Please upvote this review so all the potential buyers can see.

This game is an exact copy of the original DOS game, wrapped in another application which only enables it to run on Windows. Sadly, the author shows no signs of ever fixing the bugs in this version even after being contacted by email directly. The issues in this version are:

- FPS locked at 24
- Mouse and joystick/controller issues
- Mouse controls have different speed than keyboard
- Original Raptor soundtrack was replaced by different, pretty crappy soundtrack
- Achievements don't register properly
- Save file issues
and more.

Simply said, get the original DOS game, which is also available on Steam and has none of the issues listed above:

http://store.steampowered.com/app/358360/

Holy hell, I did not expect to ever see this game on steam. Its one of the long lost classics of the 90s.

Its amazing, the game itselfs is extremely long, with an amazing upgrade system to go with it. Missiles, rockets, laz0rz's, everything. Manage your currency and make sure to save your game! you will loose your progress if you dont.

However, for a "2015 edition" its extremely lackluster. There is literally no new features in the game, it plays like its exactly as it was 15 bloody years ago. Is that a bad thing? hell no! but i expected at LEAST 1080p 60fps support. According to my steam meter, its running at 24fps. The way this game runs however, you dont feel it. Its easily playable, and for $5 this classic is a steal, I reccomend anyone looking for a nostalgic, or oldschool experience, grab this game!'

I also need to mention the save system. Each save doesn't overright your last, it creates a new one. Tracking saves becomes a chore. This really is a lazy port, I really hope these issues are patched soon.

It doesn't matter if you're 10 years old or 30, this game is still just as fun as it was 20 years ago. All that Steam needs now is Jazz Jackrabbit to go along with Doom and Rator and my childhood is complete.

Better play the old DOS version. It's a shame that they decided to use very LQ wav files as OST.

For example:

[WAV] [01:31] - raptor2 </11 kHz/45 kbps/502,61 KB/> (Microsoft ADPCM 11025 kHz, 4 bit, Mono, 45 kbps)

You can actually replace it with a 16 bit PCM unsigned wav which sounds way better than this 4 bit crap.

I have no clue why they decided to use wave files and not the old DOS and Win9x *.mus files. It's a shame tho.

And another thing is a real shame: The framerate seems to be limited to 24 FPS.

My advice to anyone interested into this game:

Download DosBox: http://www.dosbox.com/
Download the Game (DOS): *Download link removed due to an unclear licence situation*

I also made a video comparing those two versions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1N2z9wuzIw

And play it - you won't regret it.

Now before I get started I want to let everyone know, I have nothing against Raptor. I played it as a kid for hours on end and bought the 2015 edition out of nostalgia.

Everything I remember as a kid is there. The one thing I don't remember being in the 1994 release are the bugs, specifically

Buggy Mouse controls - Sometimes there is an invisible forcefield, that prevents your mouse cursor (or your plane) from being able to track across the length of the playing screen and is a problem with all screen resolutions. Now you can navigate the menus with ease with the keyboard, but when your playing the game proper, you don't want to contend with this whilst flying the plane, especially as the playing field can get pretty crowded at times.

Save Bug - Saving after each mission was never a problem playing in the original release (and essential), so imagine my horror when confronting a error message for the first time saying I need to delete some pilot saves?

I'm hoping these problems are rectified as they are annoyances to a great scrolling shoot-em-up, until then its a thumbs down for me.

I bought this mostly for the peace of mind that comes with paying for a game you've been pirating over and over again for 20 years.

The 1994 gem, Raptor: Call of the Shadows, is a great game! It's classic, vertically-scrolling shoot-em-up fun with a cool arsenal of weapons. It's not particularly difficult, but knowing which weapons to use at what points to rack up maximum damage makes for some fun strategy. And the music was great, too! Still gets me pumped!

This 2015 update of an old gaming staple, though, is lazy and improves absolutely nothing about the game.

Graphically, the game is unchanged. The game is still locked to a low FPS rate, and though the resolution is configurable via the game launcher, there is no option for 1920x1080. There IS an option for a "smoothing filter" though this does nothing more than muddy the whole appearance of the game.

