Combat Instinct is a Adobe Flash Rail Shooter trilogy made by McFretN. They are some of the oldest Flash games out there, with the first
and second being uploaded to Newgrounds in 2000, and the third following in 2002.
The story has the player battle the Gnork race to defend humanity, in a series of battles that culminate with a nuclear bombing of their world. The aftermath crashes your own ship, but also draws the attention of a seemingly friendly race, the Hrumians, who provide assistance to your cause. However, this only lasts until the defeat of the Gnork, at which point the Hrumians turn their attention on you.
McFretN has also released CI:Unregulated, a spin-off animated short taking place in the same setting
Tropes present in the trilogy:
- Action Bomb: The fat Hrumian flamers can explode if you killed it by shooting its body instead of head. It's also the only way to acquire its flamethrower.
- Alien Blood: Averted with the Gnork who bleed red, but played straight with the Hrumians who have bluish-purple blood.
- All Your Base Are Belong to Us: In Stage 2 of 1, a Gnork escape pod enters your destroyer and you must gun down the Gnork from within. Stage 3 of 3 pits you against the Hrumians in Hivezopolis.
- Attack Its Weak Point: In 1, shoot the first destroyer's window 50 times to destroy it. At the end of the the Sniping Mission afterwards, shoot the second destroyer's pilot to one-shot the destroyer. Tear through 2's final boss' armor to expose his core. Destroy said core to weaken the boss enough for the Hrumians to land the final blow.
- Barrier Warrior: Ion Beasts in 1 start with a temporary shield.
- Berserk Button: Don't bomb the Hrumians' home planet. This is what causes them to turn on you after killing 2's final boss.
- Boom, Headshot!: Headshots do more damage than torso shots.
- Cognizant Limbs: The final bosses of 2 and 3 have them. Before you can damage a bomber in 1, destroy its turrets. In 2, you can shoot off the boss' wings, rocket boosters, armor, and finally its core. You can shoot off the limbs of 3's final boss, but you only need to destroy his head and torso.
- Combined Energy Attack: At the end of 2, the four Hrumians all hit the final boss with their Wave-Motion Guns at the same time, causing it to explode.
- Cue the Sun: The sun rises at the end of 3 after the final boss falls.
- Death from Above:
- In 2, The Gnork bomb planets Hivez and Dead Ball.
- in 3, The Hrumians use an orbital Ion Cannon to brute force their way into Hivezopolis
- The Airstrike Weapon in 3's Hivezopolis level calls in a friendly ship to bombard the area. Although this also includes you if you don't take cover.
- Both the Gnork and Hrumians have fighters to attack you from above.
- Defeat Equals Explosion: It's a given for enemy ships exploding upon defeat. In 2, shoot a grenadier's belt, speeder bike's wheel, or rocket launcher's scope and they also explode.
- Degraded Boss: The first Gnork destroyer serves as 1's Warm-Up Boss, the second is taken out in one hit by shooting its pilot, the third is just a normal enemy, and all the Gnork destroyers in 2 are taken out in the cutscene before the final boss fight.
- Distant Reaction Shot: The final boss of 2 dies in a huge explosion that can be seen from space. 1 ends with the nuclear reactor being bombed and crashing your fleet.
- Double Weapon: The combination Heavy Machine Gun and Rocket Launcher in 3. The cutscene shows that both can be used at more or less the same time
- Early-Installment Weirdness: 1 does not feature a shotgun, you pilot a destroyer in stage 1, you have a "hits taken" counter instead of a life bar, and the final boss is a quartet of (armed) force field generators instead of a massive entity.
- Elite Mooks: The aforementioned Ion Beasts, and the fat Hrumians in Stage 3 of 3. The latter wield flamethrowers and take far more damage than their kin.
- Fire-Breathing Weapon: The Fat Hrumian in Stage 3 of 3 are geared with two flamethrowers, which you can acquire it as secret weapon by looting it from the corpse and pressing "/".
- Flunky Boss: The final bosses of the first two games both have small ships fighting alongside them.
- Gatling Good: The red Gnork in 1 as well as the Hrumian Gunners in 3.
- Also available as a pickup in 2, and as another weapon option in 3.
- The one wielded by Hrumian Gunners can be acquired as secret weapon by holding "Enter" while looting it and then equip it by pressing "*".
- Green and Mean: While Gnork foot soldiers also come in other colors, their buildings, speeder bikes, and most of their ships are green. They're even referred to in-universe as "green freaks".
