Total Eclipse (3DO) / Total Eclipse Turbo (PS) (1995)
Developer: Crystal Dynamics

Review by Faididi and Co.

Staring at a real eclipse is more fun

Story: Average

Evil alien bastards known as the Drak-sai are threatening to destroy the people of Earth. Coming to our rescue is some faceless hero who pilots a starfighter loaded with lots and lots of guns.

Gameplay: Poor

Crystal Dynamics' Total Eclipse is a forward-scrolling space shooter that sounds decent on paper. The hero flies through 5 lengthy missions that are each divided into multiple rounds, taking down bad guys and avoiding environmental traps. His ship can suck up a few hits before he gets wasted, upon which he may restart from the beginning of the round. There are 5 types of main weapons, which are changed via power-ups, and all of them fire energy projectiles, but in slightly different patterns. There are also the finite number of Plasma Bombs, which generate energy waves that damage any bad guys to the front. The hero's progress may be recorded with passwords, and they're awarded between the missions.

However, the problems in Total Eclipse quickly become apparent, and they are serious ones. Although the hero can fire endless barrages of projectiles, none of that does any good, due to the abhorrent hit detection and the infuriating level design. The heroes' shots often pass straight through their targets, but the barriers and other traps can crush him even if he is nowhere close to touching them. The areas look overly repetitive, and the later missions contain an inexplicably large amount of gates that can boot the hero back to the beginning of a round. Such hatefully frustrating level design has no place in any space shooter.

Controls: Average

The basic controls are responsive enough, but the banking controls are inconsistent. While the hero can roll in the exterior scenes, he can't do so in the interior scenes.

Graphics: Below Average

Although the characters and the 3D environments look decent at first, the framerate drops drastically whenever the screen becomes cluttered with objects, and that makes spotting and reacting to oncoming dangers incredibly difficult.

Audio: Above Average

The gunfire and the explosions are loud. The noisy rock music isn't bad, but it could've been used in a much more enjoyable game.

Overall: Poor

Total Eclipse is a terrible space shooter with unforgivable flaws. Even the most dedicated fans of its genre shouldn't have to deal with its odious level design and its wretchedly shoddy hit detection.

Port: Poor (PS)

Brought to the PS by Beam Software, Total Eclipse Turbo is a supposedly enhanced version of the original game. In truth, its improvements are limited to the reduced loading times. The framerate still tends to be choppy, and the crappy gameplay isn't any better.