Take No Prisoners Review: Escape From Raven Software

[@joseluki]

Had this game back in the day, this thing was WAY ahead of its time.

[@civilwarfare101]

Man I missed it when Raven wasn't shackled to CoD and High Moon too.

[@Kaigalinski]

This is my go to channel for reviews of games I didn't even know exists

[@salokin3087]

All part of the plan

[@jgooo101]

This game was my fave when i was a kid! And it is like playing escape from new york. Amazingly open ended and ambitious for the time.

[@CliffuckingBooth]

Underrated gem! Just bought it on Steam and soon Im gonna jump in :) I love that it's inspired by Escape from NY (and also Dredd a little bit). Also this game is very similar to Mageslayer.

[@gordlord561]

Wouldn’t imagine a Raven game like this, I would die happily if we got a proper Hexen successor, Amid Evil kinda scratched that itch but it was more like Heretic than Hexen since it’s classless and doesn’t have those infamous yet charming puzzles and level design

[@rorychivers8769]

NO MORE HEXEN PUZZLES, I WILL NOT SOLVE ONE NINTH OF THE F-ING PUZZLE FOR ANYONE EVER AGAIN

[@ghoulflier1016]

Graven might be what you're looking for.

[@VasilArnaudov]

the game has a first person mode (also the Mageslayer) and looks really good.

[@salokin3087]

Through some cheats, though I couldn't get it working very well

[@VasilArnaudov]

@@salokin3087 I've played a lot with the config file and made work ok. I'll try to send it to you these days.

[@ctrouble2309]

@@VasilArnaudov did you get this working

[@OpenMawProductions]

All the characters in this are top down sprites, how is that going to work in first person? And if it's true can you post some footage of it?

[@VasilArnaudov]

@@OpenMawProductions imgur.com/a/BkRIgHI - here are two screenshots. it works surprisingly well.. the sprites remain the same - I don't know how to repack them. Mageslayer looks better because it is not so obvious that they are top down pics. Neither I've found a way to rotate them at least to look a little bit closer to the ground...

[@rabbitinthem00n]

4:23 - San Antonian checking in. Can confirm.

[@RetroDeathReviews666]

Wow, didn't expect to see you do a review on this game! This is my favorite non-serpent rider Raven game. A real hidden gem imo. I've been replaying it since it recently got a rerelease, much to my surprise. Great review.

[@salokin3087]

Cheers man! You considered covering some of their games?

[@RetroDeathReviews666]

@@salokin3087 Absolutely man! They're one of my top 5 favorite game companies :D I plan to cover most of their older catologue eventually. Especially the serpent riders games and stuff like this and Mageslayer.

[@salokin3087]

@@RetroDeathReviews666 Very pog

[@StodgyAyatollah]

Great review of an often overlooked gem for anyone that likes the gritty/pulpy 90's aesthetic and oldschool fps gameplay. It's nothing amazing but does have a lot of charm. Overall I think it would have worked better as a sprite based fps though. I've long thought a TC in the build engine or for gzdoom would be amazing.

[@theoldspiceguy7977]

Check out ashes 2063, it may not be a 1:1 conversion of the universe from take no prisoners as a tc for the gzdoom engine but it is post apocalyptic. kzbin.info/www/bejne/qpWolHljepZggpo

[@StodgyAyatollah]

@@theoldspiceguy7977 Already played it and had good time with it. An easy recommend for anyone who reads this.

[@Bob-t4g7w]

Thanks for this review! TNP was very special to me growing up.

[@FlymanMS]

This game had such a cool and ambitious concept, despite drawbacks and limitations, if remade properly in 3rd person 3D it’d be so awesome!

[@Sketcz]

This reminds me of Steel Harbinger on PS1. A lot.

[@shabustinkslol]

I tried to introduce this game to a couple of LAN parties circa 2003, the sheer number of weapons and equipment I thought would make it a hit. No dice. The view is just too constricted, it was too easy to get snuck up on and taken out without really being able to see what was going on, a lot of the time you would just be shooting at someone offscreen that you couldn't even see. The weapons are REALLY unbalanced too, with a couple that are just so OP (the minigun, rocket launcher, and the gauss gun if I remember correctly) that there's no point in even trying to use some of the others. All the equipment ended up not being used either, because it's just too hard to cycle to what you want, and deploy it effectively. Oh and the levels are WAYYYYY too big for anything less than like 6 players. I don't remember what the limit was but I remember just trying to play a few levels with maybe 4 or 5 people and it takes forever to find anyone. Combine the huge levels with the narrow view and it just gets really boring really fast. Had a lot of fun with this game back in the day though, with a few improvements it'd be absolutely killer in multiplayer.

[@ВладимирПолитов-з1ш]

Great game, nice review, thanks!

[@salokin3087]

Welcome!

[@phaeton01]

been crushing though this game today, its a peak 90s adventure shooter, only let down by immensely obtuse level design

[@Sketcz]

As one of the few channels that I enjoy which covers old PC games, any chance of covering Vigilance on Talos V for DOS, or its prequel Sinaria: Lost in Space? Both were made by one of the lead programmers for Duke Nukem Forever.

[@salokin3087]

Thanks, i appreciate the comment. Looks alright, might try it out

[@tempphonedownload1972]

I played a Vigilance on Talos V demo in the mid 90s from a PC-Gamer disc, I believe, and was really impressed, it felt like a super metroid for DOS. It's been on my list for a long time, but I had no idea about the prequel; thanks for the rec.

