Expert is a 1996 Japanese FPS by Nichibutsu made for the PlayStation, and notably one of the few in its generation.
A group of unnamed terrorists from an unidentified international syndicate have taken over the Intelligent Building, a high-tech research lab, in Tokyo. An Expert team of Counter-Terrorist agents are deployed by the JSDF to neutralize the terrorist threat and secure the building.
Given the lack of a plot, international translations, and mediocre reviews when the game first came out, Expert was pretty much forgotten after its release. Gamers from the '90s (in certain countries at least, it's not really widely distributed given it's available only in Japanese) would likely recall it as "that game advertised as Counter-Strike Ver. Expert", possibly in an attempt by bootleggers to trick games into believing they're buying a port or sequel of the then-new Counter-Strike.
Expert contains examples of:
- The Ahnold: Interestingly enough, this game has a villainous example with the terrorist leader, a huge brute in military fatigues looking like Arnie from the first Predator.
- Air-Vent Passageway: You use these to travel around in several levels as a shortcut between rooms, though they're unusually short and just a straight line compared to similar games.
- Close-Range Combatant: There are terrorists who uses knives and daggers exclusively, despite their colleagues having firearms and grenades. Including an enemy type clad in full-body spy costume and Dual Wielding knives who run circles around you while slashing away.
- Covers Always Lie: For the bootleg widely circulated around 2000 outside of Japan, this game is sold as "Counter-Strike: Ver. Expert"... and even straight-up pilfers the cover art for Counter-Strike! Both games shares zilch similarities save for "FPS where you shoot terrorists".
- "Die Hard" on an X: The entire game is set in a Tokyo research lab called the Intelligent Building (???) after a takeover from terrorists. And you're somehow the only member who made it in, so it's up to you to take them all down.
- Gatling Good: Used by the terrorist leader to fill the entire boss area with bullets. When he spins around in circles, get ready to find an alcove or safe hiding spot, or suffer some inevitable damage. Luckily most of these areas contains health pickups.
- Giant Mook: The overweight terrorists armed with grenade launchers whom are several times larger than regular mooks and even your character. They're immobile, but getting hit by their grenades at point-blank is a guaranteed One-Hit Kill for you, and their Kevlard allows them to tank plenty of hits before collapsing.
- Gratuitous English: Despite the game being entirely in Japanese, sometimes your character will let out an audible "Damn!" when suffering damage.
- Hollywood Silencer: One of the later equipment you can get, which turns your pistol's shots into a soft fart. You can snipe enemies from behind without their colleagues in an adjacent room noticing.
- Night-Vision Goggles: You put these on in two levels, when the power gets cut and the whole floor is plunged into darkness. For the entirety of these stages the screen is filtered in green (stage 3) or yellow (stage 10), though enemies can still spot you clearly enough to score a hit.
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Nintendo Hard: Where to start? The fact that losing a life requires you to restart a whole dang level? The ridiculously awkward controls that ensures you'll miss every shot even with the slightest margin of error? Enemies armed with projectile weapons that can One-Hit Kill you instantly left and right? Stages where you diffuse Time Bombs without the game giving you proper hints (and failing you for cutting the wrong wire)? The Damage Sponge terrorist leader boss who can shred your health away in seconds, where should you lose, you'll need to restart the fight with your enemy's stats at 100%? - One-Word Title: "Expert". It refers to the Counter-Terrorist Unit you belong to.
- Playing Possum: One of the terrorist mooks (with long hair and clad in green uniforms) requires two hits to kill. When shot the first time they'll fall over like every other mook, only to suddenly sit up and shoot you In the Back with their sidearm. Though you could tell they're not dead since they don't drop an item.
- Power Up Letdown:
- The third stage introduces a new Spread Shot weapon that opens into an arc of bullets, which have a painful tendency to spread too wide. You'll miss half your shots using said weapon and have your health shaved away by terrorists shooting back at you while asking, "how the hell does this thing work?"
- You unlock a rocket launcher in the final stage, who finally allows you an advantage against those recurring Giant Mook enemies. It's also painfully slow, constantly low on ammo, and useless against every. other. enemy type.
- Scary Black Man: There are muscular black terrorists armed with rocket launchers who requires around four shots with your default pistol to kill, whose missiles can kill you in between two to four shots (depending on proximity). They're among the most dangerous enemies in the game, and somehow they're all clad in... pink overalls.
- Unusable Enemy Equipment: Rather infuriatingly, the default weapons you select at the start of each stage (pistol + knife + Uzi / shotgun / etc.) are the only weapons you can use. More often than not enemy mooks will be using a firearm you don't have in your arsenal, which you can't use, just because.
- Western Terrorists: They serve as the main enemies in the game. You're a JSDF member, and the enemies appears to be mostly white (save for the recurring Scary Black Man enemies) and in foreign military gear.
- Wire Dilemma: Multiple stages have you disabling time bombs by cutting the wires, with the game giving you zero clues about which of the four you're supposed to cut. Get the wrong wire and you suffer a Non-Standard Game Over and must restart the level.
