSpot called the game flawed but fun, worth buying on discount.

Both of them criticized the small weapons arsenal and inability to save at any point. Jeff Gerstmann of GameSpot also said the game lacks originality, and argued that "Graphically, Power Slave doesn't really break any new ground." He also criticized that the game starts with mundane enemies like spiders and birds, and takes too long to introduce genuinely menacing opponents. However, the four reviewers of Electronic Gaming Monthly expressed more misgivings; while Shawn Smith hailed it for having more intelligent gameplay and plot than other first-person shooters, Dan Hsu and Sushi-X both said it is too similar to previous "Doom clones" to be of interest.

Powerslave — Frequently Asked Questions