Don't Forget the "Abuse" Game

Abuse Screenshot Promo. Taken from MobyGames.

Almost everyone probably had that moment when they couldn't recall a specific game. Either they've seen some gameplay of it, screenshots and overheard any kind of mention of it, but title's name got lost in their memory one way or the other (maybe they just didn't hear it in the first place). That was the case for me with Abuse: an old "run and gun" game from February 1996. Not only it has an interesting name, but as a whole that title seemed pretty curious to me.

So I've picked it as another "exhibit" for a post where I briefly talk about the game itself and its current status in the industry. Not only to show off Abuse to a few random readers, but so I can remember the game's name... Seriously, it was kind of hard to come up with a title for this "article". It was either something "too edgy" or "too save".

Cracking On.

There's an interesting story in Crack dot Com, the company that published Abuse as its sole retail release. It was founded by an ex-id Software programmer Dave Taylor, who played quite a role in development of both DOOM and Quake by adding into them various cool features like status bar and TCP/IP network library for each title respectably. Besides that, he has also contributed into the ports of Wolfenstein 3D and DOOM for Atari Jaguar.

Abuse Shareware Back Cover.
Taken from MobyGames.

I'm mentioning that not because that's some neat facts about the game, but it would be important later on. There's a lot of "id Software flavor" you can sense from various aspects of the game. In terms of gameplay, I would dare to put Abuse between Commander Keen and DOOM. Like, this game could be described as "what if DOOM was a platformer that leaned much more towards Aliens as its main atmospheric influence". There's a lot of guns and gameplay overall feel like they were pulled from first-person shooters. Not that excessive amount of enemies aren't common in that genre, but that's the impressions I get.

Unique feature of Abuse that especially interested me is the combination of keyboard and mouse controls with latter used for aiming. That in particular pokes my curiosity since I've completed Crystal Caves HD back in February, which could serve as a topic for another post with keyboard controls. This game seems like a perfect transition to older (or not) titles that don't have much use for a mouse. In theory, at least. However, overall for me it's another case of "I just think its neat": visuals, atmosphere, music... All pillars of Abuse drove me to it. Even the story that was changed from the invasion of "alien ants" to "Abuse infection" in prison, according to back covers of Shareware and Full versions of the game.

Dedication & Confusion.

I'm slightly confused about the current status of Abuse when it comes to its distribution. Following the tradition of id Software, Crack dot Com released the source code of the game around two years after its release before the company seized to exist. Besides the code itself, art work and Shareware levels also became a public domain. According to an old archived official page of the game, only Full version levels and all sound effected created by Bobby Prince remained non-public. It seems like nowadays all the levels are part of the game's source code, but Sam Hocevar's site for the game does mention that id Software's classic composers wasn't interested in putting his work for Abuse into public domain. However, he's apparently "OK with them being copied as long as they aren't modified".    

Right now, the game is actually in great position. I guess the best way to check its legal status would be to actually download and play some source port of it, but I think that the general consensus is that it's mostly a freeware (with the exception of sound, but not really). What surprised me by looking into Abuse a bit deeper is how many levels made by community there appears to be. fRaBs is an acronym for "Free Abuse" and serves as a compilation of community made content for everyone to enjoy.

Not the mention the amount of ports on other operating systems and platforms. For example, the iOS port called Abuse Classic that was created as a response to unauthorised port of the game that went by the name "Alien Abuse". According to MobyGames trivia, both developer and Apple didn't really bother with pulling it out of App Store until the original port was made since original creators still retain the ownership of the trademark. Maybe registered levels are in the same limbo as the sound effects after all, I don't know.

Conclusion.

While it would've been nice to see a freeware version of Abuse being available from the likes of GOG, I suppose its current status quo is pretty solid as is. As always, this "article"  wasn't meant to be a full-on review of the game for various reasons. However, I hope that I've managed to provide you a solid preview of this niche classic that made you at least somewhat interested in the game. And I haven't even talked about the multiplayer or built-in level editor, I should be truly ashamed of myself.

I believe that the best start for all of those who got curious would be to look into GOG forum thread dedicated to one of the latest SDL2 ports of the game. Based on previous community efforts, this "20th Anniversary source port" brings in many quality-of-life features.