ESWAT: City Under Siege
System: Genesis
Release Date: October 1990
Developer: Sega R&D2
Publisher: Sega
Genre: Action
Terrorists are back once again making a mess of things in ESWAT: City Under Siege! In its never ending fight against crime, the most skilled soldiers of ESWAT are chosen to don the Ice Combat suits. You are one of these soldiers, advancing from your job as beat cop to shut down crime. The evil E.Y.E. terrorist group seeks to neutralize your suits and take over the world. But they won’t succeed if you can make it through 8 levels with guns ablazin!
You begin the game without one of those sweet combat suits and must blast away at the bad guys on the streets. By default, jump with Button C. Higher if you hold up while jumping. Button B is your trigger. You’ll get used to pulling it constantly. After the second level, you get access to the Ice Combat suit. You’re granted extra life and the ability to collect extra weapons. You switch among them by pressing Button A. They all have their usefulness, but be careful not to die with one equipped, or you’ll lose it!
The Super Shot is a more powerful version of the normal shot, and will rapid fire if you hold the trigger down. The Rocket Launcher shoots rockets forward and down, locking on to bad guys that get too close. The Plasma Caster can be fired rapidly with weak shots, but if you let it power up for a second, it shoots out a proper hadouken, blasting through enemies. The Fire is a one shot item that clears the screen, at the cost of your Burner meter.
Another powerup you get when you unlock the armor is the use of the jet pack. By holding Button C, you can hover in the air. You can do this indefinitely, but if you start moving around, it costs your Burner meter. This regenerates fairly slowly, but is invaluable, especially in Level 5 where you have to properly manage your movements to get to the end. It took me most of my playthrough to be comfortable with navigating using the jet pack.
Bosses at the end of each level are exactly what I expected. You take a shot at them once and if you don’t defeat them, you learn their pattern. The only time this wasn’t true for me was the boss of level three, it took me several lives to figure out how to hit him with the rocket launcher. (16:30) You need to make smart use of the jet pack to defeat most of the bosses. The final boss comes at you with an Ice Combat suit of his own and you have to do your best to take him out. Watch out for his fire!
Graphics: 3.0
I really like the sprite work. Everything is pretty clean and looks well animated.
Sound: 2.5
The music sounds Genesis good. Sound effects aren’t bad, though I can see some getting on your nerves.
Gameplay: 2.5
The weapons all have their uses, but moving precisely with the jet pack feels a bit clunky.
Difficulty: 3.0
The sewer level will test your patience, but otherwise I found the game pretty fair.
Fun Factor: 2.5
While this isn’t my favorite game by any means, it was a decent time and I certainly didn’t hate it.
Overall Rating: 2.7
ESWAT: City Under Siege earns a B-. This actually turned out better than I expected. Taking some time to marinate on how I felt was beneficial for the game.