[@Mr.Fury1]

This takes me wayyyy back! Back when PCs had a cool tuned MIDI support, i used to mess around with those prisoners who have molotovs just to loot as much molotovs as i can xD “You better run booOoooy” 😂❤️ amazing times.. Mageslayer was a good game as well!

[@fox.57005]

Awesome game it inspired me, I wonder if someone would be interested in a 'remake' of this game

[@cameirusisu1024]

I loved this game, I remember getting suck near the end because I could not work out where an secret passage was....it was behind the bookcase in the sodding office I was in before I started searching the entire game for it lol

[@martinburns5982]

just playing through this now, used the gamefaqs guide though.. did manage to complete this bitd, god knows how lol.. would love to see your thoughts on mageslayer

[@salokin3087]

Eventually!

[@latbat58]

Interesting camera

[@tompor561]

Are you gonna review the Jedi Knight games in the future, Salo?

[@salokin3087]

Maybe, got like three other games atm, Deus ex Invisble war, Heavy Gear and Ground Control

[@nickydonaldson670]

I've been looking for this game for years! Completely forgot about it

[@mihalytihany]

Had this as a kid, had know idea where to go and what to do, along with getting ass kicked by the enemies.

[@HunterTinsley]

Good review!

[@contrabandresearch8409]

You should try Steel Harbinger on the PS1.

[@salokin3087]

hmmm, tempting

[@mullerandy]

I have this big boxed, however i never played it. I saw the ads and read the review in CGW but never played it. Who knew that this game was so cool? The ads and reviews told me otherwise.

[@inakilukac]

Is this running on the Doom engine? it looks fucking crazy (in a good way)

[@Cafaura]

My guy!

[@salokin3087]

My dude!

[@kloa4219]

We don't have an accent in Texas lol, maybe in the north. We just have taco stores

[@TorinoBird]

Ay bruh. It's kind of dumb to ask this here, but where did you find me again?

[@salokin3087]

hmmm discord?

[@TorinoBird]

@@salokin3087 Mind of we talk about stuff? My discord is Torino#4133

[@mrStraker888]

cool

[@kuznetsov9471]

None of the other Raven Software games I knew, first one was Take No Prisoners, it was a blast and I played the demo MANY times until I got the full game, sometimes I still go back at it... Other Raven games are all Meh for me, I think Quake 4 is decent one but not much replay value sadly. Did enjoy Singularity a tad too, but falls on the same issue of lacking replay value Then a bunch of CoD games that have no worth at all in even the smallest grain of dirt.

[@hiddengemgamers9376]

A better title for this video would be Escape from Activision.

[@salokin3087]

Lol, maybe if they make another game

[@hiddengemgamers9376]

@@salokin3087 I know that I'm 7 months late, but I made a video review for Ravensoftware's last game before they were forced to work on COD, Singularity. I managed to interview a developer. Check it out. kzbin.info/www/bejne/rpTdfH1uZqmgj8k

[@rekware9320]

Tennis anyone?..

[@blazepunch]

Ranting rq don’t quote me: Tbh SMT2 is trash. I unfortunately started with SMTSJ and although it’s a spin off, I had WAYYY more fun back trackin their than in this piece of shit of a game....I love Jrpga and I’m determined to beat SMT2 as I am still playing it but so far it’s ass. Story, atmosphere and fusions are all they’ve got going on imo cuz the combat is unbalanced which I usually don’t mind but with the Mag system, no descriptions on items and it Cost you in game to avoid guides and figure shit out through appraisal, the fact that in none of their game do their demons actually level up which to me is the dumbest shit ever, the INTENTIONAL back tracking I’ve come to find In all of their games based on just watching reviews and having played two DS variants like SMTSJ and SMTDS, which I hate SMTDS, DIDNT enjoy it for nothing, also the beings they power scale aren’t based on lore but instead some bull shit bias from the studio cuz idk how tf Shiva op every game but Horus and Anubis for example are very lack luster demons-Anubis has 1skill that everybody wants and Horus is fucking useless-I hate this game and honestly the entire original series for them intentionally making their game a headache-it doesn’t make any sense-you can only get away with reusing the same shit for so long as well-oh wait I forgot the gaming community is letting developers fuck them cuz even though they don’t get what they want they buy the game anyway so they’ll just keep pumping shit which to me it’s a damn shame this franchise took off using the same concept but barely increasing variety in regards to their monster who’s lore doesn’t matter cuz they’re just power scaling shit how the fuck ever- I deadass picked this game up cuz I like strange journey so much and was never even aware of SMT and MT’s existence as a child (I beat SMTSJ three years ago) which I’m glad I wasn’t cuz I wouldn’t got frustrated as hell. The fact too that whatever you use equipment wise affects your path which isn’t clear at all unless you’re a fucking boomer LOL like my g, can we just stop letting these mother fuckers drop the same game? Persona is another story and imma just stay away from talking about that game for now-I’m being very specific to SMT and MT. Also I don’t care about any of the characters at all right now and it was more than obvious that The Center was the enemy like they need to put this shit together a lot better. Soundtrack is wavy tho

[@theoldspiceguy7977]

Check out ashes 2063 and it's follow up: afterglow for more 80s mad max inspired post apocalyptic goodness. It's chock full of Easter eggs too