Space Chase Part One: City Under Siege

Space Chase Part One: City Under Siege starts like a familiar early-’90s run-and-gun platformer, then catches you off guard by making every shot matter. Jason Storm can jump, hunt for keys and supplies, and blast through a futuristic city, but limited ammunition and enemies that only stay down temporarily turn casual aggression into a bad habit.

Its ten levels have room for detours and score-chasing, yet the smarter route is often the safer one: take useful health or ammo, skip a trinket, save whenever you have made real progress, and move on. It is a scrappy Duke Nukem-style shareware adventure with more caution in its combat than its cheerful, familiar look initially suggests.

Platform: DOS

Retro Replay Review

Gameplay

The first few screens invite you to play Space Chase like an old-fashioned action platformer: run right, leap over trouble, grab whatever is lying around, and shoot anything in your path. That instinct works just well enough to pull you in. Then the limited ammo starts to pinch, and the game’s more deliberate side comes into focus. You cannot treat every enemy as target practice when supplies matter.

That change gives City Under Siege a useful bit of tension. Some opponents can be knocked out only temporarily, so clearing a route is not always the same as making it safe forever. Sometimes the right call is to stun something, get past it, and keep moving; other times it is better to avoid the fight entirely. It is a modest twist, but it makes the levels feel less like a straight shooting gallery and more like a series of small resource decisions.

The large stages and optional side areas strengthen that push-and-pull. Bonus items that only raise your score may not be worth the ammunition spent reaching them, while health, keys, and ammo naturally deserve more attention. If you enjoy poking into every corner, you will have reasons to explore, but the game does not demand that you exhaust every detour. Saving anywhere is especially welcome: it lets you experiment with a risky route without turning a failed attempt into a long replay of the same ground.

There are ten levels here, enough for the episode to feel like a complete shareware-sized campaign rather than a mere sample. The rough edge is that the game asks for patience before it has fully earned it. If you come in expecting constant blasting, the enemy behavior and ammunition limits can feel restrictive. If you accept that avoidance and restraint are part of the challenge, the rhythm becomes more satisfying.

Space Chase Part One: City Under Siege — screenshot 1

Graphics

The side-scrolling city action closely resembles the first Duke Nukem in its chunky 2D character and monster designs. Jason Storm, many enemies, and even the health-restoring Pepsi cans carry that familiar early-PC platform-shooter look, so the game is immediately easy to place if you know its inspiration.

Space Chase Part One: City Under Siege — screenshot 2

Story

Jason Storm is a classic pulp-action lead: born on a remote planet, raised through the military to Spec Ops, then cast out when his superiors decide he has become too dangerous. Now working freelance, he is sent after Evil Guys, Inc., a corporation pursuing domination on a grand scale. It is blunt, knowingly comic-book material, and the villain’s name tells you exactly how seriously to take the setup.

That directness fits the game. City Under Siege is not trying to slow the platforming down with a complicated political thriller; it gives you a capable ex-Major, an evil corporate target, and a futuristic city full of hostile creatures to get through. The premise does its job by putting a little personality around the running, jumping, and scavenging.

As the first chapter, it also works as an uncomplicated entry point to the wider series. Finishing this episode can lead naturally to Space Chase III: Showdown In Orbit, but City Under Siege has a clear enough mission and its own ten-level arc to stand on its own.

Overall Experience

Space Chase Part One: City Under Siege is more interesting than its obvious Duke Nukem and Bio Menace influence might suggest. The resemblance is hard to miss, but limited ammo and temporary knockouts give it a distinct practical concern: survival is not just about reflexes, but about refusing bad fights and knowing when a bonus is not worth the cost.

You should give it a chance if you like DOS platform shooters that reward cautious exploration without forcing perfection. The ability to save at any point softens the sting of its tougher decisions, and the optional areas let you choose whether you want a brisk push through the city or a more thorough score hunt. It is less suited to someone who wants every enemy permanently erased and every pickup grabbed without consequence.

The payoff is a compact, old-school action game with an unexpectedly tactical streak. It is not subtle about what inspired it, and its story is proudly simple, but it has enough of its own pressure and pacing to avoid feeling like a pure imitation. Play it as a careful scavenger as much as a gun-toting hero, and City Under Siege becomes a worthwhile slice of shareware-era DOS action.