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Vivisector: Beast Within

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Vivisector: Beast Inside
Developer(s)Action Forms Limited
Publisher(s)1C Company
Platform(s)PC
ReleaseJanuary 5 2006
Genre(s)First-person shooter/Survivor horror
Mode(s)Single player

Vivisector: Beast Inside is a Ukrainian made first-person shooter game released in CIS in 2005 (in Europe - 2006), with an American release date pending. Inspired largely by the movie The Island of Doctor Moreau (and the story The Island of Lost Souls, which the movie was based on), the game is set on a covert military installation on Soreo Island, where a riot has broken out by renegade geneticist Dr. Morhead's experimental human-animal hybrid soldiers against the corrupt general that ordered their creation. It is the player's job, initially, to help the General suppress the riot and regain control of the hybrid soldiers, but the player eventually switches sides against the General halfway through the game. The game is most infamous for its "vivisection point" feature, which allows the player to rend an enemy's flesh from their body with each shot (though, due to Germany's strict censor laws, this feature was removed for the human NPCs).

Gameplay

The player has a full range of movement, including independent movement of gun aim and mobility, jumping, ducking, and even picking up certain objects (such as barrels and crates) lying around the map. An on-screen radar map shows you an overhead layout of your immediate area, with different-colored dots marking hybrid and human soldiers and checkpoints. Aside from the vivisection point, killing enemies in certain ways and discovering hidden areas grant a player points which they can cash in at checkpoints to upgrade their speed, aim, life, and strength. There is a minor emphasis in puzzle-solving, with a few timed segments included. There are also a few boss battles between game phases.

Characters

Main Players

  • Kurt: The lowly soldier the player controls through the game. Originally order to Soreo Island to extract a marooned freighter crew, his team is killed by the rebelling hybrid soldiers and he learns of his importance in stopping the rebellion. He has an unknown past with Dr. Morhead and the island that is revealed as the game progresses, which along with the betrayal of his commanding officer, forces him to switch sides.
  • Dr. Morhead: A genetic and cybernetic specialist who went into hiding after his human-animal hybrid experiments were decried by the scientific and political public, he is forced by the General to continue his experiments to create a series of hybrid soldiers for use as the perfect warriors. He has an unknown fascination with Kurt, and claims to abhor his creations being used for violence, stating he only wished to use his talents to "better mankind". He secretly endorses the rebellion against the General, and created and taught the rebellion leader Lion for that specific purpose.
  • General: The unnamed executive officer to Kurt, he helped hid Morhead from the public and financed his hybrid experimentations, with the condition that he build them to be the ultimate fighting machines. Originally decked out to be a victim of the experiments, being taken prisoner by Lion and making the rebellion out to be a dangerous threat to the world, General eventually shows his true colors by killing one of Kurt's associates and attempting to cajole him into helping him destroy the rebelling hybrids so he can regain control of the experiments.
  • Lion: The leader of the hybrid soldiers, Lion was created by Dr. Morhead to rouse his fellow hybrids into rebelling against the General and his plans for them. A battle-hardened warrior with the ability to speak (unlike the rest of his troops), Lion seems to share his creator's distaste for war, and only wishes to drive the General and his team off the island so he and his soldiers can live in peace on the island. He recruits Kurt to his cause after the Generalt betrays him, appealing to his desire for revenge to help him end the conflict. Unlike the General, he seems to care much more for those under his command, and bears little animosity towards Kurt himself, helping him on several occasions.

