''Retribution'' is a video game developed by British studio Astros Productions and published by

Gremlin Interactive Gremlin Graphics Software Limited, later Gremlin Interactive Limited and ultimately Infogrames Studios Limited, was a British software house based in Sheffield, working mostly in the home computer market. Like many software houses established i ...

for

DOS DOS (, ) is a family of disk-based operating systems for IBM PC compatible computers. The DOS family primarily consists of IBM PC DOS and a rebranded version, Microsoft's MS-DOS, both of which were introduced in 1981. Later compatible syste ...

Gameplay

''Retribution'' is a game in which the player participates in missions on land and in the air using various vehicles.

Development and release

''Retribution'' was the first project attached to British game studio

after it changed its name from Gremlin Graphics and began focusing on PC games. Development began in early 1993. Gremlin partnered with Astros Productions, consisting of brothers Pete and George Karboulonis, who had previously programmed the PC conversions of '' Toyota Celica GT Rally'' and '' Nigel Mansell's World Championship Racing''. As such, ''Retribution'' was pitched as a

racing game Racing games are a video game genre in which the player participates in a motor racing, racing competition. They may be based on anything from real-world racing leagues to fantastical settings. They are distributed along a spectrum between more re ...

and Astros was given three months to flesh out the idea. The pair finished the prototype in only six weeks. Gremlin found their landscaping routine (known as Voxel Spacing) so impressive that the racing concept evolved into futuristic combat with added aerial missions to better accentuate the technology. Eight months were spent on its 3D

engine An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert one or more forms of energy into mechanical energy. Available energy sources include potential energy (e.g. energy of the Earth's gravitational field as exploited in hydroelectric power ge ...

alone and an additional four months to finish the game. Gremlin's Paul Green conceived the plot and wrote its script. Proclaiming the synopsis to be completely original, Green stated, “I’ve not borrowed the ideas from anywhere else — I can’t remember seeing a film or reading a book with anything like this in it.” Composer Glyn R. Brown was allegedly brought in for a potential full-time position on ''Retribution'' when Gremlin's in-house musician Patrick Phelan was promoted to software manager. However, Brown suggested that Phelan was dissatisfied with his new role and subsequently returned to the music department. The ''Retribution'' soundtrack was ultimately created by Chris Adams. Traditionally a

film composer A film score is original music written specifically to accompany a film. The score comprises a number of orchestral, instrumental, or choral pieces called cues, which are timed to begin and end at specific points during the film in order to ...

, this was the first video game on which he worked. Adams was given

storyboard A storyboard is a graphic organizer that consists of simple illustrations or images displayed in sequence for the purpose of pre-visualizing a motion picture, animation, motion graphic or interactive media sequence. The storyboarding proce ...

s for the animated introduction and cutscenes to aid him as he began writing the score while they were still being rendered. Gremlin released ''Retribution'' in Europe in November 1994. Front Street Publishing, an arm of the UK publisher U.S. Gold, partnered with Gremlin to distribute the latter's games in North America in 1995. Front Street began offering demo disks of ''Retribution'' and other titles in the region early that year.

Reception

''Retribution'' received mixed reviews. ''

Next Generation Next Generation or Next-Generation may refer to: Publications and literature * ''Next Generation'' (magazine), video game magazine that was made by the now defunct Imagine Media publishing company * Next Generation poets (2004), list of young ...

'' reviewed the game, rating it two stars out of five, and stated that "Mediocre graphics and a generally weak set of sound effects don't do much to generate excitement for what, in the end, is a yawner of a game."

References

External links

* (archived) * {{moby game, id=/retribution, name=''Retribution'' 1994 video games Astros Productions games Combat flight simulators DOS games DOS-only games First-person shooters Gremlin Interactive games Single-player video games Tank simulation video games Video games about alien invasions Video games developed in the United Kingdom Video games set in the 25th century Video games set on fictional planets