Raid is a conversion of the I controversial CBM64 classic Raid Over Moscow. The object of the game is to stop the American cities from being blown up by Russian nuclear missiles which have been launched from bases deep behind the Iron Curtain. The game has five different sections and each one has to be completed to allow you to progress to the next You start the game in a space station high above America. Once a missile launch has been detected you are told the location of launch and time before it reaches its target. To prevent this awful calamity you have to pilot a shuttle craft down behind Russian lines and destroy the missile's silos, which if done successfully will cause the missile warhead to malfunction and detonate harmlessly. You first job is to fly as many shuttles into the surrounding airspace as your skill will allow. Your craft takes off automatically and you have to guide it through the hangar doors. It's not as easy as it sounds since you're pointing away from the door when you take off and controlling the plane is rather tough. There are quite a few factors that you have to keep an eye on when you're flying in the hangar - don't thrust forward too much, otherwise you may crash into a wall; and keop thrusting upwards gently, otherwise you crash into the ground. Once your ships are out of the hangar you can guide a plane down to the missile launch area.  
This isn't at all hard, you just have to make sure that your plane lands on the flashing area. Once you have reached the ground you have to make your way across the hazardous Russian territory in a sort of 3D Scramble fashion. You can fire at objects using your laser, pretty vital since the Russians don't take your presence there too kindly. There are plenty of ground objects to avoid along with laser firing tanks and missiles. If you manage to get through this then you reach the five, barrel-like silos. To destroy one, just put a bullet into its tiny entry slit. You have to destroy the tallest central silo to nullify the missile warhead. The four smaller ones don't play a part in the progress of the missile, but give extra lives if destroyed. On completion of this section of the game, another missile launch is detected and has to be dealt with in similar fashion. Once all the missile silos are destroyed you have to enter the Kremlin and destroy the reactor room within. Gaining entry is pretty tough as you can imagine, with snipers and tanks following your every move. Armed with only a bazooka you have to shoot every sniper and tank whilst avoiding their bullets. You have to be swift though as when you kill a sniper another takes his place pretty quickly. Once all the snipers have been killed you can enter the reactor room. Here a robot follows a preset course round the room as it checks all the reactor rods. You stand at the bottom of the screen and sling frisbees at it (well, that's what they look like). It doesn't matter how you hit the robot, they can either bounce off the walls or hit it directly but you have to qet several frisbees on target before the robot is destroyed. If the robot does get destroyed then you are presented with a screen showing the Kremlin blowing up and you're told how well you did and given a bonus for the number of lives left. CRITICISM 1. Raid Over Moscow on the 64 was one of my favourite games for quite a while and it kept me enthralled for weeks as I worked out the best tactics to beat the enemy single handed. On this version the graphics aren't as good as I expected them to be but they are still commendable. The game-play is harder than both the Spectrum and 64 versions and ini definitely be quite a while before you can finally crack the game. I really liked it and it's one of the better shoot em ups I've seen on the Amstrad. 2. This game is quite difficult to start with, your first task is to fly as many of your planes as possible out through the hanger doors which sounds easy until you try for yourself - the saying practice makes perfect certainly rings true at this point. Don't be surprised if you don't make it as soon as you would have hoped, it is hard. However, once you have got your planes out and you're down on the ground from there on it's straight forward and is great to play. 3. I remember many CRASHes ago, before Gary Liddon came here to annoy us. the release of Raid Over Moscow. The excitement and cheer that this game brought to the Spectrum user was wondrous. Now US Gold have altered its name and ported it over for us Amsters to drool over Graphically Raid is an improvement over the last conversion from US Gold, Beach Head which was a grave disappointment. The flying sequences are a bit slow but quite acceptable. What does seem to have happened is that the emphasis of the game has shifted. In the Spectrum Version getting the aircraft out of the hangars was difficult but not nearly as hard as destroying an enemy silo. Now in this version you can spend all day getting a couple of aircraft out and /ust a minute doing in a silo. It seems that not only have they performed surgery on the name but on the game as well. - Presentation 78% : Nice loading screen, standard packaging, usual options but ..
- Graphics 74% : the hangar graphics are disappointing, the rest is above average although nothing special.
- Sound 55% : Mostly white noise spot FX.
- Payability 58% : Generally fun to play, but too hard to get easily into
- Addictive qualities 72% : although once you're out the action is hot enough to offer medium lastability
- Value for money 76% : A bit pricey for what it finally offers
- Overall 75% : An above average shoot em up that may appeal to fans of the qenre, but US Gold can do lots better.
AMTIX | 
