| The Hybrid Front | |
|---|---|
 Cover art | |
| Developer(s) | Sega Oniro |
| Publisher(s) | Sega |
| Designer(s) | Masahiro Noda Kunio Aoi (character design) Jun Suemi |
| Composer(s) | Naofumi Hataya Junko Shiratsu Sachio Ogawa |
| Platform(s) | Mega Drive |
| Release | Mega Drive
|
| Genre(s) | Turn-based strategy |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
The Hybrid Front (ハイブリッド・フロント, Haiburiddo Furonto) is a turn-based strategy video game, released in Japan on July 22, 1994 for the Mega Drive. A re-release for the Virtual Console was done on May 29, 2007.
Story
The introduction begins with someone logging into a computer, accessing a history archive. Then, it shows a revolution that occurred sometime in the 2080s leading into a series of wars and conflict that lead up to the video game's main setting of the 26th century.
Since the second half of the 21st century, the depletion of fossil fuel resources have helped to deepen the conflict on Earth. By the end of the 20th Century, second and third world countries with lesser economic and political standing had turned to corporate support to ensure civil stability, resulting in the passing of Corporate Support Act, allowing for military empowerment by the creation of the private military contracting based Corporate Police Force shortly after. Into the 22nd Century, Middle Eastern oil magistrates soon waned in power upon the proliferation of hydrogen energy technologies, and contributed majorly to spurring corporate entities to establish orbital satellite based industries and communities. Things never truly became peaceful even after the world was forced to switch over from using petroleum-based fuel to using hydrogen fuel. Global warming continued without any signs of giving up. The 22nd century would see humanity slowly recover from the "oil wars" that lasted from the late 20th century to the year 2132.
At the start of the 24th Century, with the corporate powers having established enough self sustaining infrastructure, they had proposed a seceding from the nations of Earth into their own collective power, which was immediately opposed by the United Nations. Ultimately, political tensions would rise from this bitter feud over the years and world war history would repeat itself with the First and Second Orbital Wars, culminating in the corporate powers' complete takeover of the satellite collective of Earth's orbital belt. Upon the end of the First Orbital War, the corporate powers would make themselves known as CoCoON (abbreviation for COoperation COmmunity of Orbital Negotiation), and the Second Orbital War, or the "Hammer War", was the establishing landslide victory for CoCoON, by possession of the powerful Italian consortium made ion cannon satellite laser weapon Metal Hammer being used to strategically decimate Earth's major cities and centers of industry. Coming to a truce by force with CoCoON's total victory, the UN and Earth's nations would be reorganized as the PETO (abbreviation for Pan Earth Treaty Organization). While peace would soon come after this negotiation at the end of the Orbital Wars, CoCoON would develop a reputation as a hostile group of corporate war hawks; constantly revolting against the peaceful coalition of the PETO and forcing them to act as a puppet government while allowed to act and do as they pleased, having a complete monopoly over human civilization. However, central to PETO's last resort of resistance were those of independent post-Orbital War logistics runners and movers who were able to continue Earth's supply chain even in the anarchy of the wars, the Mules. Together, PETO's and the Mule's efforts will eventually come to show how they will make history and succeed in the resistance against CoCoon, as the legendary Hybrid Front.
Gameplay
All units are color-coded; it serves as a guideline for players to determine allies from enemies when a large number of units are close together. Artillery with an obscured line of sight may still accidentally deliver their payload to non-hostile units. The blue color is given to the units whose allegiance is directly towards the player while neutral units are assigned an orange color and enemy units are all marked in red. Units can be placed either manually or automatically by pressing the Start button on the Sega Mega Drive. Mild violence is present in the game, although blood is absent. There are 26 levels in this game, all of which were designed by level designer Izumi Takemoyo.
The easiest battles in the game are assigned 15 player turns while missions with an average difficulty allow the players to play between 20-25 turns. Of course, the hardest missions in the game give the players 30 turns to successfully complete the objectives.
Asteroids tend to interfere with both combat and movement during extraterrestrial missions. In addition to planet Earth and Mars, there is also a quick mission that takes place on the Moon. Missions on Earth are either fought indoors or outdoors; there is little differences in these battles except for the floor tiles and some of the scenery tiles.
Organizations
- CoCoON (COoperation COmmunity of Orbital Negotiation)
- They are a global corporate group which are roughly divided into six main groups. They are considered to be like large-scale contemporary international conglomerates and business groups. After surviving a natural resources crisis, they helped to diffuse humanity and develop technological advances. CoCoON maintains their own military thanks to having influence beyond that of a nation state. In recent years, they developed Mars (with PETO trying spark a series of civil wars on that planet) and maintain a corporate hegemony over the Earth.
- Pan Earth Treaty Organization
- They are equivalent to the modern-day United Nations. Their government spans for regions but have a limited ability to govern and are dependent on couriers. An increasingly global reconstruction movement is an attempt by PETO in order to expand their control, however.
- Mule
- They are a contractor for armored transports in this video game. Indispensable to the people of this era, they are outlaws according to both CoCoON's and PETO's point of view. They participated in a massive rebellion called "Calcutta Disturbance History;" causing a temporary but severe tightening in the legal system.
Units
Despite the futuristic surroundings of this video game; most of the units are still based on the technology used by various military organizations of the late 20th century. Examples of units that can be given orders by the player includes main battle tanks, armoured fighting vehicles, self-propelled artillery and anti-aircraft tanks.
Other units (on land, sea, air and space) are found on later missions; carrying more powerful weapons to handle the increasingly versatile offense as the missions evolve from quick low-intensity battles to Star Wars-inspired grand space battles and epic combat missions that are fought on the level of controlling an entire brigade at the same time.
References
- ↑ "[セガハード大百科] メガドライブ対応ソフトウェア（セガ発売）" [[Sega Hardware Encyclopedia] Mega Drive compatible software (Sega releases)] (in Japanese). Sega. Archived from the original on March 12, 2023. Retrieved March 26, 2023.