Doom with Body Surfing.
Genetic Species is a 1998 First-Person Shooter made by Amiga and one of the many, many Doom clone oversaturating the market back in the late 90s.
The plot - or the lack of it - sees you as a Space Marine somewhere in the 2200s. Sent by the Counter Force Alliance (CFA) to a space outpost owned by Cantex, a major military company, to investigate illicit, genetic experimentations, you're unfortunately caught in an outbreak where assorted creatures runs amok and the base's security have been triggered to eliminate everyone.
And yes, you can Body Surf into enemies in this one, thanks to a gadget called the "Portable Probe Device" obtainable halfway through.
Our first step is the activation of the BioShifters within the Cantex Supply Station, where the bulk of the troops and supplies are being launched into space. We need information, now.
End Transmission ...
- Arm Cannon: Battle Cyborgs, Mechanoids and oddly enough, zombies, have these built in their arms for firing.
- Battle Amongst the Flames: The first area sees you battling enemies in a burning hangar, until you triggered the sprinklers.
- Body Surf: Your character can obtain a "Portable Probe Device" that allows you to take over bodies of weakened enemies. You can also leap from body to body, and your previous possession victim dies the moment you eject.
- Captain Ersatz: Besides the fact that you're a blatant CE of the Doomguy, the enemies are obviously lifted from it's inspiration as well, albeit as machines instead of undead.
- Security soldiers are the equivalents to the Goomba-level zombiemen and shotgun guys, the average grunt that dies easily from your default weapon.
- Battle Cyborgs serves as the CE to Heavy Weapons Dude, a humanoid mook with higher armor rating and defenses, and armed with an automated gatling gun that shaves your health away if you're not careful.
- Then there's the blue-and-white Mechanoid, who looks like a scaled down Gundam
- Chicken Walker: Bipedal mechas called "Wolfhead" in-game serves as the largest machine-based enemy, coming after you with it's two legs while firing turrets. The manual tells you to "throw grenades and run".
- Cyborg: Several of the seemingly-mechanical enemies have human features on them, like exposed flesh on their arms. The game booklet confirms them to be indeed cyborgs.
- Deus Ax Machina: Rather than using a chainsaw like Doom, the first melee weapon you can obtain is an emergency fire ax.
- Elite Mooks: Wolfheads and Chameleon Soldiers are among the toughest enemies encountered, and they appears regularly in later parts of the game.
- Enemy-Detecting Radar: Like most FPS, you can choose to activate one, depicted as a semi-translucent map on the upper-right corner.
- Exploding Barrels: Just like in Doom, several areas contains propane tanks gathered together (helpfully marked by a "FLAMMABLE" symbol) that you can target. It's subsequent explosion clears an area of enemies faster.
- Everything Trying to Kill You: Expectedly, nothing on Cantax station is on your side, where the robots, mutated abominations, cyborgs and automated security systems wants you dead on sight. Well, besides the scientists and engineers who doesn't attack unless attacked first.
- Giant Spider: The first of many mutated, non-humanoid monsters encountered are man-sized arachnids.
- Going Critical: One stage ends with a Reactor Failure that requires you to flee to an exit within 20 seconds or die when the whole place blows, with a timer on the upper-left corner counting down. If you made it out, somehow the explosion doesn't affect the rest of the station - next stage plays out like normal.T-MINUS 20 SECONDS — EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY
- Grenade Launcher: You can obtain one which flings orange, mine-like exploding projectiles.
- Mecha-Mooks: The Battle Cyborg (despite it's name, it looks and sounds 100% mechanical), Mechanoid, and Wolfheads are all machine-based enemies.
- Our Zombies Are Different: You'll be inexplicably attacked by zombies in the later stages. They're a lot tougher than undead-based enemies from other games of it's kind, and somehow can shoot energy projectiles from their hands.
- Plasma Cannon: The first energy-based weapon you can you, portrayed with two prongs on it's barrel. It fires rapid green plasma bolts that does average damage.
- Predator Pastiche: The Chameleon Soldier enemies are clad in cloaking armor looking remarkably like the Predator's, Visible Invisibility included, and attacks you while having stealth as their advantage. Shooting them will cause some Invisibility Flicker as well. Even the manual describes them as Predator-like.
- Space Base: The entire game is set in a military outpost in orbit, owned by the Cantax Corporation who runs illicit experiments on various species. And the test subjects are on the loose.
- Space Marine: Like in every Doom knockoff, you play as one.
- This Is a Drill: You can obtain an industrial drill to grind up enemies. It's far more effective than the fire ax.
- Video Game Cruelty Potential: You can come across scientists and engineers on the station and gun them down without being penalized. None of them will attack you unless attacked first.
