Developer: Sega Publisher: Sega Release: 1990 Genre: Action
ESWAT has a special place in my heart for various reasons. Once Street Fighter 2 took over my local mom and pop store ESWAT was my refuge when the veteran players of that game would show up. In the first year of the Sega Genesis when releases were slow it was also a bright spot. But this is no ordinary home port. Instead of being a straightforward conversion the Genesis game mostly only has the same name and premise. The result is a game that is even better than the arcade in my opinion and a good action game in the Genesis library in spite of its early release.
An organization armed with new high tech weaponry named E.Y.E threatens to take over Liberty City. Recognizing this threat, the government commissions a group of soldiers with special training, dubbed ESWAT (Enhanced Special Weapons and Tactics). These soldiers are equipped with cybernetic suits and heavy weapons to deal with any threat. But as a rookie cop you must first earn your stripes before joining the organization.
In the arcade it was clear ESWAT was patterned after Shinobi. Both games had similar pacing, deliberate enemy placement as well as a timer to create a sense of urgency. As a normal police officer it worked. Once you were in the cyber suit it fell apart as the level design was clearly not designed around bulky armor. I did like the build up to earning your armor; you collared a few regular criminals to earn promotions towards it. As triumphant as it should be the ESWAT armor was a hindrance more than a help. It was slow, made you a big target, and even its weapons were lame.
Sega used the time wisely to almost completely redesign the game. The removal of the clock and ammo make this a faster paced game. The levels are more open with less cover to hide behind or multiple levels to avoid enemies. They are wide enough to encourage exploration to find power-ups too. I will admit the first two levels are tough. As a beat cop you are weak; you can only fire one bullet at a time and have a small life bar. I suppose any cop that can take out an attack helicopter and stop a prison riot with a regular pistol deserves the cybernetic upgrade.
The biggest redesign comes with the ESWAT armor. Now it truly feels like the badass weapon it should have always been. You can now collect five sub-weapons you can switch between at any time. These include homing missiles, a machine gun, and the powerful charging pulse cannon. The suit has afterburners to jump higher, hover, and fly briefly. There is even a super weapon that uses your afterburners to inflict heavy damage on every visible enemy. The meter recharges slowly to prevent its overuse but it remains an integral part of the game.
The level design is the biggest deviation from the arcade. Calling this an arcade port sells it short. Considering all the stages and bosses are new this might as well be a sequel. There is a heavy platforming component to the game and it works despite your bulky armor. Mission variety is extremely high as the levels emphasize different aspects of gameplay. The later levels rely on expert use of your after burners for some cool flying sequences. Neo Three Mile is a war zone that is perfect for trying every weapon in the game. The Bio Lab is a slow crawl that takes away your burners so you cannot outrace the encroaching bio mass throughout the level. Speaking of, Dark Base is all about using the afterburners to navigate its tight corridors. This could easily have been a generic action game. Instead Sega have created a game with soul.
Even though ESWAT has console sensibilities it still has that arcade difficulty. As cool as your armor is it is still bulky. The cheap hits are unavoidable and they start to pile up. There is a large difficulty spike at mission four that only grows as you progress. The game is stingy with weapon drops and even worse you lose the current one if you die. ESWAT almost seems designed around the special weapons as the default cannon is slow and weak. Once you die the death loop is almost as bad as a shooter. With limited continues you will not complete this one in a single sitting.
In Closing
ESWAT: City Under Siege is a creative twist on the arcade game and offers an even better action experience in my opinion. It takes the cool ideas and creates a much more satisfying game out of it. While not up to the level of the system’s action greats it makes for a great second course after you are done with those classics. ESWAT was among the second round of Genesis games that justified the console early on and holds up to this day.
