No two Evercade owners are alike. Some love the well-known retro games and celebrated development studios that have appeared in the console family’s library – the likes of Tomb Raider and Duke Nukem, Atari and Team17. Others, the rarely seen experiences like those of the Renovation Collection, and the indie titles spread amongst the range of carts released so far.
For some, the platform is all about preservation, keeping otherwise unavailable games playable with no legal grey areas around emulation. Some players purely want to revisit arcade, console, and home computer games they enjoyed growing up, which is to say that it’s a software ecosystem, supported by a few different hardware options, that genuinely offers something for everyone.
Personally, I’m all about the EXP, Evercade’s handheld console. Now available as the EXP-R, a revised model at a lower price point, this TATE-supporting (vertical screen orientation, for arcade shooters) portable system has been my go-to for Evercade play pretty much exclusively since its late 2022 release, although I’m also partial to a session or two on a Super Pocket, a lower-spec handheld range made by Evercade’s sister brand, Hyper Mega Tech.
These play-anywhere machines are just so convenient, and most of the Evercade library suits them perfectly (the less said about those Super Pocket shoulder buttons, the better). But this relationship between myself and my preferred portables has effectively ostracised the VS, Evercade’s four-player-supporting home console, from my gaming habits. It’s been sitting there under the telly for months now without being touched.
Well, that changes now, as Evercade’s new Bitmap Brothers Collection 2 cartridge features a game that demands that players fire up the VS (or pick up the new VS-R console), dust off a couple of controllers and drag a friend over to the sofa beside them.
While many of Evercade’s previous console and arcade carts have featured fine multiplayer titles, the majority have offered equally attractive solo modes. But The Chaos Engine 2 is a different breed and a very different beast to its acclaimed predecessor. In some ways it’s a lot less than the game that came before it – but in the heat of its competitive action, it can feel like so much more.
The original Chaos Engine was a highlight of Evercade’s first Bitmap Brothers cart, appearing alongside Speedball 2: Brutal Deluxe and Xenon 2: Megablast. If you were an Amiga player growing up, these weren’t just familiar names but famous ones – The Bitmap Brothers was a studio that you always paid attention to, and you’d rush to play their latest wares however you could.
Debuting in 1993 for Commodore’s wildly successful Amiga and widely ported elsewhere, The Chaos Engine (US readers, you’ll know this game as Soldiers of Fortune) was a top-down run-and-gun shooter that rewarded cautious, strategic play and stood out from so many sci-fi-themed games by being set in a Victorian-era Britain gone horribly wrong and loosely based on William Gibson and Bruce Sterling’s novel The Difference Engine, an absorbing alt-history steampunk story.
Two protagonists are always in play. If approached solo, The Chaos Engine supports you with a decent-enough AI companion who you can select at the outset (there are six characters to pick from, each with different traits and abilities). But really, it’s a co-op adventure best tackled with two humans working together to crack its challenging levels.
The Chaos Engine 2 – an Amiga-exclusive (for computer and CD32 console) 1996 release which was rather lost amid the rise of 3D visuals and properly arcade-perfect ports – throws away the first game’s emphasis on teamwork and instead pits player against player across a series of competitive levels. The perspective remains the same, but this time the screen is split across the middle. At the beginning of each stage a robotic head (actually the first game’s antagonist) appears to explain the challenges ahead: find some items, kill some enemies, flick some switches, and escape the level before your rival. Get ready, and let the carnage commence.
There’s a campaign for those who want it, albeit based around the same PvP gameplay and with a shallow story compared to the first game’s more nuanced tale, but The Chaos Engine 2’s main appeal lies in going up against a friend – which is why playing it on VS is such a must. If you decide to go it alone, be prepared to fail repeatedly: levels can be learned, but on your first few runs at them the computer-controlled character will always beat you to the objectives and the exit. One tip is to follow them, on simpler levels, and learn the stage’s rhythms before copying them on a later turn – but this approach doesn’t work so well the deeper into the game you get, as stages become larger and more complex.
Reviews in 1996 generally praised The Chaos Engine 2, but spotlighted this imbalance when competing against the CPU. CU Amiga magazine’s Matt Broughton awarded the game a 90% score but wrote that your AI opponent was “bloody intelligent”, while Amiga Format’s Andy Smith said that “things are much better” in two-player mode. Ergo, if you haven’t a VS, or you do but you’ve no willing volunteers to go head-to-head with in some 16-bit deathmatches, you’re in for a tough time.
I say deathmatches – but if you’re taken out during a level you very quickly respawn. Being killed is an inconvenience, a time-wasting pause in progress, rather than a game-over scenario. Winning a level in The Chaos Engine 2 isn’t about murdering your rival, but scoring more points than them before you exit. Points are obtained in various ways – being the first to finish a certain request of the stage will always land you a bevy of them, there are items to collect and lots of monsters to kill for points. And sure, fine, KO-ing your opponent is worth some too. But it’s not the be-all and end-all of each round, so stay focused on the specified objectives rather than pumping your pal from the previous game full of lead.
The Chaos Engine 2 gives you four characters to pick from – the Navvie, the Gentleman, the Mercenary, and the Brigand – each of whom featured in the first game. They all have unique stats regarding speed and health and come with a weapon of choice. Special abilities can be collected during levels, ranging from the very handy invisibility to being able to freeze your competitor on the spot or rig a door with deadly explosives. These pick-ups can turn the tide of a level, so don’t neglect to use them.
It’s not an instant-click kind of game, but trust me: The Chaos Engine 2 was one of the best competitive two-player games for the Amiga, and its arrival on Evercade is extremely welcomed. What it lacks in especially striking looks – everything is crisp and clear, but it sure appeared dated beside some of the games releasing for PlayStation at the time – it makes up for in one-more-round appeal, as you’ll always be learning from your mishaps and stages will shift from being muddled what-do-I-do-now affairs to speedy and savage contests where you’ll know the best spots to sabotage your rival and be aware of which deadly enemies are just around the corner.
Player control can feel a bit stiff at first, a little imprecise with positioning for switches and such. But after a few rounds, you’ll have adapted to it, and the standard VS pad handles the action just fine – as does the D-pad of the EXP, its rounded form never a stumbling block for The Chaos Engine 2’s eight-way character movement.
But please, don’t limit yourself to the portables for this game (part of another excellent set, with The Chaos Engine 2 joined by Gods, Magic Pockets, Cadaver and its expansion The Payoff, and the non-Amiga release Z). It absolutely has to be played on the VS – that or the Evercade Alpha with its two-player compatibility. Put it on a big(ger) screen, plug in a pair of pads, and have way more fun than you thought you would chasing glory through deadly mazes. Buried at the time of its release and effectively restricted to one platform, The Chaos Engine 2 really deserves this overdue second chance to impress – so pay it some respect and play it properly.
The Bitmap Brothers Collection 2 is released on September 30. Evercade’s revised VS-R home console is available now. Find more information at the official Evercade website.
