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The Rats
Hodderand
Stoughton
£7.95
An interesting program which
combines strategy and adventure
by the use of multiple
choice input. The game is based
on the James Herbert novel and
it does help if you have read this
book, however it is not essential
and the game can be enjoyed on
its own merits.
Your prime task is to deploy
your forces around London to
contain and defeat the rats, this
is done by moving a cursor
around a map of the city and
viewing appropriate sections.
Once a section has been
chosen, information on the
number of men and their equipment
is displayed. You can then
modify this.
Every now and then the
game changes into adventure
mode where one of your
characters, either one of the
main four or one of the many
supporting characters, is faced
with a meeting with the
revolting rodents. In this mode
the text input is built up word by
word from a bank of options.
Graphics are used to good effect,
when you make a fatal
mistake the rat leaps through
the text. The whole thing isquite
an unusual concept and 1 enjoyed
it greatly, however the
vivid descriptions are quite gory
and not for the squeamish. It will
take quite a bit of playing to
master this game, especially as
the secondary characters load in
a random fashion making plenty
of game play variation.
This latter feature is not
clearly explained and caused a
couple of aborted loadings as I
thought the program had crash
ed. If a block is not loading then
leave it, it is probably simply not
required for that variation of the
game.
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Marsport
Gargoyle Games
£9.95
Gargoyle Games have now forsaken
Celtic mythology and
ventured into space for their
latest game. However,
Marsport does retain the style
of the earlier Tir Na Nog and Dun
Darch, in that the game puts you
in control of a large animated
figure (named John Marsh) who
moves around a large playing
area, has to solve various
puzzles and deal with many
creatures in order to complete
his task.
In this instance, that task is to
save the Earth from conquest by
an alien race. You must control
John Marsh as he finds his way
through a large and complex
space station, in order to reach a
force field generator that will
help to defend the Earth.
The basic style of animation
is much the same as Gargoyle's
earlier games, but this time the
movement of the main
character is even smoother than
before, The background
graphics — depicting the cor
ridors, lifts, and various entrances
in the space station -
are more complicated than
those of Darach Nog and scroll
slightly less smoothly as a
result, but even so the overall ef
feet is excellent.
The mechanics of the game
have also been enhanced, and
Marsport is more complex than
its predecessors in some ways,
because you now have a greater
ability to manipulate objects and
engage in combat than before,
although trading this off against
the memory available has meant
that there seem to be fewer in
dependent characters to deal
with. Mind you, that's not a
criticism as I think I prefer the
slightly greater emphasis that
this puts on the action elements
of the game. Dun Darach was an
extremely engrossing game, but
couldn't equal the surprise that
Marsport will give you whenyou
walk straight into the head bad
dy.
Marsport is the first in a plan
ned trilogy of games, and if this
game is anything to go by I'll be
looking forward to the rest of the
trilogy.
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ADDICTIVENESS
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The Seidabb are back! Hewson
Consultants have resurrected
their old arch nasties for their
latest game, but this time
around the author, Steve Turner
has used the same sort of programming
techniques that
worked sowell in his two Avalon
games,
Astroclone has a number of
similarities to Marsport, in that
Hewson have taken a formula
that worked well in mythological
settings and turned it. to a
science fiction setting. Taking
the part of a crack Astroclone
warrior, you must gain control of
the Seidabb bases in order to
deactivate the Stargates that
they used to reach Earth.
The graphic layout of the
game is of course similar to that
of the Avalon games, but this
time you have more than one
stage to the game. You can
either move around the bases (or
Technibo as they are called) in
search of the Graviton devices
you will need, or you can takeoff
in your fighter and head off to
combat the Seidabb cruisers.
These two parts of the game
provide a nice balance; the action
in the bases is of the problem
solving arcade-adventure
style, w hilst the space combat is
a fun piece of shoot-'em-up ac
tion.
Astroclone is quite complex
(the reviewers' notes that
Hewsons sent out with the
game make quite a fat folder),
and though I enjoyed it I'm not
sure if it will appeal to everyone.
Like Avalon and Dragontorc the
problem solving can slow the
game down quite a lot in places,
and despite the combat sequences
the game may not appeal
to the shoot-'em-up
brigades.
GRAPHICS
ADDICTIVENESS
OVERALL
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64 ZX COMPUTING DECEMBER JANUARY 1985