Operation Get Bike Back

Introduction

OGBB is a collaborative effort between three authors who wanted to create something together on a whim. William pitched the idea, Merlijn started an urban foundation, Maarten jumped on board and the rest is history. Opting for a less than serious storyline, the aliens have stolen Duke’s bike and plan to use it to conquer the world! Time to teach them a lesson and get his bike back.

Review

Having showcased wildly different styles and themes in their most recent releases at the time, such as RED4, X64-2 and the WGSPACE series, it’s surprising how seamless of an experience it ended up. Even comparing against some of the earliest community projects, like CBP3 and CBP4, there are no jarring shifts and sudden thematic fluctuations standing out like a sore thumb. I could only make guesses as for who tackled which areas using the strengths of those involved. What we get is a dense city district varying between street level romps and an occasional indoor venture such as a bank, office and night club. Other features like distant scenery along the borders offers an additional layer of polish and shows care for the map appearing as a cohesive whole was important to the team.

In terms of gameplay, OGBB plays itself straight with very few frills to distract from the action. You’ll drop into the streets while under fire before given a period to wander around and feel things out. Of note is a heavy focus on combat and its immediate escalation against hard hitting opponents like Commanders and Battlelords mere minutes after entry. This isn’t done just for the sake of a tough challenge either because munitions for powerful weapons are in steady supply to keep the momentum going, while atomic health bonuses are dished out likes freebies. You’re here to enjoy the carnage and not worry about anything else.

In sync with the action is how overtly explosive the scenario is, you can’t step foot somewhere without one of the buildings blowing wide open. This very bombastic nature most definitely has that William Gee signature written all over it. Over time half the city will be collapsed into ruin, with enemies emerging from the debris or positioning themselves atop the rubble. This introduces a hint of verticality amongst the destruction, especially whilst seeking out keycards hidden above or below spritework flooring. You’ll find similar scenarios like this exploited closer to fruition in later works such as Merlijn’s Shaky Grounds.

Most doors are under lock and key with only few opportunities to detour after starting out. An easy find is a cute corner shop that avoids utilising E4 specific textures, instead filling its shelves with decorative sprites for trinkets, toys and food items all by hand. The only other locations available are secrets tucked away, so once those have been sought out the entire run henceforth becomes tied down by key progression. Each of the three primary colours designates a milestone, while repeating colours that cycle back into rotation remain localised to their current area functioning as a minor breadcrumb trail.

Beyond finding keys, activating switches and solving one real cheeky combination lock, there’s not much else in terms of interactive components or discovery even as fluff. This makes the city theme feel somewhat dry, existing as a backdrop to contain the action and explosions and sadly not enough time is ever spent around one location to bring their qualities to the forefront. It’s almost as if the team had more ideas than were possible to fulfil within vanilla limitations, possibly suggesting why the office and bank are short vignettes. Pacing is always quick fire, moving from one set piece onto the next. Picking up the blue card as an example requires no backtracking, because the nearby garage door loops back onto the streets close to your next destination.

Conclusion

Despite having multiple fingers in the pie, OGBB is a consistent experience carried by its action and fast paced momentum. While tied down by linear keycard progression and being a little dry for being so focused around combat and never letting its more unique elements to breathe, there’s always something going on as the city explodes around you from start to end. The comedic storyline offers a good payoff soon after the finale, shining a light on just how silly and drastic the alien’s actions were, I remember laughing out loud back when this came out. After releasing OGBB would these authors believe if you told them at the time they would make a sequel more than two decades later?

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