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Planet of the Apes (video game)

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For the 1983 Atari prototype, see Revenge of the Apes.
Planet of the Apes
Developer(s)Visiware Ubisoft Paris
Publisher(s)Ubi Soft Entertainment/Fox Interactive
Producer(s)Tim Hall[1]
Designer(s)Jean-Francois Graffard
Raffi Messant[1]
Programmer(s)Matus Kirchmayer[1]
Writer(s)Jean-Francois Graffard[1]
Composer(s)Lionel Gaget
Raphaël Gesqua[1]
SeriesPlanet of the Apes
Platform(s)Microsoft Windows
PlayStation
Release'PC'PlayStation
Genre(s)Action-adventure
Mode(s)Single-player

Planet of the Apes is a 2001 action-adventure video game in the Planet of the Apes franchise. The franchise's first ever video game, it was released as a tie-in to the 2001 Planet of the Apes film, though the plot is inspired by Pierre Boulle's 1963 novel, the 1968 film adaptation, and its sequels. Fox Interactive contracted Visiware to develop the game for PC and PlayStation and partnered with Ubisoft as co-publisher; Ubisoft also developed Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance versions.

The player controls Ulysses, an astronaut who crashes on a future Earth where intelligent apes dominate humans. Ulysses explores various environments, aiding a human resistance movement who regard him as a prophesied savior and uncovering the secrets underlying ape society. Versions of series characters, such as Zira, Cornelius, Zaius and Nova, appear alongside new characters and species.

The game's release was delayed for three years due to problems with the long postponed film remake and Fox Interactive's decision to co-publish with another company. When it finally debuted in 2001, it met with largely negative reviews, with the chief criticism being its weak controls and gameplay.

Synopsis

In 3889, the spaceship Cassiopeia has been drifting in space since it launched in 2125. Four astronauts, on a deep space mission, were in suspended animation for the duration of their planned trip, but something malfunctioned. When the ship found a planet suitable for human life, it crash-landed on an ‘alien’ world and revived its crew. Ulysses, Romulus and Sophie discovered that a fault had led to the death of their crewmate Martinez. Exploring the desolate planet, they were relieved to find human life, but almost immediately the tranquility was shattered by horseback hunters armed with guns. Too late to avoid capture, the crew were killed one-by-one: Romulus...Sophie. The game intro ended with Ulysses, the sole survivor, waking up in a cell, deep in the caves. This was a medical center where humans were dissected and generally toyed with. To Ulysses' horror, a deadly breed of intelligent apes have evolved and now dominate the Earth.

At a medical center, as a gorilla guarded Ulysses, food was provided by a human slave. When he picked up the tray, he found a key and a note. Opening the door with the key, he exited the cell. Crawling through the air vents, Ulysses spied Zaius and Zira discussing his fate - Zaius seemed unnaturally opposed to the human Zira has been studying and ordered his transfer to the Homonid Monitoring Unit at the Mandrill militia station, where he would be executed. Ulysses continued to another room where an Ape was experimenting on a human subject. Ulysses killed the Ape scientist and picked up a red bottle of pills. He took these pills and started to get very sick. Raising the alarm just before he passed out, he was taken to a morgue, where he revived and escaped, only to be knocked unconscious and taken to a monastery.

Ulysses woke in a monastery. There he found a hologram cartridge and a holographic projector. He used the cartridge he found, to listen to a really preachy holo-message - one of the last leaders of humanity bemoaning the destruction of his civilisation through war, division and the Apes. Next, he headed to the chapel, where a wall slid away and Ulysses' mission was revealed - Jonah, the human who brought the key to Ulysses' cell, explained that his appearance fulfilled a prophecy, that a man would come to rescue the human race, though another leader, Elie, wasn't so sure. Jonah revealed that he led the human resistance and this 'alien' planet was in fact Earth (Neterre to the resistance fighters, or Ter to the Apes). After a war had destroyed mankind, the Apes took over and the humans had split into the Ellisians and the Akanites. The rebellious Ellisians had then further split into three factions, with their leader Ellia giving each faction leader one part of an ancient relic, to be guarded and reunited at the time of renewal: a gold part was given to the group led by Ezekiel, from whom Jonah's survivors were descended, Tomas had been given a silver part and John a glass part. The tribes of Tomas and John had since been annihilated. Ulysses was given the gold part and told that John's glass part was probably at his grave in New Cyprus. A human, Gorje, was to guide Ulysses to the ruins of that ancient city.