Secondary Characters

  • Liam: One of the few survivors of the freighter ship crash that stranded its cew on Soreo Island, and an old buddy of Kurt's. After being found, he helps Kurt get deeper within Soreo Island's bases, and eventually meets up with Kurt and the General at a secret bunker meant to contact Dr. Morhead. When the bunker is sieged, he escapes with the General via helicopter, but is shot dead by the General after the latter refuses to drop down to pick up Kurt, not knowing what the General was really up to. It is his death that turns Kurt against the General and forces him to team up with Lion.
  • Malica: A fellow soldier to Kurt and his one-time girlfriend, Malica is killed by Dr. Morhead's experiments along with the rest of their team right at the beginning of the game, without being able to discuss something of importance with Kurt about their past relationship. She eventually becomes very important near the end of the game. She carries a pendant with her, presumably a memento of her past relationship with Kurt, and seems to still be deeply in love with him, even if he doesn't openly feel the same. Hers is the first death that touches him in the game, which compounds her role in in the game much later.

ModBeasts

ModBeasts are early experiments of Morheads to combine animal and cybernetic components together, a prelude to his later work. They have very limited intelligence and an almost feral disposition, acting the most like their animal counterparts out of all the hybrid soldiers. Fortunately, most of these creatures only have short- to close-ranged attacks so it's easier to pick them off from a distance. They only appear in the first chapter of the game.

  • Hyenas: The basic ModBeasts, and the ones you first encounter. Acting laregly like their natural cousins, Hyenas are nonetheless capable of electrified pounces, and are dangerous in groups.
  • Leopards: The second most common ModBeast you encounter, Leopards have a flamethrower system implanted into their jaws, giving them a slightly longer range than the Hyenas.
  • Panthers: Panthers act much like Hyenas, but without the electricity. However, they have a built-in active camouflage system that renders them invisible to both sight and radar; only a faint shimmer in the background (and any damage you inflict on them) giving away their position. They can only cloak for a short period of time, however, and will more often than not de-cloak before attacking.
  • Gorillas: Your first true projectile-based enemy, Gorillas will stand still from a vantage point and lob grenades in your general direction. Sometimes, they appear on your level, allowing you to sneak up on them and take them out up-close (though they are capable of fighting hand-to-hand at that range), but it's more likely that they will appear on cliffs or other high platforms where you can't reach, necessitating the need for sniper-like sharpshooting.
  • Rhinosters: A smaller version of the first boss you encounter, the Rhinosters aren't true enemies as they are conveniently-placed battering rams, charging recklessly towards whichever blocked passageway you need to access to progress. However, like their "big brother", their entire front half is armored, meaning you need to slip around back to attack their vulnerable backsides to take them out.
  • BomBears: BomBears are built similarly to Rhinosters, with an armored back end and both a back-mounted chaingun and rocket launcher. Unusually for most of the other hybrids, Bears will generally leave you alone, given you're a significant distance away from them and you don't call attention to yourself by attacking them; if you do, they will often try to charge up to you for a few melee attacks instead of automatically going for their weapons.
  • Lions: The ModBeast Lions are quick and durable, allowing for plenty of punishment to be dished onto them before they expire. They can also fire fireballs at the player with considerable reach, making them the most formidable normal ModBeast int the game. Fortunately, they aren't prevalent and rarely appear.

HumAnimals

Humanimals are the typical grunts you fight in the second chapter, the average hybrid soldiers and the ones that make up the bulk of the resistance. Curiously, they will still fight you, even after you switch to their side, rationalized by their leader Lion as their programmed view of humans as the enemy. They are more dangerous than their ModBeast counterparts, as they mostly all have some kind of projectile armament.

  • Hyena Soldiers: Following the electricity theme of their species in the game, Hyena Soldiers carry Tesla guns, which fire bursts of ball lightning at the target. Also like their ModBeast counterparts, they are the earliest and most prevalent of the HumAnimals you encounter.
  • Leopard Soldiers: The only melee-specific warrior among the HumAnimal troops, the Leopard Soldiers have two double-bladed "claws" attacked to their wrists, increasing their already formidable hand-to-hand combat skills. It is one such soldier that helped Lion capture the General and Liam as they attempted to leave the island. They are fast and numerous, often attempting to swarm the player by their own numbers or with those of the Hyenas; fighting them at a distance is preferred.
  • Ram Soldiers: Ram Soldiers are smart and dangerous, wielding shotguns with precision accuracy and making good use of cover. They aren't as prevalent as their other brethren, and don't swarm like the others; they don't need to. Again, best to deal with these guys from afar, especially considering how distance weakens the effectiveness of their shotgun blasts.
  • Puma Soldiers: Armed with your standard M16, the Puma Soldiers are near the middle of the HumAnimal power: not as bright with combat tactics as the Ram Soldiers, but not as prone to swarming as the Leopard and Hyena Soldiers, the Puma Soldiers are still nothing to slack off to.

