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3DNow!™ Incoming Review

Developer/Publisher Rage Software	Est. Street Price $44.99 (US)
Minimum System Requirements 133 MHz Pentium class computer 16MB of RAM 4MB 3D accelerator	Recommended System Requirements P2 or K6-2 266MHz or higher 32MB of RAM 4MB 3D accelerator

Graphics & Animation

For awhile now, Rage Software's Incoming has been the Direct3D champ of sensational graphics. From the wide palette selected to render with, Incoming dazzles you with just about every color in the spectrum. Ground terrain uses earthly textures that seem to be only slightly saturated, giving the landscape an almost surreal feeling. Air and ground vehicles all use similar metallic gray skins, which seem a little dull at first glance. However, once the battles begin you are blown back in awe as neon-colored laser blasts fire out of enemy cannons, bombers fall down in roaring flames, and rippled explosions burst out of wounded alien aircraft in a radial devastating blow. Incoming's animations are very well done also. Planes and Tanks exploded into pieces falling to the ground leaving a smoky trails, while alien bombers dip only slightly after being hit by a fatal blast, and are soon plummeting down to the ground in a fiery ball. Incoming's graphics and animations certainly heighten the excitement further immersing you into the game.

Sound & Music

Aside from Incoming's amazing graphics, it has an unbelievable techno score. With its' euro-dance style one finds it to be one of the most enjoyable set of music tracks ever to be found in an action game. The music certainly keeps up with the high-paced action and even accents the gameplay. The sound effects in Incoming are very well done. Since there are a variety of vehicles in the game, Rage had to come up with a lot of unique sounds for each weapon. Each sound was appropiately composed for every turret, tank, plane, and helicopter. While explosion effects are well done, they are not much louder than weapon fire. In fact even though all of the sound effects are good, they are easily drowned out by the CD music. This causes them to loose that powerful kick that makes one feel they truly are a force to be reckoned with. Still, Incoming's sounds are more than adequate and don't greatly bring the gaming experience down.

Gameplay & Immersion

Incoming offers the greatest variety of play modes ever seen in an action game! The arcade mode is not unlike combining your favorite Super Nintendo side-scrolling shooter with 3D graphics. After selecting your preferred vehicle of mass destruction, you are sent out into battle. Instead of having your secondary weapons given to you, you must find the power-ups that are scattered about each stage. However, arcade mode gets old fast as after shooting down a couple hundred enemies you wonder, "What is the point?" Campaign mode is probably the best mode of play. Here you are given missions which are divided into phases. Each phase has its' own unique set of tasks you need to complete and assigns you a different vehicle for every one. Campaign Tactics mode goes even further at making Incoming more interesting by adding real-time stragety. In this mode, some phases will bump you into an overhead view. Basically, there are only a couple things that can be done, either make troops move or attack. I shouldn't have to point out that the real-time strategy component in Incoming is nowhere near the sophistication nor as compelling as games like StarCraft. Additionally, being dumped into a strategy scene feels more like an annoyance than a well done break up of the action. If diehard action is what you crave, then certainly Incoming offers just the right mode for you.

3DNow!™ Support

Incoming's support for the 3DNow!™ instruction set is fairly good. Although the optimizations for 3DNow!™ don't quite bring up K6-2 systems up to the same framerate as the equivalent Pentium2, they do make an improvement. OEM versions of Incoming do not feature the 3DNow!™ acceleration, and as a result benchmark scores are around 45fps with a Voodoo2 in 640x480 resolution. However, the retail version does have the enhancement and bumps up the framerate almost by 10fps! Since, there is no way to disable the 3DNow!™ acceleration in Incoming, the scores below are all with 3DNow!™ enabled: Incoming Benchmarks w/ 3DNow!™ Rendition V2100 4MB 41.38 fps 30.05 fps     3Dfx Voodoo2 12MB 54.03 fps 50.77 fps     640x480     800x600 Notice - Benchmarks were performed with the retail version of Incoming. Game settings were at default video options and included A3D sound and CD music. Testing was done with DirectX 6.0. Click here to read the specifications of the test system.

Overall

Incoming is definitely the best arcade action shooter to come along in awhile. The Direct3D graphics are stupendous, while the music and sound effects bring the game to vibrant life. While 3DNow! support doesn't bring up Incoming's framerate past Pentium2 scores, it certainly makes a significant difference in the game's performance. All in all, if you are looking for a great shooter with lots of variety, then Incoming is sure to please.