Retro Game Recommendation - Zero Tolerance (Sega Megadrive)

Zero Tolerance is a 1994 video game developed by Technopop and published by Accolade exclusively for the Mega Drive/Genesis. It was one of the very few first-person shooters for the console, along with Bloodshot and Duke Nukem 3D.

The game takes place in a future where mankind has made great advances in interstellar travel and subsequently colonized the Solar System. There are extrasolar settlements, research outposts, mines, commercial colonies, and spacecraft and space stations throughout the Solar System are protected by a interstellar military conglomerate named the Planet Defence Corps. When Europa-1, the flagship of the Planet Defence Corps, is attacked by an unknown yet lethal aggressor of extra-terrestrial nature, the Planet Defence Corps call in Zero Tolerance, an elite strike squad containing five specialty trained commandos. A recording of Europa-1's last transmission shows that there was a lot of fire damage to the warship, that almost everyone on board died, and that strange creatures were looking for the few people who managed to escape the attack. Additionally, the nuclear cooling system of Europa-1 has been damaged by a small arms fire ,,an a core breach caused by overheating will destroy the star ship in a matter of hours.

During the crisis briefing, the player character is told to sneak into Europa-1 before it blows up as a member of the Zero Tolerance squad. Their mission is to eliminate the mysterious alien aggressor from within, and well also the transformed humans of Europa-1 they have "infected," in the next few hours to erase all evidence of the attack and the alien intruders.

Gameplay

Zero Tolerance has 40 levels spread out over three different areas: the space warship Europa-1, an abandoned merchant freighter, the Planet Defence Corps' heavily fortified central command building, and the sub-basement areas of that building. The objective of the game is to kill all of the enemies on a level and then proceed to the exit, which is either a staircase or elevator leading down to the next level.

However, nothing prevents the player from heading straight toward the exit without killing all of the

enemies. If this is done, the player is simply not given any passwords until the entire area is finished. When a character is killed, he or she is marked as "deceased" and is no longer playable. The player can choose from a total of five different characters; once they are all deceased, the game is over. For multiplayer mode, the game supported connecting two Genesis or Mega Drives using a special link cable and the second joypad port. The cable was originally supposed to be shipped as a pack-in with the game. However, this was changed in a last-minute decision, and a coupon for ordering a free cable was added instead.

Reception

GamePro gave the game a mostly positive review, commenting that “first-person games like Zero Tolerance put pressure on a system's processor, but Accolade has done a good job here: The anxiety caused by an adversary careening around a corner or the twitching body of a gunned-down spider is severe.” They additionally praised the large and labyrinthine levels, cooperative multiplayer ability, and limited but effective sound effects, though they criticized a few elements, such as how slowly the player character turns. The four reviewers of Electronic Gaming Monthly had varying reactions to Zero Tolerance but generally agreed that it was an effective substitute for Wolfenstein 3D and Doom on the Genesis. They received a 7.5 out of 10 rating. Game Informer rated it 8 out of 10