Overbrutes

As nasty as they sound, the Overbrutes are the General's elite hybrid soldier army, well armored and armed for maximum killing power. You ancounter them in the third chapter, and take expert use of cover-hiding and other combat tactics to take you down.

  • Black Wolf: Armed with Gauss rifles, the Black Wolfs are - with Lion - the only hybrid soldier to know how to talk, and their idle chatter shows just how devoted to their task as soldiers are. They are very well armed; so well armed, that all but the most powerful explosives just knocks their armor and armaments off with little personal damage. Again, like the Hyenas, they are the most prevalent of all the Overbrutes, which is definitely something to worry about.
  • Helix: A Helix is a flying anthropomorphic buzzard, its wings clipped and replaced with a motorized gyrocopter which allows them to dominate the skies and provide annoying nuisance for the player with their leg-mounted machine guns. Fortunately, their rotor blades are also their vulnerable spot; take it out, and you've grounded them, possibly even killing them if you down them from a great enough height. Otherwise, they will just stand up and go in for a melee attack.
  • White Wolf: Very similar to their Black cousins, White Wolves presumably fight similarly, and with similar weapons. It is also presumed they appear in the game's later snowy levels. Similar rules and dangers from the Black Wolves apply.
  • Tigers: Fully armored and armed with bazookas, Tigers are scarce and work alongside the General's human soldiers to take down the player. Both their armament and armor makes them difficult and dangerous enemies to cross, so similarly heavy-duty weaponry is needed to neutralize their threat.
  • Uncomplete (sic): The Uncompletes are, despite the incorrect spelling, just as their names describe: unfinished Oberbrutes broken free without even a skin to cover their exposed muscles. They have no weapons or armor, just their talons and scurrying abilities, and are the only Overbrutes to truly swarm the player, having no other ways of defending themselves, so while they're extremely easy to defeat, they're also on par with the ModBeast Hyenas in dangerousness.
  • Panther Overbeast: 2 years in the making, the smart and unstoppable Panther Overbeast was planned to be disposed of, to prevent the General from getting a hold of her (the only hybrid besides Lion to be given a definitive gender), however a Black Wolf Overbrute disrupts the process and unwittingly unleashes the monster on the island. If you see it, run to the next checkpoint, fast; it can endure endless punishment without pause and can cloak itself, and carries a set of charges that, if caught, will be instant death to the player if they can't find a way to block it off. For some reason, it kills humans indiscriminately, blowing up several scientists on its way to do away with you.

Humans

Once your fellow officers, they still attack you early in the game (the General states he hasn't authorized you to be on the island with the other soldiers, and thus they're more prone to attack you as an intruder than ask for clearance). Fortunately for you, they are few and far between, and until you meet the Overbrutes in the third chapter, you're far more likely to see them engaging in battle against Dr. Morhead's creations, making fighting them directly less of a priority.

  • Island Guards: Your typical human grunts, found in the first and second chapters of the game. They carry standard M16 rifles and little else, and are often placed near convoys or other bunkers filled with ammo and health that you can use to restore your supplies.
  • Island Tracker: A bit more mobile than the Island Guards, and a bit better protected, they patrol the island for pockets of hybrid resistance and eliminate them. Because they're not confined to one specific location, they're a bit more dangerous with strafing and circling tactics, but aren't that much of a threat.