- Guns Akimbo: Stage 2 of 1 is the only on-foot level where you have two handguns.
- Hold the Line: In Stage 1 of 3, you have to survive for three minutes against the Hrumian ships.
- Karmic Death: The Gnork's leader, the final boss of 2, is softened up with the ship of his you stole, then the Hrumians, whose planet the Gnork bombed and conquered, finish him off.
- Kevlard: The fat Hrumians in 3 are the sturdiest non-boss enemies.
- Ludicrous Gibs: In 2, shooting a grenadier's grenade belt or rocket trooper's scope will blow them apart. You can also do this to Hrumians in 3 with the rocket launcher and plasma cannon.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Bombing the Gnork's planet detonates a nuclear reactor, crashing your ship and kicking off the events of 2. The Hrumians, original inhabitants of the aforementioned planet also uses this as an excuse to take over Hivez, resulting in the events of 3.
- No Fair Cheating: In the third game, if you use Flash's playback controls in an attempt to gain an advantage, "Nice try!" appears on the screen and your health will deplete rapidly.
- One-Winged Angel: Upon landing on Hivez, the Hrumians can no longer float and have to assume their combat forms. Their last survivor fuses with his kin's corpses to become the Final Boss.
- Plasma Cannon: A weapon pickup in Stage 3 of 3, although it shoots Frickin' Laser Beams instead.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: 2's Final Boss tries to escape through a warpgate after a laser beam destroys three destroyers, but the Hrumians destroy it while you shoot him down.
- Shoot the Bullet: Shoot at energy shots to stop them from hitting you in the first two games.
- Shotguns Are Just Better: Your go-to weapon in 2 and 3.
- Shows Damage: In 1, shooting bombers and the shield generators serving as the final boss blows holes in them, and machine gunners and Ion Beasts have dots on their heads that change color depending on how many hit points they have left. In 2, you can shoot aliens in the gut to make them bleed and both the armored aliens and the final boss have Body Armor as Hit Points. In 3, you can shoot holes in aliens.
- Sniping Mission: Stage 2 in both 1 and 2 have you clearing out enemy snipers from a destroyer and spaceport respectively. In the former, you also shoot the destroyer's pilot, causing it to crash and burn.
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Spiritual Successor: Project X: The First Strike. The alien foot soldiers are an Expy of the Gnork (which also bleed red), defeated mechanical enemies explode, and bosses both have weak points and weapons to shoot to stop them from hitting you. - Stock Sound Effects: HECU grunts from the Half-Life series are heard in cutscenes. "LET'S! KICK! SOME! ASS!"
- Take Cover!: You can hit the dirt in 2 and 3 to avoid enemy fire. This will not dissuade melee enemies, who will simply drag you out of cover and then wail on you.
- Taking You with Me: After being decapitated and/or completely disarmed, the final boss of 3 starts to self-destruct for an instant kill. The fat Hrumians also occasionally explode upon defeat, which hurts you too.
- Tank Goodness: You fight 3's final boss in a tank empowered with weapons stolen from the Hrumians.
- Timed Mission: In Stage 1 from 2, you've been exposed to radiation and must reach one of your fleet's damaged destroyers to be decontaminated.
- Time-Limit Boss: 2's final boss is the only one fought with a time limit. Destroying the boss' rocket boosters grants you bonus time.
- Turns Red: 2's final boss pulls out ion cannons after its armor is destroyed.
- Ungrateful Bastard: After helping you defeat the Gnork, the Hrumians become the main antagonists of 3.
- Walking Spoiler: The Hrumians, introduced in the cutscene preceding Stage 2 of 2, were the original rulers of the Gnork's home planet until the Gnork arrived and turned it into Planet Dead Ball. After you defeat 2's final boss, four Hrumian ion beamers blow up his warpgate and then land the final blow on him. Your bombing of Planet Dead Ball in 1 and detonating its nuclear reactor serves as the Hrumians' excuse to attack Hivez in 3 after the Gnork are destroyed. In 3, they assume combat forms upon reaching Hivez and their last survivor fuses with all their corpses to become the final final boss.
- Wave-Motion Gun: The Gnork and Hrumians both have ion beamers. For the former, you shoot them to stop them from hitting you. The latter can one-shot both Gnork and Hivez destroyers, and you have to get out of the way.
- You Will Not Evade Me: Lampshaded in Stage 2 of 3:Warning: Aliens with melee weapons can drag you out of your hiding place and attack you afterwards. It's advised that you should take out all melee enemies before hitting the dirt.
