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Essays 28 November 2022, 16:36

author: Darius Matusiak

9 Iconic & Notorious Enemies From 90s' Games

Not only bosses can give players a headache and go down in gaming history. Sometimes, ordinary opponents become just as memorable. Here are the infamous nine enemies from games of the 1990s – a time when there was no discount for beginners.

Table of Contents

Chryssalids – UFO: Enemy Unknown

  1. Genre: turn-based strategy with RPG elements
  2. Release year: 1994
  3. Developer: MicroProse

What were the chryssalids?

The names comes from the word "chrysalis." In the first game in the UFO series, which became known as XCOM, the chryssalids were deadly, bipedal, crab-like aliens with pincers on their upper limbs. They used them for lightning-fast melee attacks, which, if they succeeded in killing a victim, injected an embryo that turned the corpse into a zombie. To make matters worse, the defeated zombie would spawn another chryssalid!

The authors of the game are said to have been a bit inspired by the xenomorphs from Alien, as evidenced by their code name – Ridley – from the name of the director of the first Alien movie.

Why were they memorable?

Chryssalids could get under your skin, attacking in packs using their deadly pincer strikes and poison injections. They were very mobile, they quickly covered large distances and never used cover, although they could sometimes use camouflage. The best strategy to combat them was to get as much distance as possible and shoot, so as not to let them get too close, within the range of the pincers. Along with the successive upgrades, the soldiers could be much better equipped for clashes with the chryssalids, and over time they did not pose such a threat as in the early stages of the game.

  1. UFO: Enemy Unknown in our encyclopedia

Darius Matusiak

Darius Matusiak

Graduate of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Journalism. He started writing about games in 2013 on his blog on gameplay.pl, from where he quickly moved to the Reviews and Editorials department of Gamepressure. Sometimes he also writes about movies and technology. A gamer since the heyday of Amiga. Always a fan of races, realistic simulators and military shooters, as well as games with an engaging plot or exceptional artistic style. In his free time, he teaches how to fly in modern combat fighter simulators on his own page called Szkola Latania. A huge fan of arranging his workstation in the "minimal desk setup" style, hardware novelties and cats.

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