Rock Boshers

By: Derek Yu

On: February 10th, 2009

Rock Boshers

Rock Boshers is a top-down demake of the 2001 first-person shooter Red Faction, by Volition. The project was originally developed for last year’s Bootleg Demakes Competition, but its author, Dugan (aka “moogled”), only recently put the finishing touches on it. And the extra time really shows – this is an impressive effort, especially considering it’s his first Game Maker release.

Boshers incorporates both Red Faction’s destructible terrain (for which the latter is best known), as well as its Martian setting, but while playing I was most often reminded of Dead Rising, a game where zombies are constantly swarming and your immediate goal, more often than not, is just to make your way through a crowded passageway. All the enemies and traps in RB are deadly, but your most hated foe is going to be the zombie spawn point, which spits out brain-eaters at a prodigious rate, quickly filling the tight areas that you’ll have to navigate on your way to the next key or exit. And no, these spawn points can’t be destroyed!

There’s a lot to like about this game, to be sure. For one thing the graphics, which are inspired by the ZX Spectrum, are outstanding, and have a lavish amount of detail. Rock Boshers also features two multiplayer modes (on and offline), as well as a hidden Asteroids-style minigame, which is unlockable after you beat level 10. All in all, it’s a pretty polished and entertaining game that’s made even better by the sometimes frustrating level of challenge (should you like that sort of thing).

TIGdb: Entry for Rock Boshers

  • barold

    coo gam

  • durp

    I agre it’ a ver coo gam

  • Quetz

    is coo

  • Vhggg

    I agr

  • acs

    ver coo gam …. iii enj ply gam off mny typ ;;; ths one gav mee fnd mem orr ies off myy ZXX spc trm. …

  • Mark

    Way to shit up the comments section, guys.

  • Mark

    Poo
    Poooooo
    Pooooooppppp

    Shit
    Crap

    EXCREMENT.

    turd.
    little nutty balls of filth.

  • Not Derek

    Sometimes I am embarrassed by the readers of this website.

  • MikeK

    Derek, It seems to have gotten worse since i started coming here almost a year ago.

    The whole demake thing is cool. It actually kinda gives me a strange perspective – esp with this game. Like a game made ages ago may have been Red Faction in the developers minds eye. I dunno. Its hard to explain. But its a strange sensation.

  • ZombiePixel

    It also strips a game down to its bare elements and sometimes you get a better picture of what a game is about (design-wise). And sometimes you discover that once you strip away all the pretty 3D graphics many games are just shit.

  • Mark

    Wait, that second “Mark” wasn’t me!

  • Mark

    The third Mark was, though.

  • Mark

    I am somewhat disturbed at how many Marks there are on this page. My name is actually Mark, though.

  • James Monkman RGCD

    Note that there is only an offline multiplayer mode – the online mode is just a joke ;)

  • dugan

    aww – dont spoil it ;)

  • captain_duck

    Great game, played it through earlier tonight. The style is done very good, complete with a 4+ minute loading screen(skippable). Also the gameplay is solid. Fun game, everyone should try it.

  • Mark

    6 and 11 are me, as well as this one. The actual Mark. And yes, my name is Mark. 7 was some chump.

    And Derek changed “Derek” to “Not Derek”. But there are many people named “Derek.” Probably even multiple “Derek Yu”s.

    And there are probably multiple “Derek”s who are sick of the diarrhea in these comments, to be honest.

  • none

    Why is it that the comments section looks to be filled with drooling retards whereas the forum is actually filled with really nice people who are kind to others? It baffles me but hey, I prefer it to say that way.

  • none

    *stay

  • Gite

    Rock Bosher
    You don’t have to put on the mining light
    Those days are over
    You don’t have to bow to the empire’s might

    RAAWWK Bosher!
    You don’t have to mine that rock tonight
    Walk the cave, shoot zombies
    You don’t care if it’s wrong or if it’s right

  • Mark

    Coo beans

  • Mark

    We’re just kidding, geez. Seriously.

    srs bsns

  • James Monkman RGCD

    Heh Dugan – mate I’m just saving you from a slew of ‘server broken’ bug reports!

    If the Bitmap Brothers had created a Spectrum game it would have looked like this ;)

  • NotMark

    waaa waaa waaa waaa

    6 and 34 were me but 12 and sqrt(pi) wasn’t

  • Al Borland

    I don’t think so, Tim.