| ★ AMSTRAD CPC ★ GAMESLIST ★ CRAFTON ET XUNK 1 (c) ERE INFORMATIQUE ★ |
| SVM | Amstrad Action |
The French have arrived with a product so classy that many English software houses will have to sit up and take note. It's attractive, addictive, difficult, funny and with a host of special features that will stun and amaze you. It's an arcade adventure that will test your skills to the limit as you control an android in his search for the codes that will allow access to the computer controlling the galaxy. Dexter the android, has to get the computer in order to save his colony, XUL 3, from an impending war on earth which would destroy both the computer and the colony. To get it he has to obtain a code composed of eight sections, each section being held by a professor. You have to find the professors, who are all in different rooms, and find how to extract the code from them.
The action takes place in 3D rooms that are so packed with colour and action that you'll wonder what all the fuss over Ultimate's Filmation technique on Knight Lore was for. The game is written using mode 0, which to you and me means up to 16 colours on screen at once. Normally this would mean blocky graphics but, as in Sorcery, so much work has been put in to them that they are detailed as well as colourful. Dexter is well animated and, more important, quite speedy around the rooms. He makes his way between them via doorways and corridors. These are sometimes blocked by sliding doors which have to be opened using colour-coded key cards. Some doorways are located high on the wall and so movement is restricted both by the need for keys and the ability to actually reach doors. By tar the greatest hazards, though, are the various robotic and human occupants of the complex who will do their best to get in your way and drain Dexter's energy. The robot guards come in many different guises but are all drawn in shiny chrome and delightfully animated as they scuttle around the place. These can be killed using specific objects, different weapons dealing with particular types of robot. The humans Dexter encounters come in three shapes - the professors, manic blonde lab assistants and the vicious, green-mohicanned punk who first appeared on the Macadam Bumper loading screen. The lab assistant and punk will chase Dexter and drain his energy but they can be beaten off by giving them the right object. The professor is a different challenge altogether. He won't chase you but will still drain energy when you touch him. The rooms they appear in are always well guarded so that shortly after entering them an alarm goes off and homing robots swarm in after you. With all that going on all you have to work out is how to get the code out of him. That precious commodity, energy, can be replenished at "holophonic cabins" which should prove a very uplifting experience. In nearly all rooms there are objects and pieces of furniture that can be pushed, pulled, picked up. dropped, stacked, jumped on and generally messed about in order to get to vital objects and doors. This is a real fun element since you have immense freedom as to what to do with things - you can try anything, anywhere, anytime. Floor pads can be interesting as these can operate doors, release guards or 3pin Dexter about losing him energy. There are lifts as well if you know how to use them. Dexter's constant companion throughout all of this is Scooter, a podocephalus consisting of a foot, a head and a pogoing movement pattern. He bounces merrily about the screen doing nothing helpful and generally just getting in the way of everyone. However if you whistle him he'll come to heel and you can use him to jump on to reach things in the absence of furniture. He will also warn you of slippery floors by bouncing about them on his head. Apart from anything else though - he's cute. This really is a superb piece of work. It has marvellous graphics and animation, good title music and free music on the tape B side, fast action, great puzzles, cartoon instructions, bags of humour, good personalities and hosts of surprise features. What more can you want? BW , AA |
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Page créée en 211 millisecondes et consultée 9857 fois L'Amstrad CPC est une machine 8 bits à base d'un Z80 à 4MHz. Le premier de la gamme fut le CPC 464 en 1984, équipé d'un lecteur de cassettes intégré il se plaçait en concurrent du Commodore C64 beaucoup plus compliqué à utiliser et plus cher. Ce fut un réel succès et sorti cette même années le CPC 664 équipé d'un lecteur de disquettes trois pouces intégré. Sa vie fut de courte durée puisqu'en 1985 il fut remplacé par le CPC 6128 qui était plus compact, plus soigné et surtout qui avait 128Ko de RAM au lieu de 64Ko. |
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