Soldiers of Fortune
- Beau Jolly Compilation: Cannon Fodder, The Settlers, The Chaos Engine, Terminator 2: The Arcade Game (1995)
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BitPack
(2013) -
THEA500 Mini
(2022)
Description official descriptions
A time traveler from the future was stranded in Victorian England, and his knowledge of yet unknown technological inventions was passed to the Royal Society, headed by Baron Fortesque. With the help of this knowledge, Fortesque managed to construct an immensely complex artificial intelligence known as the Chaos Engine. However, creation rebelled against its creator, assimilated its mind, and turned Britain into a war zone populated by mad machines. Mercenaries are willing to enter this dangerous place and put an end to the chaos, hoping for an appropriate reward.
Chaos Engine (Soldiers of Fortune in the US) is a run-and-gun overhead shooter. Sixteen levels (in four groups of four) await the players in the game. The basic gameplay is similar to Gauntlet, but in an open-air setting, with bridges across rivers and other features in the maps. The visuals are in the 'metallic and blue' style Bitmap Brothers appeared to favor.
There are six characters available in the game, each with different strengths and weaknesses, and different starting prices. In two-player mode, each player chooses a character and plays co-operatively, but in one-player games, the player also chooses a character for the computer to control, with its artificial intelligence allowing it to open doors, pick up power-ups and take on enemies away from the ones occupying the player-controlled character.
Groups +
Screenshots
Promos
Credits (Genesis version)
28 People (19 developers, 9 thanks) · View all
| Design | |
| Graphic Design | |
| Graphic Conversion | |
| Original Code | |
| Code Conversion | |
| Additional Code | |
| Original Game Music | |
| SFX | |
| Sound Conversion |
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| Title Music | |
| Project Management | |
| Special Thanks | |
| Product Manager | |
| Testing | |
| Instruction Manual | |
| Marketing | |
| Special Thanks | |
| [ full credits ] | |
Reviews
Critics
Average score: 78% (based on 58 ratings)
Players
Average score: 3.7 out of 5 (based on 88 ratings with 7 reviews)
Pumping with action and keeps you amused for ages.
The Good
This game was one of the best Bitmap games, a well thought out storyline for an Action game. Play with the computer or with a friend and you are set on blasting baddies and collecting as many extra powers as you can. Once you have completed the game, the task becomes one on using different characters and finding the maximum amount of treasure for each level.
The Bad
First played this game on the Amiga where the music is far better than that of the DOS version that seems to have been rewritten, the RISC OS version has been converted better. It appears the music is the only bad tiding as the rest of the game is brilliant. It's age is showing in that the graphics are only 16 colours but they are done in a Amiga-esque way to hide that.
The Bottom Line
If you like an action game with a bit more brain-power to put behind and like collecting various tokens and listening to cool effects then this is the game for you. Now starting to show what real games were like moons ago.
DOS · by Nathan Walker (4) · 2000
Bitmap Brothers - the recyclers
The Good
everything
The Bad
can't see anything except Bitmap Brothers being hibernating or something.
The Bottom Line
Bitmap brothers definitely are, or were, I don't know, one of the first teams that deposited real passion, art, and the concept of recycling making homage to (as Tarantino does in movies), on videogames. They were definitely mature indie game constructors, and they presented that on fluidity marrying graphics in an organic playable sense. The Chaos Engine is another game that demonstrates that. An inspirational classic game with direct passport to the hall of fame of Artistic games.
Windows · by ZeTomes (36265) · 2014
The Good
The Chaos engine is a Roaming shooter that is both challenging and fun to play. Viewed from a top down perspective you must blast your way through several levels to put a stop to the Chaos Engine which has populated the lands with vicious monsters.
Playing as one of 6 characters you shoot, collect keys, items and money to get to the portal of each level. In between levels you would get the chance to spend the money you have collected in a shop to purchase power-ups. These were essential as the game got tougher & tougher.
In parts this game could be very testing, but that isn't to say that is wasn't beatable. In multiplayer though you really must work together otherwise you've no chance.
TCE was a very likeable game that was easy enough to pick up and play at any time and is recommended to those who like a meaty shooter with a bit of challenge.
The Bad
There were elements of the game that irritated. Like not being able to see where exactly the path was or getting trapped behind several enemies when trying to get that precious Life power-up.
The Bottom Line
Got some time to kill? Then the Chaos Engine is what you need.
Genesis · by Liam Dowds (39) · 2003
Discussion
| Subject | By | Date |
|---|---|---|
| Level Editor released + first custom level | lilalurl (733) | Jun 26, 2010 |
Trivia
Advertisement
Shortly after the game's release, Renegade took out a full page advert in trade magazine CTW, which simply said "The Chaos Engine. So good, even that bastard Stuart Campbell liked it", referring to a British journalist who had a habit of not liking much-hyped games, including previous Bitmap Brothers titles Xenon 2 and Gods, but gave this one a great review. Ironically Campbell later worked for CTW (as of 2004).
Development
The original beta version (as seen on TV in many countries) was a three player game (not two).
German index
On March 31, 1995, The Chaos Engine was put on the infamous German index by the BPjS. For more information about what this means and to see a list of games sharing the same fate, take a look here: BPjS/BPjM indexed games.
Passwords
A quote from the manual addendum lying in the game box:
Please note - In order to continue the time-honoured Bitmap Brothers tradition of mucking around with the password system at the last minute, The Chaos Engine now only awards passwords at the end of every world rather than after every Equipment Screen.
Sorry.
Version differences
- In both the SNES and Genesis versions of the game which are named Soldiers of Fortune, the game's ending credits still call it The Chaos Engine.
- In the console versions the Preacher was changed into a Scientist due to Sega and Nintendo having a policy of censoring any religious material in games for their consoles.
Awards
- Amiga Joker
- Issue 02/1994 – #2 Best Genre Mix in 1993 (Readers' Vote)
- Power Play
- Issue 02/1994 – Best Multiplayer Game in 1993
Information also contributed by Johnny "ThunderPeel2001" Walker, Martin Smith, Timo Takalo, WildKard and Xoleras
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Related Sites +
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www.gods-country.de
The Bitmap Brothers tribute page for this game
Identifiers +
Contribute
Are you familiar with this game? Help document and preserve this entry in video game history! If your contribution is approved, you will earn points and be credited as a contributor.
Contributors to this Entry
Game added by Derrick 'Knight' Steele.
Atari ST, Genesis added by kametyken. Antstream added by firefang9212. Acorn 32-bit, J2ME, Macintosh, Linux, Windows, Amiga CD32 added by Kabushi. BlackBerry added by MAT. SNES added by Katakis | カタキス. Amiga added by Rantanplan.
Additional contributors: Macintrash, -Chris, kametyken, Martin Smith, Patrick Bregger.
Game added February 29, 2000. Last modified April 28, 2024.