Release Date: December 30, 2007
Io is a representative of arcade games, referring to such classics as John Romero's Dangerous Dave. The action takes place on a research ship orbiting around one of the moons of Jupiter, named Io. The contact with the crew was broken and our task as a member of the reconnaissance group is to get to know the reasons for such cheap things. It soon turns out that the ship's deck was captured by bloodthirsty strangers.
The Plot
The Nautilus-114, a rather expensive interstellar research spacecraft now lies marooned in the orbit of Jupiters moon, io. The status of the crew is unknown.
Now, 5 months later, a recon unit (Norton and Ned) of the Federation One’s IAR team has arrived to study the causes behind the mysterious events and at all costs bring the craft back home. Once aboard they realize that the atmosphere is hostile and that failure is not an option.
The Game
In io your mission is to bring the Nautilus-114 spaceship back home. However, the task isn’t easy thanks to the many robotic minions that now inhabit the ship. In order to accomplish your mission, you have to play evasively (knock out lights, hide in the dark, walk don’t run), avoid detection, solve puzzles, carry out your objectives. You are also accompanied by your robotic friend and constant help, Ned. Together, you will take enemies down, navigate hard to access areas, gather data pertaining to the destruction of the ships human crew and bring the ship back home (or will you?)
Player moves: Io is a side-scroller game, however you can also move the player in and out of the screen, to hide in dark nooks, pick up secret items, shimmy across a girder, etc.
Point and shoot mechanism: Point and click on the screen with the mouse, and Norton will orient himself to look or shoot at the pointed spot.
Equipment: Radar to spot enemies, night and thermal vision cameras, Bottracker to track bots, cloaker to go invisible, stealth suits to go undetected, heavy armor, etc
Weapons: Machine gun, Rail gun, Grenade launcher, Rocket launcher, Gravity gun and a Flamethrower.
Bots: 9 different bot types to play with. Bots have their own unique dialogs and characteristics.
Gameplay Duration: If you are one of those super-smart-gaming-ninja types, you could probably finish it under an hour. On the other hand, if you are like me, you might never finish it. :)
Io is a short game much in the spirit of old classics such as John Romero’s Dangerous Dave.
Platforms:
PC Windows
Developer: Atman Software
Publisher: Atman Software
Age restrictions: 12+
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