Evasive Action

Evasive Action is a video game in the action genre developed by Particle Systems Ltd. and published by Software Toolworks, Inc., The originally released in 1994. It is currently playable on DOS.

From Glyn Williams, co-founder of Particle Systems, comes Evasive Action, an innovative combat flight simulator featuring aerial dogfights from 1917 to the space combat future of 2064.

Overall, Evasive Action is a fun and simple multiplayer air combat game, more of an arcade-style action game than a flight simulator. Bugs, inconsistencies and some gameplay quirks make the game seem like it can't decide whether to be an arcade shooter or a realistic flight simulator. A diamond in the rough, but a diamond nonetheless. It's worth a try for anyone interested in expansive flight simulators with an original premise.

Glyn Williams gives an interesting history of the game (in very humble words) from the designer's perspective on his website:

'I had a 3D engine on the PC and needed to do something with it. I had read a short story called 'Dogfight' by William Gibson, and my first instinct was to make a game based on WWI fighter combat. Before I got very far, the world was full of WWI fighter simulators and the simulation market was going for a very technical and accurate simulation. I wanted to do something much more game-like: a deathmatch in the air.

Evasive Action included air combat and air races, in 4 different time periods. It was a very complete game, with shooting and stunt power-ups. It was also multiplayer and allowed split-screen and modem connection (at a speed of 1200 bits per second). It was also too ambitious and complex for one man working alone, especially coding in assembler. By the time it was finished, the technology seemed very outdated, and the release version had too many bugs. I'm not satisfied with it'.

It is possible that we have multiple downloads available when different versions exist.