Games developed by Beyond Reality
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Professional Underground League of Pain
Riot is a unique and fun 3D futuristic sports game that plays like a cross between basketball, soccer and field field hockey.
The game looks a bit like Bitmap Brothers' classic Speedball updated for the new millennium, although the controls in Riot are not as intuitive. Games Domain explains the pros and cons of this game in their usual in-depth review: Choose your Riot team from the ranks of Australia, France, Germany, Japan, Mexico, Russia, United Kingdom or United States. You'll have six players to do the dirty work: two on offense, two on defense and two subs. Although each player has a fatigue meter, substitutes are not often used, as outfield players recover quickly. Player and team customization is simple if you read the manual. You do read the manual, don't you? You can adjust each player's accuracy, speed, power and stamina to achieve the ultimate balance for each position. The team settings don't end there. Among other things, you can change the name of your coach and players, and even change their faces! Go ahead. The playing field looks a lot like a basketball court, with a scoreboard raised above the center of the court. However, in Riot, the 'scoreboard' is actually the hoop. And what would normally be the baskets at each end of the court are the 'chargers'. Your task is to take control of the 'plasma ball', push the ball to your charger (located in enemy territory, of course) and put it in the hoop. Goals are worth one, two or three points, depending on how far away you are from the goal at the time of the shot. No referee or rule will stop your defensive play, so control, fight and intercept. Get the ball any way you can (long forward movements can help you quickly close the distance between you and the opposing attacker). Even if the opponent 'charges' and shoots at goal, you can 'block' the goal. But you will have to be very timely because the goal closes and opens immediately. From time to time, the rowdy crowd will throw 'power-ups' onto the field that players of any team can use. The five types (speed-up, power-punch, power-shot, health and hawkeye) will only last the player 30 seconds.
Note: Power-ups are overrated. Setup could have been easier with more extensive auto-sensing setup routines. Although playing with the screen modes is not difficult, it is still a waste of game time. It's also irritating that most of the 20+ camera angles are useless because you can't see enough of the track. Player control should be more precise. You can't switch back and forth between players to choose the one you want. It doesn't matter, the player closest to the ball is activated. Also, the lack of support for a gamepad or joystick in the Win95 installation (although it is available in DOS) is a big omission. Riot demands a gamepad, because the keyboard is an awkward way to play this game. For example, the Z key does one of three things, depending on the player's location and whether or not he has the ball. It can pass the ball, charge the ball, or make you slide forward. Let's just say this is initially confusing and often frustrating. Tip: Try the DOS installation routine instead of the Win95 version, if only to get access to a joystick. The last but not least complaint is that network play is great for office gamers, but Riot does not currently support Internet play for us modem-equipped jocks, which severely limits the life of the game. For all its minor imperfections, Riot is a remarkable balance of exquisite graphics (like player reflections) and devilishly fun gameplay (like bouncing the ball off an opponent's head). The unique concept is intuitive, easy enough to control (with practice) and addictive enough that single-player replayability is limited: 8 to 10 hours of gameplay. Tournaments will prolong the fun'.
