Epic is an action-based space flight simulator game. It features eight completely different levels, which take place either in space or over the surface of a planet. Each has a tight time limit to complete the mission, with failure not being an option.
Plot
The plot borrowed heavily from the television seriesBattlestar Galactica, Star Trek and the Star Warsfilm franchise, focusing on a fleet of ships carrying the human inhabitants of a planet threatened by an imminent supernova. The escape route leads through the Rexxon Empire's territory which results in war, when with no other option, the fleet attempts to cross despite permission being refused by the Rexxons. The player controls the fleet's only hope, one of three experimental Epic class fighters. In the final mission, the fighter is also used to deploy a cobalt bomb.
Development
The game had been in development for about three years and had been repeatedly delayed. At first it was known under the working titleGoldrunner 3D and was initially announced to be published by Microdeal as a spiritual sequel to the two Uridium-like Goldrunner top-down shooting games, before a publishing deal was signed with Ocean in 1989. Much of the technology that was used to create F29 Retaliator had been used to create Epic. The action is viewed in 3D, with graphics being a mix of uniformly-coloured polygons and bitmaps. The music featured in the game on the Atari ST and PC is from the "Mars Suite" and the "Jupiter Suite" from The Planets by Gustav Holst, while the Amiga received a new composition.
Release
Epic was released by Ocean in the Spring of 1992 on home computer formats at a price of £29.99 in the UK. Later that year, it was included as the lead pack-in title by Commodore UK for their Amiga 600 focussed Epic bundle, alongside ' and ', squarely aimed at the Christmas buying market. Subsequently, the game received a budget re-release in 1994 on Ocean's Hit Squad label. In December 2019 the PC version of the game was released digitally in a bundle with its sequel Inferno.
Reception
Critical reception of Epic was mixed. A number of magazines scored the game highly including the review scores of 92% from Mega Zone, 91% from CU Amiga and Amiga User International, and 90% from Amiga Action. ACE, for instance, gave the Amiga and ST versions a score of 839, praising its fast 3D graphics and sense of scale, but disliking its longevity and lack of depth. In ST Format, the game received a score of 91% and was described as "the best blaster that the ST has seen in some time". The title fared less well with Amiga Power scoring the game at 34%, criticising the game for it's depth and playability. Maff Evans in Amiga Format delivered a similar verdict and criticism, also awarding a score of just 34%, noting that the despite being two years late, the game felt rushed to release and bemoaning that he completed the game in two hours. The magazine also published feedback from players in the review, many of whom also completed the game shortly after purchase, complaining that the cheat mode for the game was included in the instructions. On re-release, all magazines marked the game down, with Amiga Power providing a renewed rating of 30%, commenting that the game had not improved with age. CU Amiga was more generous awarding the title 70% and commenting that it played much better on the faster Amiga 1200.
Expansion pack
An expansion pack for the game, Epic Extra Missions, was included on the cover disk for issue 47 of The One which was only issued for the game on the Amiga. There was no commercial release.
