Fade to Black (video game)

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Fade to Black is a 3D action-adventure game with a third-person view from behind the character's back. It features gun combat with a number of platforming sequences.

Intelligence agent Conrad Hart has been lying adrift in space in suspended animation for 50 years after he destroyed the home planet of a hostile alien race called Morphs.{{efn|As depicted in Flashback.}} In 2190, he is found by a Morph patrol and imprisoned in the Lunar prison of New Alcatraz. There, Conrad is freed by a man named John O'Conner, who remotely guides him through the complex. Conrad escapes New Alcatraz and meets John, whereupon he learns that John is a member of Mandragore, an organized resistance movement that opposes the occupation of Earth by the surviving Morphs years before.

Conrad and John teleport to Shadow, the Mandragore homebase, moments before Morph pursuers destroy their ship. There, Conrad meets resistance leader Sarah Smith and Commander Hank. Sarah enlists Conrad's help to rescue an eminent Earth scientist, Professor Bergstein, who is being held prisoner in Morph asteroid base D321. Conrad eventually finds Bergstein, who tells him that the base contains the Morph's new mind-manipulating weapon. Using a computer virus handed to him by Bergstein, Conrad sabotages the computer core and escapes with Bergstein, causing the base to explode along with the asteroid itself. He is then sent to a mining facility on Mars and retrieves the coordinates to a Morph station orbiting Venus, where he rescues an incorporeal being called Ageer.

Ageer tells Conrad that he and his people, an extinct alien race from Pluto referred to as the "Ancients", can lead the Mandragore to victory but, to do so, they must first find the oracle of the Ancients. They travel to Pluto and eventually find the oracle, who leads Conrad to an artifact called the Pyramid. Conrad activates the Pyramid, which relates the story of the Ancients to him. Long ago, the Ancients peacefully welcomed the Morphs, who in turn invaded Pluto and attacked their civilization, prompting the Ancients to merge their souls into the Pyramid.

A Morph mothership arrives on Pluto and steals the Pyramid. Ageer teleports Conrad aboard the mothership where the Pyramid is being held. Upon reaching the upper levels of the Mothership, he sees John before the Master Brain, an organism governing the Morphs. John reveals himself as a shapeshifting Morph creature, the Super Morph, who had disguised itself to infiltrate Shadow and plant an active detonation device. Conrad frees the Pyramid and flees back to Shadow as it is attacked by the Morphs. He fights his way through the Morphs to the command room, where Hank tells him that Sarah has the code to disable the detonation device, but she has been taken hostage by a Morph. Conrad gets to the base dormitory and saves Sarah, who gives him the code before teleporting away.

After disabling the device, Conrad joins Sarah, Hank and Ageer in planning a counterattack. With the aid of the Ancients, Mandragore have located on Earth the Master Brain that controls the Solar System. Conrad and Sarah teleport to Easter Island, where they separate. Conrad eventually finds the Master Brain and releases the Pyramid, which engages in telepathic combat with the Master Brain and defeats it. Conrad flees and finds the Super Morph attacking Sarah. He runs to a nearby spaceship, with Sarah if he has managed to rescue her.{{efn|Depending on the player's actions.}} The Super Morph gives chase but is killed by the turbines of the spaceship as it escapes the exploding Easter Island to rejoin Mandragore on Shadow.

Shortly after the release of Flashback in 1992, the development team started work on a similar sequel titled Morphs: Flashback 2 for the Sega CD. Work on the game spanned 3–4 months, however, the project was put on hold while they focused on finishing Shaq Fu (1994). By the time they returned to the project, the Sega CD was no longer seen as a viable platform, so it was scrapped in favor of restarting on PC, which turned into the 3D shooter Fade to Black{{cite web | url=http://www.bozocircus.free.fr/f_fb2.php | title=Bozocircus v3.0 }} The idea of doing a 3D sequel to Flashback started in 1993.{{cite journal|title=Caught in the Crossfire |journal=Next Generation|issue=6|publisher=Imagine Media|date=June 1995|page=63}} The game was originally announced under the title "Crossfire".{{cite journal|title=Crossfire |journal=Next Generation|issue=6|publisher=Imagine Media|date=June 1995|pages=59–62}}

Conrad's animations were created using motion capture.

