- "Something moves. I shoot it 'till it don't move no more. Repeat as necessary."Marshall John "Dutch" Caine
BlowOut is a 2003 action game made by Terminal Reality and Majesco Entertainment with Metroidvania elements, and running on a side-scrolling Run-and-Gun view. It's made available for the PlayStation 2, Nintendo GameCube and Xbox.
In a space outpost called the Honor Guard, communications with it's staff and crew are unexpectedly severed. The player assumes the role of an Elite Space Marine Marshall, John "Dutch" Cane, sent to infiltrate the Honor Guard, only to discover an infestation from an alien insectoid species have occured with everyone in the station massacred. Stranded in the station, John Caine must locate the reactor, trigger the self-destruct mechanism to blow up the whole place in order to contain the outbreak, and escape.
The game contains ten levels in a non-linear fashion, mostly capping with an epic boss fight.
Not to be confused with the movie.
BlowOut contain examples of:
- Airborne Mook: Flying mutants will occasionally appear and swoop down to attack Caine from above.
- Blood Knight: John Caine, who loves killing a bit too much.
- Breath Weapon: Most of the bosses and certain mutant bug enemies have ranged attacks by breathing energy balls, acidic puke or streams of flames from their mouths.
- Bug War: The mutant enemies Caine spends the entire game shooting at resembles oversized insects and arachnids.
- Fire-Breathing Weapon: The flamethrower is one of the earlier weapons Caine can collect to incinerate mutant bugs. It works well enough on regular-sized enemies, but be warned that bugs requiring multiple hits to kill will attempt an Infernal Retaliation and attack Cain while set alight.
- Giant Mook: In the later levels, the game throws increasingly enormous mutant abominations as enemies Caine have to take down, many of them large enough to occupy an entire section of the corridors they're fought in and towering over Caine, besides requiring even more hits to destroy.
- Grenade Launcher: Another weapon Caine can collect in the mutant hive. The grenade launcher may be slower than his default firearms, but it's really handy for taking down large groups of enemies at once thanks to Splash Damage or for shooting enemies beneath Caine when he's trying to get down a ledge or shaft.
- Jet Pack: Cain have a jetpack as his default equipment, though he needs to conserve fuel and use it sparingly, saving the pack for reaching higher ledges, moving through shafts without ladders, or fleeing from mutant monsters.
- Level-Map Display: There's a heads-up map displayed on the upper right side of the screen, which directs Caine on where next to advance during gameplay.
- Name of Cain: The game's protagonist, John "Dutch" Caine, a Space Marine with a morally-grey Mysterious Past and an Anti-Hero as well as a ruthless murder machine.
- One-Man Army: The game allows for only one player, but that's alright since the player protagonist, Caine is more than capable of slaughtering his way through hordes and hordes of alien bugs single-handedly.
- Sean Connery Is About to Shoot You: Caine is. Via Grenade Launcher.
- Self-Destruct Mechanism: One is triggered at the end of the game, after Caine defeats the final mutant abomination, in an attempt to contain the outbreak by setting the outpost to self-destruct. Caine needs to find a way to an evac ship before the timer runs out, or it's a Kaizo Trap that kills him seconds from the end credits.
- Shotguns Are Just Better: The shotgun is one of Caine's better weapons capable of firing a massive bullet spread, and very useful against enemy swarms.
- Shooting the Swarm: Several areas - mostly the dimly-lit corridors - contain entire swarms of oversized flying bugs, which needs to be shot at to pass. Though a single well-aimed grenade round should do the trick and clean up an area.
- Step into the Blinding Fight: Owing to a severe blackout in the space station, most of the lights have been deactivated, with multiple shootouts taking place in darkness or semi-darkness, with Caine's Muzzle Flashlight being his sole source of illumination.
- Wave-Motion Gun: The last, and most powerful weapon Caine can obtain, firing a thick, straight, wavy stream of energy capable of hitting multiple enemies in a straight line.
- Zerg Rush: The later levels will generate corridors alive and crawling with mutant monsters that makes a beeline for Caine as soon as he steps in.
