Disclaimer: This game is very old and may no longer function on modern operating systems. There is useful help for running legacy Game Maker games available here on the YoYo Games website.
Welcome to New Verago. The year is 2029.
Game Info:
In the late 2000s, homebrew ‘GTA clones’ like Total Anarchy were something of an underground indie phenomenon. A lot of aspiring game creators like myself wanted to express ourselves with open worlds. This was long before iOS or Android apps took over the scene. Total Anarchy was my first serious attempt at something more than just a bad joke to show off my Game Maker skills.
An alpha version of this game was released in early 2009 to the Game Maker community forums. I followed it up with a beta in March 2010. Although I continued to develop the game beyond this, I never officially released any subsequent versions until Pavilion City, over eight years later!
The beta version was shared all over the internet in 2010 and got downloaded far more times than I was anticipating.
While it is woefully dated and clunky by today’s standards, this project showed off some of my best technical achievements for the time. The size of the map, the amount of active objects on the screen at once, the range of cars and music as well as the top-down 3D rendering were all something of a minor miracle to pull off given that I was still relying on drag’n’drop GM functions mixed with noodle GML code. It was a monster.
This game includes over 70 unique vehicles, 12 futuristic weapons, 7 fully scripted radio stations, and a vast array of sounds. There’s a day/night cycle and a ‘city lockdown’ curfew mode after you kill enough NPCs. You get to wreak terror and destruction on a richly detailed, massive city rendered fully in 3D. Every sprite (e.g. pedestrian NPCs) is rasterised from 3D models.
You can bring up hints, controls and cheats by pressing F1 in game. There’s lots to do in the city, you can take part in gang wars, drive taxi fares, take the fight to the police and initiate in rampages. There’s also a tank hidden somewhere in the city!
Download:
Hosted by the Internet Archive – click here to visit download page.
Reviews:
“Total Anarchy is a good clone of GTA, extracting exactly what we were happy to do in GTA like wild random shooting action from an entire army. We are driving around and terrorizing the area. There are not many real missions and the game is just a Beta and will not be further developed, it is a pity!” – IzzyGames
Related media:
Listen to RISE FM – full length radio station from this game.
Listen to Total Anarchy radio clips – an audio timeline of development.
Gameplay Video:
Fionn's Games & Music 