| ★ AMSTRAD CPC ★ GAMESLIST ★ EMPIRE! (c) FIREBIRD ★ |
Amstrad Computer User |
Simon Rockman joins the fight for the Federation Empire is the new game from Firebird, and it will appeal to all megalomaniacs as you start with a small ship and work up to become master of your own empire. The pods Your cub ship is equipped with two tow ropes; these can be extended to carry pods, but must be withdrawn before you can dock. There are three basic-types of pod - cargo, ship's extras and specials. The cargo takes the form of ore, minerals or people. Special pods do things like fill starbases ready for trading, and there are energy pods which can be dropped to replenish shields and plague antidotes. Most important are the ship's extras - the correct use of the right pod at the right time is the key to building the empire. Ship's extras include a better laser, extra cargo ropes, a go-faster module, shield generators, hyperspace pods and galaxy jump pods. Starbases You dock with starbases by flying between the two orbs and rotating so that the bow of your ship points to the centre of one globe and the stern to the centre of another. This is quite a difficult skill to master, but as the programs'author, Andrew Glaister, remarked "it takes a week to learn to dock in Elite". You cannot dock with your tow ropes extended, which means that you have to drop all your pods - ropes appear from the starbase and drag in the goodies. The starbase rewards your depositing of cargo by offering you more ship's extras as pods, and these drift outside the starbase for later collection. Bouncing into a starbase damages your shields, but you are safe from aliens if you are close enough to see the base. Wait outside for the shields to build up before trying to dock. Improve yourself Shortly after starting the game you will get the radio message The Empire will award medals for shooting lots of aliens'. This roughly translates to around 100 aliens for the first medal, 200 for the second, 800 for the third and 1500 for the fourth. With the fourth medal you get a supership, fitted with all mod cons and capable of storing eight pods internally. It is with this craft that you set about your empire building. This is a grand position to reach, starting from a humble cub ship without even a trading pass. Planet bound Most of Empire is played in 2D, but the planet sequence enters the third dimension. Re-entry on to a planet means finding a warp hole, which is shown on the system map as one pixel dots. Place a locator over the warp hole then use the ships pointer to fly there. The glide slope is shown by series of rings, a bit like those in Dark Star or Hive. Missing the rings has an adverse effect on your shield and it takes quite some mastering before you can get on to the planet in one piece. Once there your troubles are not over - green spiky fuzz balls come for you, then you can pick up the ore, people and mineral pods. Finally you head for an exit which takes you near the warp hole, where you can collect your booty and take it back to the starbase. Be careful when carrying radioactive ore - it'll cause your ship to heat up with fatal consequences if you transport too much for too long. You should beware of making Icarus's mistake -flying too close to a sun will melt your ship and even getting close causes the laser to play up. Opinion Empire is an epic game and generally underrated - but it is difficult, perhaps too difficult. It took me a while to master the first mission. You have to fly towards the aliens with your ropes out and hit the two escorts and the main alien before more enemy ships can appear. You can then swing the rope over the pod and leg it back to the starbase as quickly as possible. It is a good job that you can outrun the other ships. The planet scene is spectacular and very different - it could well be another game. This change of pace left me breathless as I emerged from the warp hole. In some ways I get the impression that Empire is trying too hard to be different from Elite. There are more missions and a bigger goal but in many ways Empire could be classed with Elite, Space Trader and the old teletype Star Trek as a different space trading game. The documentation is poor - an Elite/ Starglider style novella would have been a worthwhile addition - and the sound is unimaginative. The disc version I tested required you to save your game to the supplied disc, something I was a little unsure of. Yet for all these faults it is the game I have played most this month. Empire is curiously addictive, very frustrating and requires a bit of planning. The thinking man's Elite.
ACU #8705 |
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Page créée en 087 millisecondes et consultée 3075 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. |