{{Video game reviews

| EGM = 8 out of 10 (PS1){{cite magazine |title=Review Crew: Fade to Black |magazine=Electronic Gaming Monthly |issue=84|publisher=Ziff Davis |date=July 1996 |page=22}}

| NGen = {{rating|4|5}} (PS1){{cite journal|title=Knockout |journal=Next Generation|issue=21|publisher=Imagine Media|date=September 1996|page=148}}

| rev5 = PC Games

| rev5Score = A−{{cite magazine | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19961018102246/http://www.pcgamesmag.com/games/Nov95/fade1195.html | url=http://www.pcgamesmag.com:80/games/Nov95/fade1195.html | title=Fade to Black | magazine=PC Games | author=Klett, Steve | date=November 1995 | archive-date=October 18, 1996 | url-status=dead | access-date=August 15, 2019 }}

| award1 = Game of the Month

| award1Pub = PC Games

| Allgame = {{rating|3.5|5}} (PS1){{Cite web |last=Michael L. House |title=Fade to Black (PlayStation) Review |url=http://www.allgame.com/game.php?id=2109&tab=review |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141114225659/http://www.allgame.com/game.php?id=2109&tab=review |archive-date=November 14, 2014 |access-date=July 8, 2022 |website=Allgame}}
{{rating|3|5}} (PC){{Cite web |last=Michael L. House |title=Fade to Black (PC) Review |url=http://www.allgame.com/game.php?id=5549&tab=review |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141114232930/http://www.allgame.com/game.php?id=5549&tab=review |archive-date=November 14, 2014 |access-date=July 8, 2022 |website=Allgame}}

}}

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The PlayStation version was a best-seller in the United Kingdom,Gallup UK Playstation sales chart, September 1996, published in the Official UK PlayStation Magazine issue 10 where it was among the nineteen best-selling PlayStation games of 1996 according to HMV.{{cite magazine |title=Editorial |magazine=Computer and Video Games |publisher=EMAP |location=United Kingdom |issue=183 (February 1997) |date=10 January 1997 |pages=6–7 |url=https://archive.org/details/Computer_and_Video_Games_Issue_183_1997-02_EMAP_Images_GB/page/n5/mode/2up}} It sold enough copies to go Platinum.

Fade to Black received a moderately positive critical response.[http://www.gamerankings.com/htmlpages2/197286.asp Fade to Black] at GameRankings Electronic Gaming Monthly gave the PlayStation version their "Game of the Month" award. Reviewers generally criticized the game's steep difficulty{{cite magazine|title=ProReview: Fade to Black|magazine=GamePro|issue=96|publisher=IDG|date=September 1996|page=66}} and blocky polygon models, but praised the background graphics and animations, and generally concluded that the game's close blend of action and puzzling in a 3D environment was a success.

Fade to Black was named the 29th best computer game ever by PC Gamer UK in 1997. The editors called it "an adrenaline-pumping polygon adventure" and "an intriguing game".{{cite magazine |author1=Flynn, James |author2=Owen, Steve |author3=Pierce, Matthew |author4=Davis, Jonathan |author5=Longhurst, Richard | magazine=PC Gamer UK | title=The PC Gamer Top 100 |date=July 1997 | issue=45 | pages=51–83 }} In 1996, GamesMaster ranked the Playstation version 50th on their "Top 100 Games of All Time."{{Cite journal |date=July 1996 |title=Top 100 Games of All Time |url=https://retrocdn.net/images/c/cf/GamesMaster_UK_044.pdf |journal=GamesMaster |issue=44 |pages=76}}

Flashback Legend was an unfinished second sequel of Flashback. It was in co-development by Delphine Software International and Adeline Software International for a planned release in 2003. As opposed to Fade to Black, it was going to be a 2D side-scroller game, like Flashback, but without non-scrolling areas. It was targeted exclusively for the Game Boy Advance.[http://www.unseen64.net/articles/flashback-legends-beta-analysis/ Flashback Legends at Unseen64] The game was cancelled when Delphine went bankrupt and ceased operations in the end of 2002. However, a prototype ROM, dated 21 June 2002, was leaked and spread over the Internet at some point. It features all 16 levels with minor glitches and one music track, which is a compressed tune from Fade to Black. Despite multi-language options the beta can only be played in French with an English pause menu, but can be played in English via a fan-made patch.

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{{Reflist}}

• {{moby game|id=/fade-to-black|name=Fade to Black}}
• {{Internet Archive|FadeToBlack_831|Fade to Black Demo}}

{{Flashback series}}

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Category:1995 video games

Category:Action-adventure games

Category:Delphine Software International games

Category:DOS games

Category:Electronic Arts games

Category:PlayStation (console) games

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Category:Video games developed in France

Category:Video game sequels

Category:Single-player video games