Take No Prisoners
Windows - 1997
Description of Take No Prisoners
Take No Prisoners is a refreshing 3D shooter that takes an interesting perspective on the genre - both literally and figuratively.
True to their reputation as one of the most innovative action game companies today, Raven Software produces in Take No Prisoners a great mix of action, adventure, and even a little bit of strategy, all served up inside a cool post-apocalyptic plot.
As the game begins, you learn that nuclear warheads and radioactive fallout have transformed San Antonio, Texas, into an irradiated hellhole, full of mutants not unlike the denizens of Wasteland. You play Slade, veteran mercenary who has been recruited by The Man to infiltrate a mysterious, center-city dome. Once inside, the goal is to retrieve a special crystal and come back alive.
The most striking feature that sets the game apart is the playing perspective: all of the action in Take No Prisoners is viewed from an overhead floating camera, which follows your movement. While at first glance the game may appear to be little more than a bird's eye view version of Quake, there's a good deal of depth below the surface. Similar to Looking Glass' classic System Shock, the storyline progresses when you read personal logfiles stored on computers, and solve a few physical puzzles that are more intelligent than the idiotic "find yellow key to open yellow door" variety.
As you progress through the game, you will travel between areas (totaling over 20) via various vehicles you uncover during your investigation. As opposed to the very limited "move to the next level" design in most games, here you can travel between areas in a real-world fashion, similar to Strife. Graphics are appropriately dark and moody, and the control is very responsive. A 3D accelerator will jack up game's the frame rate while adding (obviously) much more graphical detail, although it looks great even without one.
Internet play has been implemented via the RedOrb Zone interface (which, as of this writing, has been discontinued). The game features over 20 different weapons, including assault rifles, pulse cannons, laser rifles, molotov cocktails, grenades, flame throwers, and many more. Controls are customizable, fighting is simple enough to master, but managing your other devices takes a little getting used to. Your character comes equipped with a PDD, a Personal Data Device that contains mission data, and anything else you can download into it. It's a great way to collect maps, security codes, notes, and any other useful information you run across. The top down perspective is a very neat way to control the game: it works very well, and makes it easy to plan attack and defense strategies.
Though it has its problems here and there (mostly regarding sluggish frame rates and uninspired multiplayer options-- both of which are now moot, with today's fast computers and the demise of RedOrb Zone), Take No Prisoners is different enough -- and fun enough-- to warrant a look by all action fans. It may not be the end-all of blast fests, but it's a welcome departure from scores of Quake clones, and offers a good and solid ride while it lasts. Two thumbs up!
Review By HOTUD
External links
Captures and Snapshots
Comments and reviews
BenniQ 2023-02-06 2 points
Hey everyone,
I just got the game working with high-res, videos playing AND with music on Windows 11 64-bit.
I won't bother going through all of the steps but I'll give you the short version.
Download both the ripped version and the full bin/cue files.
Copy the videos from the iso and into the game folder.
For graphics, use DgVoodoo2.
For the music, you have to use a software called "_inmm.dll" and it involves to rip the audio tracks from the cd using a audio software like Windows media player, winamp och whatever you preferences are.
That's it. Use Google, but these are steps!
As good as it gets!
Noland 2022-05-05 0 point
Has anyone found an in-game description of zombies? I think there is a bug in the game and it can't be found. If there was a code that opens the entire in-game database.
Trent Hawkins 2020-11-25 0 point
For those still trying to play CD music, they need Daemon Tools Lite (unfortunately) or Alcohol 120%.
Explanation: You may notice that the ISO uploaded is in fact a Media Descriptor File, Alcohol 120%'s proprietary image format, and there is a reason for that. In the late 90s era, games were made with "CD music", that accompanied the game, that was meant to be played from the CD-ROM drive. The advantage at the time was that in this manner you could hear the music as originally recorded instead of passing it through a midi synthesizer, which at the time offered less than good music quality. To achieve that effect, companies made combined CDs, a CD that is a data disc and audio CD at once.
Only some image formats support containing the "layer meta information", Alcohol's MDF/MDS is one of them. Also, not all Virtual Drive software support loading the MDF/MDS in full; they only load the data part. So far with a little google search I found that only Daemon (priced and supposedly a free "lite" version exists with ads) and Alcohol (only priced version exists) properly load the whole media image. If someone knows another software to do that, please let us know. As far as I can tell, WinCDEmu only loads the data part.
D 2019-09-04 1 point
ZAKK_LIGHTMAN: How did you get the CD music to play? What files did you copy from the ISO? I can't get CD Music to play.
I'd manage to get the game running in D3D, just download dgVooDoo and copy the D3D files to the TNP folder, and the config dgVoodoo with the game.
Zakk_lightman 2019-04-07 3 points
My pc has windows 10, and I managed to run with music and cutscenes.
For this you must download both the ripped and ISO version.
Mount the image and copy the cutscenes to the corresponding folder of the ripped version.
when you run the game (by the ripped version) go to options and enable the cd music.
The resolution that I achieved was the maximum without using direct 3d, but the game was very good.
I noticed that in sometimes if you let both cd and midi music together, they are out of time. I just managed to correct that by quiting and entering the game again.
Hope you enjoy this game !
Gonna test multiplayer with a friend soon.
BeToX 2019-04-05 2 points
I put de Videos files into the game. The game runs in low resolution but direct3d is not detected . I use windows 10. The music sound in midi mode . I mount de ISO and the music is diferent.
blahblah 2019-01-05 1 point
This is basically "Escape from New York: The Video Game". The over-the-top violence and drudgy scenery make you feel like you're Snake Plissken saving the world. The violence alone set the game apart from others. Blasting someone backwards in a shower of blood was entertaining. There are some "where do I go? what do I do?" moments in the game, and it starts to bog down in "find the keycard" minutiae that games relied on back in the day. But, overall, it's an entertaining game.
Junoh 2018-08-08 -2 points
Use the video files from the ISO version and put them into the ripped version's folder and you'll have videos. Then you can turn MIDI on in your settings and you'll have some music. It won't be as good as the actual soundtrack but I don't know how to add those to the game.
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