This version also still rocks the classic, midi tunes that made my young boy heart thump in anticipation of my airborne battles. However, the tracks don't loop seamlessly as I recall them doing in the original iteration. There seems to be a brief pause of silence at the end of a track before it picks up again from the beginning and it's quite annoying.

Onto gameplay. At its core, this version of Raptor is excatly as the original. Controller support has been implimented, but it's sub-par. I still have to grab hold of the mouse on menus to know what I'm doing. On that note, though, when I do use the mouse, the on screen cursor will hit these mysterious vertical and/or horizontal "boundaries" past which cannot navigated without first giving the mouse shaking about the mouse pad. This I can't explain, but I've not had any similar issue with any other application on my PC.

Lastly, what has proven to be MOST troublesome about this half-assed release is the completely unintuitive management of save profiles. I'm a gamer who saves often, and it wasn't long before I discovered that every time you save in this game, it does NOT overwrite the previous save, but instead creates ANOTHER save affiliated with the same name. Additionally, there's a very limited number of available save states, so if you forget to go back and delete previous saves from the main menu, you could came back to the hangar after having completed a mission only to discover that you CAN'T save your progress, and you can't delete previous saves without navigating back to the main menu, meaning that all progress from the previous save is inherently lost.

It's the sort of thing that makes you wonder if the developers every bothered to play their port before releasing it to the public.

I would NOT recommend this port to any person wishing to experience Raptor: Call of the Shadows. I would instead tell them install DOSBox and run the original version- it's actually a bit better.

This is definite a worth buy! I got the Shareware version of Raptor: Call of the Shadows (I call it just Raptor) back in the 90´s with my first PC. I don´t know how long and often I played these first levels but I was so in love with this game. The graphics, the sound, the loads of weapons you can equip to your aircraft with is just amazing for an arcade shooter!

Besides the standard machine gun you can buy air/air missiles which help you to get rid of other flying metal through the stages. When it comes to tanks, ships and all other stuff that´s on the ground you better switch to air/ground missiles which are the green ones :) There are also nuclear power bombs, scanners, plasma and laser weapons available. So you see quite a choice for a shooter that comes back from the 90´s

Steering is quite simple - use your arrow keys for the directions, space for firing and the ALT key for switching weapons. You can configure the key mapping and even controllers are supported but ey, I played that back in 1994 with keyboard so you should stick to it! :)

The game has loads of stages I am not sure yet but I think it where 9 for each sector which is 27 levels in total. The sectors look all a little bit different, so they never get boring.

BRAVO sector offers you a vast and aried landscape, TANGO sector looks like a jungle after you beat the first wave which looks similar to the bravo sector missions but with more concrete buildings on the ground.

The last sector is calles OUTER REGIONS which is well anywhere but not on earth I guess. These missions look like the moon, mars and other planets and have the toughest enemies this game has to offer.

I totally recommend this game if you like retro games and you can live with dated pixel graphics *yay*

5 out of 5 foxes + the retro bonus fox 6/5 foxes!!!


If you like this review please join my retro games group on steam:

http://steamcommunity.com/groups/retrogames8090

Why would you compile a 'new port', call it a '2015 edition', then release it in a worse state than your previous one? 24fps lock, max res of 1280x800, and trash sound quality.

If you want to play this, just get the '1994 classic edition': https://store.steampowered.com/app/358360/Raptor_Call_of_the_Shadows_1994_Classic_Edition/

I didnt expect Raptor to be on steam, and when I saw it, I was amazed. After so many years, I remember myself playing the shareware episode all over and over, blasting through the Bravo Sector alot.
Raptor is one of the best shoot'em'ups ever made, along with Tyrian (Which was my first game that i ever played, damn, so many memories.)
I blasted through Bravo Sector once again, I blasted through Tango Sector (which was pretty hard), And I blasted through Outer Regions, which is my favorite episode from the game. Bought the twin laser, destroyed almost everything.
The music in this game is really good.

An experience that I will not forget.

Its only 5 bucks, again, buy it! you will not regret.