Fade to Black (MS-DOS) - Guest Post

This week on Super Adventures, habitual guest poster mecha-neko has returned with another game for you. It's Fade to Black, the sequel to classic cinematic platformer Flashback from three years earlier (F2B... FB2, I see what they did there).

This year I've been playing games that have showed up in someone's top ten rankings and Fade to Black fits nicely with that as it was one of PC Zone's top ten PC action games in their August 1997 issue. In fact it was listed along with games like TIE Fighter, Quake and Tomb Raider, so it seems like it's going to be something really special!

Developer:

Delphine Studios International

|

Release Date:

31st August 1995

|

Systems:

MS-DOS, PlayStation, Dreamcast

---

Hello there! This is Fade to Black, the sequel to Flashback: The Quest For Identity, following the continuing adventures of 90s rotoscoped polygon space hero Conrad B. Hart.

This has been on my agenda for a million years, but when I got out the DOS computer for Halloween Harry, I knew it was time for some space adventuring.

Be warned that this game continues on from the ending of Flashback so there will be SPOILERS for the ending of Flashback. Also, if you find the violent deaths of 3D prerendered men disturbing, this is not the post for you.

---

A while back, I noticed this Electronic Arts Studios logo on Psychic Detective too. I suppose Electronic Arts likes to have an episode of madness every decade where it throws a bunch of money into new game series like Psychic Detective and Dead Space, and new technologies and gameplay styles like Mirror's Edge and Fade to Black, and then gets bored of them and goes back to bed to become regular old No Originals Only Sports EA for the rest of the decade.

"That's me in there. Conrad Hart. Or maybe it would be more appropriate to say that's my -body-, lying in the tiny shuttle. Deep in cryogenic sleep for fifty years. I've been drifting around the cosmos, alone."

In Flashback, Conrad fought his way back through jungle planets and deadly game shows to Earth to confront the Morph menace - a race of shapeshifting aliens with designs on taking over the world. He accidentally stumbled on a teleporter that took him directly to the Morph planet, where he found a bomb and chucked it down a hole and blew the entire thing up. The game ends with Conrad lost in some distant part of the universe, alone.

"But however infinite the universe may be in -size-, you cannot be alone forever."

Conrad was never very good at astronomy.

"Something eventually found me. They saw my shuttle and beamed me aboard. The cryogenic cycle that had kept me in a deep sleep was suddenly interrupted. I came to, and opened my eyes, only to realise that to my horror I was back in the clutches of my worst enemy: the Morphs."

Uh oh!

"And it didn't take them very long to decide my fate."

MOON. YEAR 2190.
PENITENTIARY NEW-ALCATRAZ

Hey, they brought him back to Earth's solar system! That's very kind of them. They could've let him drift in space for eternity or just fired him into the sun or something.

They even gave him back his signature jacket and sneakers! He's just not Conrad B. Hart without 'em. He woke up in his underwear, so the Morphs must have let him get dressed before they start the torture.

Flashback (Sega CD)
All things considered, he got let off pretty lightly considering he destroyed their entire planet.

They've let Conrad watch some TV to pass the time.

"Hey HUMAN. Welcome to the lunar penitentiary 'New Alcatraz'. Easy to get in, impossible to escape. If you dare..."

Hey, watch out for that gun...!

Oops. Too late.

"The lizard was mistaken. We can escape in a cargo vessel."

Man, that's good to know. I was starting to get worried.

"I'm John O'Connor."

Wait, you're who?

"I was gonna take you with me when I escaped but you were out cold."

"By the way I left you a few items of interest. You better grab your gear and move out. Maintain radio silence and I'll contact you at the appropriate time."

Argh! Don't shoot me! Or the screen! Stop shooting stuff, John! Your model isn't up to be being lit up like that! I mean, look at your legs!

Say hello to the next generation of rotoscoped Conrads. He's 3D now!

Fade to Black is a third-person action-adventure shooter. No longer constrained to a labyrinth of ledges, the camera freely follows our hero as he endeavours to regain his freedom and destroy the Morphs for good! Again.

The first task is to steer him towards that striped container and retrieve its contents. It takes a while.

"Prisoner six has escaped. Alert security drones!"

The shooting is surprisingly like Flashback. There's a button to draw your gun, which moves the camera to behind Conrad's head, like so. I'm playing with full keyboard control, so I aim with the cursor keys until I lock on, then I let rip.

Unlike, say, Leon S. Kennedy, our hero's fancy sci-fi super gun doesn't come with a laser sight, so you're shooting blind. When you sweep Conrad's attention over a hostile, he'll lock on to it, if you're lucky.

Don't forget to reload your gun after each encounter! Much like in Mass Effect 1 and 2, gun technology has taken a step backwards in the fifty years Conrad's been in stasis - guns need to be manually reloaded now.