Ulysses headed down a tunnel to gain entry to the ruined city, now occupied by gorilla soldiers. He found a cage holding a human woman in a room on the 5th floor of a building. He opened it and freed Nova, who quickly ran away. Nova shortly afterwards saved Ulysses from a vicious, chatty, procrastinating gorilla, then hurriedly left again. Ulysses then found his way to the office of General Ursus and confronted him, recovering the glass artifact and also taking a top secret report about Professor Cornelius' A.E. Project. Utilizing a service lift and switching off the ventilation system, he crawled through the massive fan blades and escaped. Emerging from a subway station entrance, Ulysses met with Nova and Bosko - in gratitude for freeing Nova, they took Ulysses to shelter in their nearby village.

Ulysses awoke in the human village, shortly before an Ape attack. Seeing the entrance to the cave in which the village was hidden boarded up, he lit a pile of straw next to the wooden barricade and burnt it down. He then went to the cottage of Bosko, who asked Ulysses to find his son Timon. In the courtyard he noticed Ape guards on patrol and could see the boy Timon tied to a pole. He used a knife to cut his bonds and they scampered away and returned to Bosko’s cottage. Back in the cottage Bosko told him how to leave the village and make his way to the home of Mathias, at the bottom of the canyon. After escaping the village and crossing the canyon with the help of the human Abbra, Ulysses discussed Ursus' report with Mathias - Nova’s brother. The gorillas were planning to use Cornelius' genetic research, and human genetic material, to enhance their race and dominate the other ape races. Ulysses decided to speak to Professor Cornelius at the Ape University.

After breaking in, Ulysses approached a phone on the wall in the University. He saw an advertisement on a noticeboard and dialed the number. A female ape told him to meet her in 5 minutes, believing him to be an Ape wanting to rent a room. In the ensuing meeting the friendly Ape was reluctant to help at first, but finally told him how to make contact with Cornelius and then escape, giving him the code to the storeroom. Ulysses made his way to Professor Cornelius - they discussed his research and Cornelius' own suspicions about General Ursus' interest in the project. Cornelius agreed to destroy his research so it could not be abused, while Ulysses sneaked out. Returning to Mathias, Ulysses found out that the insurrection leader Jonah had been captured - Jonah had heard something about the third part and went to search for it, but was captured. Ulysses decided to rescue him, alone.

Ulysses entered the prison and discovered that Jonah was in Cell O1. He located the cell and found Jonah, but an explosive charge shackled to Jonah would explode if he tried to leave. Jonah decided to use it to blow a hole in the wall allowing Ulysses to escape into the disused human military base next door, but Jonah would die as a result. He told Ulysses to retrieve the silver part from the Ape State Library. Ulysses quickly carried Jonah up the stairs and said goodbye. Ulysses crawled through the hole left by the explosion and escaped back to Mathias' home. Jonah's friends didn't react well to the news of his death, but Ulysses decided to carry on the fight. Mathias took over the resistance leadership and gave Ulysses instructions on how to enter the State Library through an underground factory.

Ulysses entered the factory, went to a grate, kicked it in, and crawled through to the State Library Archives. He approached a man - Simon the cleaner told him where the third part might be, and how to escape from the Archives. He saw an ape beating up a human female, and he killed the ape. The female offered to help - Anna told him to look in the 'Forbidden Place' upstairs. Ulysses then found a multimedia dispenser with a cartridge in it. He picked up the cartridge, entered another room and used the projector to watch a slide show - 'Professor Skouk' interviewed about his work in cosmetic surgery. Ulysses went to a room with a pedestal with the silver part sitting on it, he picked up the silver artifact and left through the main door on the ground floor. Returning again to Mathias and Nova, the three mystery parts were united and combined to form a map. It pointed toward Nova's “Forbidden Place”.

