Amiga Computing - Commodore Is Awesome

The backroom boys
The programmer for Breathless is called Alberto
Longo and has programmed on the Amigo for
a long time. His post projects include I-Racer
which he mode for the Amiga a while ago.
Pieroaolo Di Maio is the team manager. He
works as a musician and worked out the map
and sound effects for Breathless. Finally,
Gianluca Abbate is 15-years old, yep, 15-years
old and designed the 2D graphics and textures.
Sounds like a bit of a genius to mei
collectables, and by that I don't mean Star Wars
figures or Dinky cars. I mean power-ups, weapons,
ammo, and health. What rarely features in most
Amiga Doom clones is the finding of keys which
II let you open the colour correspond
door. In various other clones. yoL,
ually find a switch which will be
red colour and by switching it
een, will open another
or somewhere else in the
maze.
Breathless allows you to
look for credits which act
cash. and when It all
tals up ot the foot of
e screen, you'll be
e to log-on at a comter
terminal and buy
eapon boosts, new
s, health and keys. A bit
e a computerised Tesco.
Another feature which you
easily perform is looking up
r down, Doom on the PC looked
eft/ weird because when you saw a
nster on a top platform high above you'
This is supposed to be night time. That's
why your vision is slightly impaired and
all you can see is the sky light!
This
is a screen from the
demo we saw ages ago. We
included it because It shows the
quality of the graphics
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The computer terminal
allows you to buy and
boost your weapons, not
to mention keys and
health items
This screen scren looks a lot like Doom, because you
can look outside through a gap in the wall
shooting from your eye-level could
easily kill it - realistically, this isn't possible.
However, Breathless lets you
look up or down at any angle to
see the enemy. Most of the
time you will enter a huge
room and find what looks
like a drained swimming
pool with a number of
beasts In the bottom.
Looking down enables
you to pick them off one
by one.
However. there is a
downside. The view is
quite difficult to toggle
between and It's hard to
shoot everything from the one
angle. This, however, is about
the only niggle I can find. There is
one other but I wouldn't refer to it as
a niggle. You see nearly all the walls are at
right angles, giving the game much of a boxy feel.
but it's only when you actually think about it that
It has any effect on you. By the way, I didn't even
notice until someone else kindly pointed it out.
The final word
Considering this isn't the first Doom
clone, you'd expect it to be at least
above overage after seeing the other
efforts. and Breathless Is above average
In most ways. Whether it will suit
your needs is another matter. Although
There may be four different worlds with
five sub-worlds, It still won't really lost
you that long. Okay. so maybe it is a
challenging game, but you get a pass-
.1
1
•
Breathless
features some
excellent
graphics and
sound effects,
and it plays
like a dream,
word after you finish a level, letting you
carry on, so you could probably finish in
less than a week.
That's about my only gripe.
Otherwise. Breathless features some
excellent graphics ood sound effects,
and it plays like a dream. This certainly
ranks alongside Fears and Alien Breed
3D - there's absolutely no doubt In my
mind.