Now we're out of the cell (the door was unlocked, yay!), I can show you the normal camera viewpoint of Fade to Black. If you've played Flashback, Conrad's controls will be very familiar to you. If you haven't, then this game will drive you absolutely bonkers.

Flashback (Mega Drive) manual, click to enlarge
Here's a couple of pages from Flashback's manual. Conrad has never been very good at doing more than one action at a time. He can run, leap, mantle, duck and shoot, but only ever one at once. Flashback felt turn-based to me in the way that Conrad has to complete his current action before starting the next. Fade to Black stays very close to this style.

If you're familiar with an extra greasy game like, say, the Earth Defense Force series or MDK, where you can freely shuffle about and jump and shoot in multiple directions, Fade to Black is the opposite of that. Conrad's default movement in this game is a run and he's got a huge turning circle - this isn't tank controls, this is truck controls.

So what am I supposed to be doing anyway?

John's left me a discreet communications device that's as big as a loaf of bread and needs two hands to operate. Thanks, John.

He might have misjudged the whole 'without being detected' part of the plan though, given all these killer robots and sirens and things.

The first puzzle of the game is in the next room. When Conrad steps on symbols on the floor, the laser grid on the opposite side of the room turns off, which is supposed to let a robot in.

Observe these wonderful preset cinematic camera angles!

Ow. Conrad gets a nasty zap to tell me to stop pissing about making .gifs.

I've got to zip Conrad past the robot and get in place so the robot can turn the lasers on the other side off for me.

How exactly you're supposed to run past this deadly little missile platform without it blasting a hole in Conrad's nuts I don't know.

Heck. Misjudged that.

Roll up a new Conrad.

Ow!

In the next room, the yellow security camera thing saw me before I could draw my gun, and lowered down that annoying turret on the left, and while I was trying to shoot that a lizard appeared out of nowhere and started blasting as well!

To say that the controls don't make this easy would be an understatement. Even in Flashback, Conrad was never this lumpy. I feel like I have to slam my hand on the keyboard just to get Conrad to draw his weapon or turn or shoot or reload.

The little gasp of pain Conrad makes really sells it.

I'm going to be seeing a lot of these animations, aren't I?

I defeated the camera before the turret became activated this time, which made things a lot easier. I wonder why the Morphs made their transportation lifts so... I dunno... jaunty? And how does Conrad not end up landing on his head on the other side?

This new corridor looks identical to the previous one, except I have a choice of entering the Cafeteria or Medical Facility, marked by big red signs on the walls.

Conrad's enthusiastic jog has gotten me into trouble once again!

Getting him to stop running, draw and fire is a tricky operation; it feels like I'm driving a forklift truck with tons of complicated levers that need to be pulled in the correct order to work.

Here's the Cafeteria. Look, food...-shaped rectangles!

Fade to Black looks very abstract - it wouldn't be accurate to say it looks like Flashback, since Flashback had beautifully drawn scenery. Fade to Black looks like the cutscenes of Flashback - but only the non-Sega-CD ones, since the Sega CD version of Flashback has detailed 3D pre-rendered cutscenes that look like the ones in this game!

In the right hand cabinet there's bouncing mine I can use. Since I haven't gotten used to the keys yet, Conrad learns an important lesson about the accidental use of bouncing explosives in enclosed spaces.

Hoohoo yeah!

Now that is some thorough discombobulation.

The best thing about shattering a Morph is the sound it makes - a squealing, roaring, fluid sound that sounds like somebody trying to flush an Aliens alien down the toilet. A close second best thing is how it looks like a Heaven Smile dying in killer7.

I didn't like how even though I got the drop on him even with Conrad's huge, dramatic wind-up, the lizard still managed to get off a shotgun blast. That wasn't fun.

"Don't shoot, I'm just a cook!"

I've found a civilian! He says it's safe in that pantry there.

"Hahahaha! You idiot! You really thought you'd get away that easy?"

It was not safe in that pantry there.

Important safety tip, then: Conrad can't melee, and touching any enemy results in immediate slime death.

MEANWHILE

I'd saved just before meeting the cook, so all is well. This thing is an infinite-use shield recharger - that meter in the bottom left is my shield power. When it's empty, Conrad's as durable as a man in a bomber jacket.

Right, first things first:

That, my friend, is what you get.

With the cook dead, I can't get into the pantry, so this entire wing of the floor was pointless. I'm going into the Medical Facility instead.

"Secure all exits!"

There's a very deadly looking medical spider and some medical explosive barrels here.

MEDIC!

So what was all that fuss about anyway? Inside the locker behind the spider was a 'Hint 1' telling me to use explosives on forcefields, and this thing: an 'Info scanner'.

