90's were probably best known as the golden period for side-scrolling beat 'em ups,
such as Golden Axe, Final Fight and, of course, the unofficial king of this genre,
Streets Of Rage (aka Bare Knuckle) series.
I don't remember playing much of this kind on MS-DOS, but I do remember playing
Cyberlaw, developed and published by a Spanish company Balance (aka Bal@nce)
in 1997. As in my other two reviews, I won't be able to tell anything
about the music, since this is a CDrip that I'm reviewing.
Cyberlaw has all the elements one beat 'em up should have. Easy controls, enjoyable
gameplay and lots of baddies to be beaten. You can choose between three characters,
without names, which, I think, is not such a big deal. One of them is female robot,
with more speed and less strenght, the other one is male robot, with more strenght
and less speed and the third one is human character (or humanoid cyborg?), and, as
you might already guess, he is the balanced one. There are 6 stages throuhout the
game, and all of them (except one) are separated in sub-stages. On some sub-stages
you're given the choice to select the route. So, depending on your choice, you can
finish the stage smoothly, or end up beating more baddies than you wanted.
Graphics are excellent - super VGA in all of its glory. The game is a very
successful combination of 2D and 3D graphics that resemble Rise of the Robots, but
with much smoother animation. Highly detailed characters and stages will make you
ask yourself: Is it possible that this is an MS-DOS game?
Sounds are well done, especially the screams of the characters when falling off
the elevator, which is the third stage.
There are adjustable options, like violence (blood) level, difficulty, speed and
so on. The options are partially in Spanish, but you'll manage to find your way
through. When you start the game, you can redifine controls for both players, so,
yes, there is a cooperative mode. Beside arcade mode for 1 or 2 players, you can
play survival mode and see how long can you endure against the hordes of enemies.
The only problem with Cyberlaw is difficulty, so I suggest playing the game on
easy - it's challanging enough. Oh, and the ending should've been better...
In the end, I'll say that Cyberlaw is a great mixture of Rise of the Robot visuals,
Streets of Rage gamplay and Mortal Kombat violence (that is, if you set blood to
maximum). Highly recommended!