A shameless cliche ensued as Ulysses followed the map to the Statue of Liberty (although he already knew he was back on Earth). He dropped down a tunnel to an area guarded by protection robot orbs. He proceeded to an office where a recording gave more detail into the strange story of humanity's plight - President John Fergus recounted the loss of the Earth to the Apes after a final battle. Ulysses used a micro recorder to record the President's voice, and was thus able to access his computer, which then recognised that Ulysses was not the President. The disembodied minds stored in the 'Central System', Jacquard and Orwell (a third, Illevitch, had malfunctioned and died) questioned him and discovered the war had been lost. They asked Ulysses to complete their 'Ark project' by going to the Presidential District and pressing a red button. A voice then announced that the self-destruct sequence had begun - Jacquard had tricked him into destroying the Central System, but would help him escape through a mysterious door. Ulysses went through to a massive door. Down another tunnel to the center of the Earth, Ulysses met underground dwelling humans, the long-lost Akanites, and heard of the origin of the prophecy of deliverance from Ape dominance. Back with Mathias at the monastery, Ulysses learned that Nova had been captured, told Mathias that he must go and unite with the Akanites, and watched another holo-message he had recovered, with President Fergus detailing how the Apes had taken over: after a great war, the inhabitants of the Ark project had emerged and used Ape slaves to help rebuild the Earth. They had used 'accelerated evolution' to make them more productive. In 2320 the apes had rebelled. A second Ark project was secretly begun with 10,000 of the elite going deep underground and cutting off all contact with the outside world - the Akanites. Ulysses decided to bring down General Ursus by traveling to the Ape High Council with this evidence.

Ulysses entered the Council Chamber. He demanded Nova's release and told the council - made up of the leaders of the five Ape species - orangutan (Zaius), gorilla (General Ursus), chimpanzee, mandrill (General Rakham) and baboon - about Ursus' treachery. With the other council leaders denouncing him, Ursus was arrested, but against their wishes leader Zaius decided to let Ulysses and Nova go. They knew of Ulysses' importance and had used Nova to lure him into a trap, but after their release Zaius revealed that allowing the human leader to run away would do more damage to the resistance than making him a martyr. A closing scene showed Ulysses and Nova gallop away on a horse, but then showed the massed forces of the resistance and the Akanites, under the leadership of Mathias, preparing to attack the Ape City.

Development

PC and PlayStation version

In 1998, 20th Century Fox greenlit the most recent of several attempts at a Planet of the Apes film remake, to be produced by James Cameron. The company's video game division Fox Interactive prepared to develop a video game tie-in. Cameron dropped out and the film project went on hold, but confident a remake would progress sooner or later, Fox proceeded with the video game.[2] It was the first ever Planet of the Apes video game;[2] Fox had attempted a game for the Atari 2600, but abandoned it amid the video game crash of 1983 (new designers completed and released this game as Revenge of the Apes in 2003).[3][4] Fox Interactive contracted French video game developer Visiware to design the Planet of the Apes game. With the film in limbo, the creators developed a new story inspired by Pierre Boulle's original novel Planet of the Apes, the 1968 film version, and that film's sequels.[5] The designers felt an action-adventure game would best suit the material and available technology.[2] They developed the game for PC, PlayStation, and Sega Dreamcast, though they scrapped the Dreamcast version when Sega discontinued the console. Rather than publish the game themselves, Fox Interactive opted to co-publish with a third party. This move, which industry professionals took as a sign that the division was in decline, resulted in major production delays.[6]

The game was officially announced at the Electronic Entertainment Expo 1999.[7] The film project subsequently went forward under director Tim Burton; the film, released as Planet of the Apes in 2001, had a substantially different premise and story than the video game.[6] Fox launched a major marketing campaign for the game in 2000, but release was delayed into 2001. Despite the long development, the game missed the July 27, 2001 debut of Tim Burton's film, though Fox Interactive stated that they hoped it would reduce confusion among consumers expecting a straightforward tie-in.[6] On September 6, 2001, Fox Interactive announced a new co-publishing partnership for all its titles with Ubisoft, enabling them to finally release Planet of the Apes.[5] The PC version shipped on September 20, 2001;[8] the PlayStation version finally appeared on August 22, 2002.[9]

Game Boy version

In addition, under its new license, Ubisoft planned a version for Game Boy Advance and Game Boy Color.[5] Created in partnership with developer Torus Games, the games were released December 5, 2001 and December 31, 2002, respectively. The Game Boy version is considerably different from Visiware's PC and PlayStation game; it is a side-scroller and follows the plot of the 1968 film and its 1970 sequel, Beneath the Planet of the Apes. The player controls human Ben as he searches for the films' hero, Taylor, over the course of ten levels, fighting ape warriors and other enemies.[10]

Reception

During its long delayed development, Planet of the Apes generated bad pre-release press. Its gameplay was poorly received at its Electronic Entertainment Expo previews, with many commentors comparing it unfavorably to similar older games like Doom. Additionally, some critics considered Fox Interactive's decision to hire Visiware a mistep, as French developers of the period had a reputation for creating games with solid graphics but poor play. Others questioned the wisdom of basing the game on the decades-old original films rather than the remake.[6]

