In 1998, the world was obsessed with the end of everything. We had Armageddon on the big screen, the Y2K bug was looming over our beige PCs, and then there was this weird, loud PlayStation game called Apocalypse.
You probably remember the cover. It was basically a giant, digitally rendered Bruce Willis head staring at you with a blank expression, looking like he was just trying to get through a DMV appointment. But inside that plastic jewel case was one of the strangest development stories in gaming history.
Honestly, the apocalypse game Bruce Willis signed on for wasn't even the game that eventually hit the shelves. It was supposed to be a revolution. Instead, it became a fascinating mess that accidentally gave birth to one of the biggest franchises in history.
What was Apocalypse actually about?
The plot is peak 90s sci-fi edge. You play as Trey Kincaid—who is, for all intents and purposes, just Bruce Willis in a tactical vest. He’s a scientist-turned-renegade in a future where a guy named "The Reverend" has used nanotechnology to create the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
It’s your job to stop them.
The game is a third-person, dual-stick shooter, though it came out before the DualShock was the absolute standard. You run through dystopian graveyards, sewers, and laboratories, blasting everything that moves while Bruce shouts things like "Strap one on, it's time to jam!" and "I feel good!"
It’s mindless. It’s loud. It’s surprisingly fun if you don't think about it too hard.
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The sidekick that disappeared
Here is the really weird part: Bruce Willis wasn't supposed to be the main character. Activision originally hired Neversoft to build a game where you played as a generic mercenary named "The Kid." Bruce Willis was cast as the AI-controlled sidekick. He was going to follow you around, offer cover fire, and crack jokes. They spent millions on his likeness and voice.
But then, testing happened.
Playtesters hated it. Nobody wanted to hang out with Bruce Willis; they wanted to be Bruce Willis.
So, midway through development, Neversoft had to flip the script. They threw out "The Kid," promoted Bruce to the lead, and tried to salvage the dialogue. This is why the voice acting in the final game feels so disjointed. Half the time, Bruce is shouting one-liners that sound like they were meant for a partner who isn't there anymore.
The Tony Hawk connection (The real legacy)
If you look past the blocky 1998 graphics and the "nu-metal" soundtrack featuring Poe and System of a Down, you’ll find something familiar in how the character moves.
Neversoft was a small studio on the brink of collapse during this project. To save themselves, they built a robust 3D engine that could handle fast movement and complex environments. While they were finishing Apocalypse, they started experimenting with a prototype for a skateboarding game.
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They literally took the Bruce Willis character model from the apocalypse game Bruce Willis and put him on a skateboard.
They used the same engine—the same code that powered Trey Kincaid’s run-and-gun antics—to build the first Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater. If you’ve ever wondered why the movement in those early skating games felt so snappy and arcade-like, you have this weird Bruce Willis shooter to thank for it.
Why the game feels so "crunchy"
If you fire up the game today on an old CRT, Bruce looks... well, he looks like a collection of triangles.
Activision used "cyber-scanning" and motion capture, which was high-tech for 1997 but looks prehistoric now. They photo-mapped his face onto a character model, which gave him that eerie, "passport photo" look.
The environments were equally intense. Neversoft used a trick called a "multi-tier" camera that would zoom and pan automatically to keep the action cinematic. It was ambitious for the original PlayStation, which often struggled to keep the frame rate steady when the explosions started.
The soundtrack was a vibe
You can’t talk about this game without mentioning the music. It was a time-capsule of late-90s "extreme" culture.
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- System of a Down: Their song "War?" is literally playing on giant screens in the city levels.
- Poe: The singer Poe didn't just provide music; she was actually "cyber-scanned" into the game as the character Plague.
- Cirrus and Snot: The rest of the tracklist is a blur of techno and rap-rock that perfectly captures the "everything must be edgy" energy of the era.
Was it actually good?
Critics at the time were split. GameSpot gave it a 7.1, while others called it repetitive.
It was short. You could beat the whole thing in about three or four hours. But it had a certain polish that other "celebrity" games lacked. Unlike the disastrous Fifth Element game that came out around the same time, Apocalypse actually felt like a real video game instead of a cheap cash-in.
It didn't set the world on fire, but it didn't need to. It kept Neversoft alive long enough to change the industry with Tony Hawk.
How to play it now
If you’re looking to revisit this piece of history, you have a few options, though none are "modern."
- Original Hardware: If you still have a PS1 or a PS2, the discs are relatively cheap on the secondary market.
- PS3: Most PS3 models are backwards compatible with PS1 discs.
- Emulation: Because of the licensing nightmare involving Bruce Willis’s likeness and the licensed music from bands like System of a Down, a digital remaster or a re-release on the PlayStation Store is highly unlikely.
Actionable insights for retro collectors
If you’re hunting for a copy, keep these things in mind:
- Check for the "DualShock" logo: The game is significantly better if you play with analog sticks. Playing this with a D-pad is a nightmare.
- The soundtrack is the prize: Many collectors buy the game just for the weirdly high-quality 90s industrial/metal OST.
- Look for the jewel case art: There are a few variants, but the "Staring Bruce" version is the most iconic.
Apocalypse remains a weird, loud, and important relic. It’s a testament to a time when Hollywood and gaming were trying to figure each other out, often with messy but memorable results. Without this strange disaster of a project, the gaming landscape of the early 2000s would have looked completely different.