Conrad's got five gizmo slots in the lower left of the screen: two DEVs, holding my MAP and my SHIELD; two WEPs, holding my MINE and my NORMAL bullets; and my USE, holding my WATCH which I assume I use to TELL the TIME.

The 'Info scanner' replaces the MAP and lets me see the remaining hit-points of the currently locked-on enemy. It also constantly drains your shield power while equipped, regardless of whether you're facing an enemy.

Nope.

You might be wondering if you can make combat more fun by using the mouse controls instead.

Well, here they are. Enabling the mouse throws up a Dungeon Master-style palette of icons for you to click on to direct Conrad. Holding a mouse button lets you drag around Conrad's aim. In this mode, the mouse cursor turns into a crosshair, but Conrad doesn't aim at it?!

Oof.

Yep, they definitely got me.

Well that room's a bust. Every time I try to defeat both the lizards, more lizards appear! There's no alarm I need to shut off or anything, there's just infinite lizards in that one room. Dammit.

You don't need the map device equipped to use the map, you just press 'M'. Makes you wonder if they'd thought the inventory through at all.

I went back to the cafeteria where I exploded the cook and found a switch which opened the 'Cafeteria Passageway', which totally sounds like a track from Micro Machines.

Conrad's woken up in a cruel, hostile world devoid of eight foot high ledges to jump onto. He never learned to deal with knee-high obstacles, so the only way past is to try a little hoppity-skip over the electrified floor.

Running jumps never were Conrad's speciality.

Flashback (Amiga)
The urban legend goes that the running jump you need to execute at the beginning of Level 2 of Flashback was a deliberate piece of copy protection requiring an obscure manoeuvre only listed in the manual. I can't say for sure, but it made me laugh to find a comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action post chain on Usenet (Google Groups link) that's been active from 1994 to the present with people trying to help each other get past that one specific jump.

Conrad can't do running jumps in Fade to Black so you've got to defeat these electrified floor tiles from a standing posture. He's also forgotten how to roll during combat, and no longer does that dramatic running skid any more, which is a shame. The few moves he has kept, like running and throwing, resemble those of his 2D counterpart a lot.

Time to reload.

I love Fade to Black's fancy-pants 3D menu. Screenshots for savegames was also cool in Rise of the Triad and Duke Nukem 3D, but back in 1995, this was it. It helped that, unlike the game itself, I could get somewhere in Fade to Black's menu.

It would help if the controls were completely different. What if...

PlayStation
... I could use one-a' these!

Fade to Black wasn't a launch title for the PlayStation 1 but it was pretty close. That means there's no analogue controls, so by and large the game is likely to feel pretty similar. Let's see how it looks!

PS1 MS-DOS VGA MS-DOS SVGA

Click the buttons to toggle!
The PS1 version has embraced realism, or embraced dithering at least, and gone for a moodier palette. Conrad himself has textures and everything has gone a little murkier. It's closer to the rendered cutscenes than the PC's flat Flashback style.

The PC's SVGA mode makes the game feel completely different, all clean and linear and flat. You'd need a Pentium 200, or preferably something much juicier, to have a nice SVGA experience, and those came out a few years after Fade to Black and cost seven zillion dollars.

I had to use a walkthrough to get past the room with the respawning lizards in in the end.

When you enter that room, there's a darker coloured section of wall which you won't notice since you're busy running forwards. If you stop Conrad right in front of this wall and you've pressed a switch from earlier, it opens up into an underground passageway.

PlayStation
The PlayStation version runs slicker and feels better. It makes the PC version look like a work-in-progress by comparison. Conrad's so manoeuvrable, I can fit through doorways first time!

The objective of this little underground room is to destroy the bulging pipes lining the corridor by shooting the barrels with the yellow stripes on. This stops the flow of Morph-goop to the room above, which means no more infinite lizards!

PlayStation
The biggest flaw in the PlayStation version by far is the loading times. Every time you die, you have to sit through a loading screen, which dumps you back in the cell from the start of the game. You need to reload your save in the menu from there and sit through another loading screen before you can resume the game.

And why does it have a figurine of John O'Connor here anyway?

'Hey, here's a picture of the actual hero of the game. A guy who's already escaped and knows what's going on and didn't just run head-first into a laser wall. Be like him!'

It's easy to forget that these special camera angles aren't cutscenes. I'm reluctant to move Conrad off the pad because he's in the right place to shoot the barrel to blow up the lasers blocking the door. But then! A bad guy appears!

Given that shooting a Morph only counts when they're fully formed, can you guess who won this particular encounter?

I'll give you a clue, it wasn't the guy in the jacket.

I made it through the door on my next life, after doing it all again. What a bother.

The threat indicator looks like it's pointing to the body on the table but it's actually a Morph hiding behind some crates behind the wire fence to the right.

