Katharsis Shareware

1997 · action · MS-DOS · Metropolis Software House

Katharsis (Blaster! in some EU regions) is a 1997 MS-DOS side-scrolling shooter game in which you explore planets alternating between surface travel and underwater escort missions blasting alien forces. Surface levels are straight-forward left-to-right affairs, while underwater levels have quicker, less strict movement, but requires you to protect a "Superbomb" while it travels to the end of the level. There are some nice 3D destruction effects and explosions in this game, with the level enemies shown in 3D at the end of each level. Pre-determined enemies will drop power-ups to regain health, add Megabomb ammo, or upgrade your weapon; collecting a weapon while the 'W' is in the green will upgrade your weapon 1 tier, while collecting in the red will refill your ammo instead. These can be destroyed mid-travel or upon contacting the ocean floor, so don't hesitate to grab them! Each level's score is tied to that level (prior level scores have no effect on the next level), however collected weapons will carry over. The top-most bar is your health. The middle bar is the Superbomb's health. The third bar is the closest enemy's health. Upon reaching each level's ending, be prepared to battle a mini-boss! Be certain to lure it away from your Superbomb lest it makes contact and gets instantly destroyed. == CONTROLS == Arrow Keys: Move your ship "The Eagle" CTRL: Fire (hold) Space: Afterburner (unlimited, underwater only, essential for quick movement) TAB: Megabomb (against bosses very limited damage) ALT: Maintain facing / reorient facing (alternate controls only, see below) PrintScrn: Screenshot as local .TGA image P / Pause|Break: Pause / freeze ESC: Pause to main menu / Resume from main menu "Player Interface" Keyboard settings (underwater only) Standard: Left and right reorients ship facing as well as the camera auto-repositioning the front of your ship with the largest viewing area (i.e. your ship will attempt to always be on the outside third of the viewing area) Special 1: Left and right reorients ship facing but camera view area will not reposition itself. Use ALT to strafe ship back and forth within the viewing area manually. (e.g. after turning ship around, hold ALT + opposite direction to get the most viewing space in front of your ship) Special 2: Left and right dictates how far from center ship is, while maintaining current facing. ALT + left/right will reorient the ship facing. == SCORING == Taking damage, Superbomb damage, and colliding with enemies will reduce your points, offset by the normal kill value of that enemy. Collisions with bosses is immediately fatal as well as incurring a massive loss of points. Generally avoid as much damage as possible, even outside of health concerns. Dealing damage to enemies will grant some points, with the killing blow giving a points boost. Power-ups and environmental plants also give some points. Using the megabomb with TAB will grant some points, but less than killing them with weapons due to not dealing any non-fatal damage to them first. It is also possible to 'farm' some additional points by destroying mines and specific attacks from some enemies due to those attacks being uncapped in how many can be produced. == 1-4 Final Boss == Technically each level boss is a miniboss according to the game, thus the real boss is at the end of each 4-level stage. For the end of 1-4, the game transitions to a first-person perspective where you must avoid damage by keeping its attacks outside of the two yellow lines on the bottom of your screen, while firing back as the boss dodges in and out. Tap FIRE to shoot your normal attack, but hold FIRE for a second to shoot a stronger green-blue torpedo. Performance in this battle, as of launch version 1.0, does not contribute to point scoring values. == Demo weapon tiers == Tier 0: "Laser" - Despite being called a laser, it is a traveling projectile with a medium firerate that gets the job done. Tier 1: "Torpedo" - Twin missiles launch from your ship and meet at an intersection. Good for increasing damage on top of your basic weapon. Tier 2: "Guided Torpedoes" - Triple spheres fire outwards with moderate homing capabilities. Tier 3: "Lightning Cannon" - A heavily-damaging instant lightning bolt automatically strikes anything within half the screen for you. Consumes itself very quickly. Tier 4: "Auto Drone" - An instant moderately-damaging automatic red laser beam periodically strikes a single target anywhere on-screen. Tier 5: "Spiral Massacre" - A deadly set of projectiles emit in a spiral formation outward from your ship; only one use before exhausting this tier; takes a lot of saving up but nonetheless possible in a couple spots within the demo levels. == Browser performance compared to local performance == The embedded DOSBox will get the job done, but just barely due to its Simple core and no dynamic core option. There will be slowdowns when enough action and enemies appear on-screen. If this game is enticing enough, feel free