Upon release, the PC and PlayStation versions received negative reviews from critics. Looking at the PC version, review aggregator website Metacritic calculated a score of 41/100 based on eleven critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".[15] By comparison, GameRankings calculated a score of 48.79% for the PC version, based on fourteen reviews,[11] and 60.00% for the PlayStation version, based on one review.[12] Erik Wolpaw of GameSpot called Planet of the Apes an "ugly, boring Tomb Raider clone", considering the game's environments, combat mechanics, and puzzles weak.[18] Ivan Sulic of IGN wrote, "it's not that Planet of the Apes is truly bad across the boards -- just that it's truly mediocre," finding the controls and gameplay middling and the graphics out of date.[8] Nick Woods of AllGame enjoyed the dialogue-heavy story sequences, but wrote that the positive elements could not make up for the nauseating interface and movement.[17] GameZone's review found the sound and graphics to be highlights, but wrote that overall, the game "doesn’t really toe the mark".[19]

The Game Boy versions received mixed reviews. Looking at the Game Boy Advance version, Metacritic calculated an average score of 54/100 based on six reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[16] GameRankings calculated a 59.44% average for the Game Boy Advance version, based on nine reviews,[13] and a 40.00% average for the Game Boy Color version, based on one review.[14] Hilary Goldstein of IGN gave the game a rating of 6.0 out of 10, calling it a "decent side-scroller that fails to truly impress".[10]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e "Planet of the Apes - Credits". Allgame. Retrieved May 18, 2014.
  2. ^ a b c Adams, Tom (February 9, 2000). "IGNDC Monkeys Around with Planet of the Apes Producer Cos Lazouras". www.ign.com. IGN. Retrieved August 21, 2014.
  3. ^ Weiss, Brett (2012). Classic Home Video Games, 1972-1984: A Complete Reference Guide. McFarland. p. 99. ISBN 0786487550. Retrieved August 21, 2014.
  4. ^ Green, Earl (2014). "Planet of the Apes [Prototype]". www.allgame.com. AllGame. Retrieved August 21, 2014.
  5. ^ a b c "Ubi Soft and Fox Interactive kick off a global partnership, bringing Planet of the Apes to video games". www.bluesnews.com. September 6, 2001. Retrieved August 21, 2014.
  6. ^ a b c d D'Alessandro, Anthony (May 16, 2001). "Fox's Ape-athy". Variety. Retrieved August 21, 2014.
  7. ^ Blevins, Tal (February 9, 2000). "Planet of the Apes: Fox Interactive brings the classic movie and books to the PlayStation". www.ign.com. IGN. Retrieved August 21, 2014.
  8. ^ a b c Sulic, Ivan (October 18, 2001). "Planet of the Apes (PC)". www.ign.com. IGN. Retrieved August 20, 2014.
  9. ^ Deci, T.J. (2014). "Planet of the Apes". www.allgame.com. AllGame. Retrieved August 21, 2014.
  10. ^ a b c Goldstein, Hilary (December 14, 2001). "Planet of the Apes (GBA)". www.ign.com. IGN. Retrieved August 12, 2014.
  11. ^ a b "Planet of the Apes (PC)". www.gamerankings.com. GameRankings. 2014. Retrieved August 12, 2014.
  12. ^ a b "Planet of the Apes (PlayStation)". www.gamerankings.com. GameRankings. 2014. Retrieved August 12, 2014.
  13. ^ a b "Planet of the Apes (Game Boy Advance)". www.gamerankings.com. GameRankings. 2014. Retrieved August 12, 2014.
  14. ^ a b "Planet of the Apes (Game Boy Color)". www.gamerankings.com. GameRankings. 2014. Retrieved August 12, 2014.
  15. ^ a b "Planet of the Apes (PC )". www.metacritic.com. Metacritic. September 19, 2001. Retrieved August 12, 2014.
  16. ^ a b "Planet of the Apes (Game Boy Advance)". www.metacritic.com. Metacritic. November 30, 2001. Retrieved August 12, 2014.
  17. ^ a b Woods, Nick (2014). "Planet of the Apes". www.allgame.com. AllGame. Retrieved August 21, 2014.
  18. ^ a b Wolpaw, Erik (October 9, 2001). "Planet of the Apes Review". www.gamespot.com. GameSpot. Retrieved August 20, 2014.
  19. ^ a b "Planet of the Apes - PC - Review". www.gamezone.com. GameZone. October 14, 2001. Retrieved October 3, 2014.
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