| ★ AMSTRAD CPC ★ GAMESLIST ★ DYNASTY WARS (c) USGOLD ★ |
| A100% | Amstrad Action | JOYSTICK | MICRONEWS |
"Do not depise the snake for having no horns, for who is to say that it will not become a dragon", an old Chinese proverb says. Gibberish it may sound, but it's true. For it is writ large in the legends of fuedal China that four warriors overthrew an empire. They were considered harmless, the last remenants of the fallen Han Clan, but they became the legend known as the Dynasty Wars. Individually they had no power, but fighting in two pairs they had the power to defeat the rebellious warlords who had dethroned their family. Now you have a chance to wreak havoc and let loose the dogs of the Dynasty Wars, and control these warriors on their quest for bloody vengeance. The four Hans ride horseback into a horizontally-scrolling battlefield. They carry horseman's halberds with which to overcome their opponents. They're usually run-of-the-mill peasant conscripts and they provide no real challenge to the might of the seasoned soldiers of the Han clan. They attack with arrows and swords but only need a quick poke in the head to cut them down. Admittedly, they do come in waves but even these don't pose much of a threat. The black sheep of this wimpy family, however, are the Generals. They ride horses and have weapons every bit as pokey as your own. They take an awful lot of killing, but with careful planning and deft riding they soon eat dirt, just like their troops. In attack the hero you've selected - one of four on offer - can either fire short stabbing shots or, by holding the Fire button down, save up a real meaty blast. The little hits are good enough for the foot soldiers but the Generals deserve every bit of of saved power you can muster. Shooting off the spear shots couldn't be easier -just line up the horse with the enemy and release the Fire button. The horses limit the direction of fire to forward and back, so the only thing to watch as you scroll along is how much power you've got in reserve and make sure you're in line with any incoming foes. Dynasty Warriors also have another trick up their sleeve; tactics. In real life this would mean sneaking' up behind the bad boys and slaying them with the aid of surprise. In China, tactics means magic. Using arcane powers (and a keypress), the Hans can call in either a firestorm or a rock slide. These are fatal for the ordinary footslogger, damaging to the generals and only cost you a few hit points to cast! The only disadvantage is that you have to wait until the tactics option is available, when a message appears by the score tables.
Each of the four warriors has special abilities and weaknesses. Generally, the harder they can hit something the fewer hit points - displayed on an analogue energy bar - they get. Both damage potential and damage resistance can be improved by collecting orbs and shiny new spears during the battle. That's it. A chop-em-up on horseback that consists of eight levels and one life per player. The enemy, while not dangerous individually, wear you down eventually by sheer force of numbers. It's diverting, with some smart 'Akira' style pics at the front end and a refreshingly different tune through out the game. The concept -albeit borrowed from the arcade original - is different too, taking the beat-em-up genre for a a quick canter. But the game itself is dull. Kill the footsoldiers too quickly and you have to sit around and wait for the screen to scroll on. At the end of a level, life gets confusing as the sprites all merge into a seething, sword-waving mass. A necessary evil, as the range of colour is sacrificed for good graphics, but even bearing this is mind the problem's a problem all the same. Dynasty Wars claims to re-tell the most bloodstained chapter in history, but if that's the case fuedal China looks quite a nice place to spend your summer hols. The backgrounds are pretty (good skiing on Level Three) and there's plenty of time to sight-see. And travel's easy if you find the keypress cheat... TW, AA |
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Page créée en 243 millisecondes et consultée 5482 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. |