Hey, this is a medical room, which means I've might have finally found the Medikit containing the smuggled radar scrambler John wanted.

Hurrah! Feels like hours since I got that message from John, but here it is!

Don't forget to search both the lockers - they're behind Conrad in the above screenshot. You could run right past them if you didn't know.

Alright, no shields left after that mess, but the map says I've made a circuit and I've ended up right next to the shield recharge machine again. Let's go!

Aw, come on! Just let me use the thing will you?

I'm so relieved to finally see some different scenery!

Take a look at my health. That was after fighting one enemy.

The level designers realised that players would want to make a trip to the shield recharger after every encounter and decided to lock the door behind me as I entered this new room. You can save at any time on both the PS1 and PC versions, but you'll rarely leave an encounter with enough health to even want to save.

Dead.

ONE RESTART LATER

Sci-fi cryosleep beds 'n' such! Fade to Black is chock-full of chunky 3D models to set its rooms apart, but you'll never see any of them, because you'll be dead, dead, dead.

ONE RESTART LATER

By the time you've seem something, it's already way too late.

Dead.

I'm through with this. I didn't get past level one. I didn't even get past the sixth room. That's fine. I can live with that.


CONCLUSION

---

Fade to Black is Flashback in 3D. If that's what you want, that's what you get.

Actually, no, it's not. Flashback is an excellent, distinct game. It's Prince of Persia with guns and graphics and no time limit, and Another World except not written by a bastard*. It looks amazing and is clever and slick and fun through and through.

(* I'm sure M. Chahi is a lovely gent, but he doesn't half put poor innocent Lester through hell.)

Fade to Black loses way too many of the cool things that Flashback had, and what's left is slow, strange and ungainly.

You can't roll like Conrad ought to, and the only way to defend yourself is to crouch behind cover, and you can see in my screenshots how infrequently I find any cover. In Flashback, if you weren't expecting an enemy, you'd be commando rolling, clambering up ledges and pistol whipping your way out of trouble in a mad cartoonish spree of 'realistic' action hero wackiness - one which would more often than not end in failure, but you'd look like a bad-ass for trying. In Fade to Black, your options are die instantly, or die trying to draw your gun. It doesn't even have head-shots so there's no reason for the game to not use lock-on exclusively instead of free aiming.

Had Conrad been a little bit more manoeuvrable and cunning instead of a lumbering robotic buffoon, Fade to Black would've stood for all time as a genre-defining classic beside Super Mario 64, and it would've pre-empted Metal Gear Solid by years. It's got exploration, combat, voiced cutscenes, lots of grey locked doors, everything. We'd have skipped the "MSX game but 'Solid'" era of MGS1 and MGS2 and gone right to the present day where MGS has fully transformed into Splinter Cell. That said, MGS1 and MGS2 were the good ones, so I should be thankful.

I love Conrad B. Hart, and I would have loved to have been able to recommend Fade to Black, but it's just way more effort than it's worth. The game might have been a laugh to chip through half an hour at a time of an evening here and there had it not been for the unresponsive controls on the PC version and the stupid double-decker loading screens on the PS1. If you somehow managed to speed that up with magic, the PS1 version still loses the particle effects and heavily compresses the cutscenes and death scenes, as well as not including the cool save game carousel. There's really no way to win.

I salute Delphine's moxy, but suggest that if you want to play the version of Fade to Black that's in your head, play the PS2 port of Operation: WinBack instead. Or, if you want to play something slightly newer with awesome music that takes Metal Gear Solid concepts and stodgifies them back into being Fade to Black again, play the PS2 version of Headhunter.

What? You still want to play Fade to Black after all that? Well, it was re-released on the PlayStation store for PS3 and PSP on January 31st 2008 but it looks like it's been delisted. The game clearly has its superfans though, because...

2018 Dreamcast release cover (click to enlarge)
Mysterious new-retro publisher PixelHeart licensed Fade to Black in 2018 and got it ported to the Dreamcast of all things, as a proper new boxed release with this awesome fantastic new cover art! (Which is the sole reason I'm mentioning it.)

I don't own this version, but from videos and screenshots it looks a lot like the PS1 version. It might be in a higher resolution perhaps, and the cutscenes are PC-quality. The only downsides are that it's Fade to Black and you have to use a Dreamcast pad to play it.

It's a limited run of one hundred (external link, not affiliated or endorsed by Super Adventures in any way) so you'd better get in quick. At the time of writing they'd only sold two dozen, so you still have a chance to complete your Dreamcast third-person shooter collection!

---

Thanks for reading all of mecha-neko's words. I've been told that he appreciates it and I don't see any reason to doubt this information.

If you've got anything you want to say about Fade to Black, or if you want to guess what the next game's going to be, you should leave a comment below. Share your words with the internet.