Computer + Video Games - Commodore Is Awesome

C [N11'14
1OP
. COMMODORE AMIGA
D. PRICE: ST £19.95, AMIGA E24.95
MOw
VERSION TESTED; ST
Atit•
REVIEWER: DAVID
C
HC+
VG was the first mag to
bring you news of Captain
IBlood
with an exclusive
Npreview
in our Jan issue. The
Egame
is not due out until
SMarch
but, as luck would have
: it, a finished copy managed to
A
find its way into the worlds
best computer mag a month
T
early. So does the finished
Agame
fulfill all the promise of
Rthe
previews? The answer is
I yes. although Blood may not
Sbe
everyone's cup of tea in
Tthe
long term. And long term
,
Is what you're looking at, if
you want to get the most from
this massive adventure.
It all started when a downon-his-luck
games
programmer named Bob
Morlock, bumped into Charles
Darwin in the street. Later,
over a drink, they get talking
about aliens. It turns out that
aliens have been here all the
time i n computer games.
As Darwin put it: "They're
here, Pac-people are
reproducing in millions. They
actually exist".
Blood is much more than an
6
.
the right amounts of arcade
and stategy elements to make
It interesting and playable.
For anyone who missed the
preview, you play the part of
Captain Blood who is zooming
around the galaxy franticly
searching for five clones of
himself.
There are a mere 32.000
planets, each with uniquely
some planets, and they play a
key role in helping you find
the clones,
But before you can 'talk' to
any of the 16 types of alien
that hang out around the
galaxy, you must first
hyperspace to a planet you
suspect is inhabited, and then
rocket down to the planet's
Captain Blood is much more
than an adventure,
surface. This is where your
arcade skills come in useful
— most planets are protected
by automatic laser defence
systems that need only a few
seconds to lock into your
signal and blast you into
oblivion.
The trick is to skim as close
to the ground as possible,
using mountains and hills to
shield you from the defence
system's locking scanner.
Unfortunately mountains have
a frustrating habit of being
painful to fly through so you
end up dodging and weaving
inbetween mountains trying to
hug the contours of the land
as closely as possible,
V
A
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c
a
d
e
s
k
i
1
,
1
If a planet is inhabited, the
residents are to be found at
the end of a canyon — a
geological feature common to
all the planets in the game.
Talking to aliens is made
easy using UPCOM (Universal
Protocol Communication). It
consists of 128 icons which
can be strung together to
make quite complex
sentences. The concept,
design and execution of
UPCOM is brilliantly
imaginative and, in many
ways, far more flexible than
any parser could ever be
By meeting aliens,
befriending them, and often
by doing them favours, you
will gradually be able to piece
together all the snippets of
information you discover, until
you know where to look for
one or more of your clones.
Although things can be a
little hit or miss until you find
your first alien, this shouldn't
discourage you from
persevering if you like your
games big and meaty. If you
don't mind spending some
considerable time zooming all
over the galaxy before you
find even your first clone, arid
fancy graphical treat, check
out Captain Blood.
GRAPHICS
SOUND
VALUE
PLAYABILITY
8
8
7
7