This game is rated ESRB: Teen for Animated Violence.
Abuse is a 1996 side-scrolling shooter and platformer developed by Exakt Entertainment, released across DOS, Windows, Mac, Linux, Amiga, and iOS. The game centers on Nick, a protagonist controlled through a distinctive dual-input scheme in which the keyboard handles movement while the mouse governs weapon aiming — an approach that was notably unconventional for its time. Gameplay revolves around combat against waves of mutants that frequently attack in large swarms, demanding steady aim and constant movement to survive. Between combat encounters, players navigate environments and interact with switches to solve straightforward environmental puzzles. The combination of independent movement and aiming controls gives the game a distinct feel compared to conventional platformers of the era, placing greater emphasis on precise targeting while managing positional threats from multiple directions simultaneously.
The protagonist of the game, Nick Vrenna, has been unjustly incarcerated in a prison where the staff are performing unethical medical experiments upon the inmates. A prison riot occurs and an experiment goes horribly wrong. The people inside the prison - except for Nick, who seems to be immune - get infected with a substance called Abuse that transforms them into monsters. Nick takes a laser gun and goes on to single-handily destroy all mutants, stop the substance from spreading further, and escape from the prison complex.
