Sensory Overload (video game)

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Sensory Overload
SensoryOverload cover.png
Developer(s) Reality Bytes
Publisher(s) Reality Bytes
Designer(s) Jon Chiat
David Chiat
Jason Davis
Platform(s) Macintosh
ReleaseAugust 1994
Genre(s) First-person shooter
Mode(s) Single-player

Sensory Overload is a first-person shooter video game developed and published by Reality Bytes for the Macintosh.

Contents

Gameplay

Sensory Overload is a game in which the player is a CIA agent who pretends to be a test subject to investigate a facility for medical research. [1]

Development and release

Sensory Overload was developed as the first game from Cambridge, Massachusetts-based studio Reality Bytes. It was co-designed by Jon Chiat, David Chiat, and Jason Davis. [2] The game was released exclusively for Macintosh in August 1994. [3] Reality Bytes would go on to create the polygon-based first-person shooters Havoc and Dark Vengeance .

Reception

Next Generation reviewed the game, rating it three stars out of five, and called it "definitely worth checking out." [1] Peter Olafson of Electronic Entertainment summarized it as an "adequate action-adventure" not quite up to the level of Bungie's Marathon . He enjoyed its clever gadgets but felt they were underutilized and that the game was "slow and mechanical even on a Quadra" despite some acceleration for the Power Mac. [6] Dave Rees of Gamers' Republic noted Sensory Overload as the first FPS to push the Mac's 32-bit hardware with a "representational style was far more advanced than anything previously seen" but that its "understated marketing" caused it to fall victim to the "superior effort" Marathon from Bungie. [7]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Next Generation staff (July 1995). "Finals". Next Generation . No. 7. Imagine Media. p. 75. ISSN   1078-9693.
  2. 1 2 Breen, Christopher (October 1994). "Review: A Wolf In Mac Clothing". Computer Gaming World . No. 123. Ziff Davis. pp. 100, 103, 105. ISSN   0744-6667.
  3. Dimension-3 staff (December 1995). "Next Dimension Previews: Havoc". Dimension-3. Vol. 1, no. 7. Dimension Publishing. p. 76.{{cite magazine}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  4. "CGR Reviews: There are no expendable CIA agents...HA!". Computer Game Review . Vol. 4, no. 3. Sendai Publishing. October 1994. p. 40. ISSN   1062-113X.
  5. Triulzi, Massimo (November 1994). "Sensory Overload". K (in Italian). No. 66. RCS MediaGroup. pp. 64–5. ISSN   1122-1313.
  6. Olafson, Peter (December 1994). "Doom Killers: Meet MacDoom". Electronic Entertainment . Vol. 1, no. 12. IDG. p. 61. ISSN   1074-1356.
  7. Rees, Dave (December 1998). "Dark Vengeance". Gamers' Republic . No. 7. Millennium Publishing. p. 69. ISSN   1520-5169.