| ★ AMSTRAD CPC ★ GAMESLIST ★ THE LAST V8 (c) MASTERTRONIC ★ |
Amstrad Action |
Nothing to do with doodlebugs or secret weapons but a souped up car that along with its scientist owner has survived a global holocaust in an underground bunker. The car now has radiation shielding, a telemodem link to base and a top speed of 200 kph. You've ventured out onto the surface of the planet but are threatened by a delayed attack nuclear warhead. What all that means is that you've got to get your car back to the safety of the bunker before the bomb blows or the car's radiation shield decays. The journey to the base is broken up into two stages, one out in the open countryside and the other on the inner city road system. The first stage has to be completed wiflun a time limit which you won't find easy to beat. The car begins on a tarmacced road in the middle of some picturesquely green scenery. The way behind it is blocked and the route you have to take is obvious. The car accelerates in the direction that it is moved and it will take a while to get a hang of this control because of the inertia and skilful steering required. The car has to be kept on the road or just clipping the grass verge but any sort of contact with trees, buildings, hedges or fences will crash it and send you back to the start. The initial route is fairly straight and can be negotiated at top speed but you soon enter some twisting, turning road that forces the car to slow down or crash. The route is fairly obvious with only a couple of blind turnings that you'll soon learn to avoid. The second stage is in the maze like environment of the city where the problem is one of finding the base as well as avoiding radiation damage. This is where the shield and distance-to-base gauges come in handy, allowing you to home in on the base and to know how close you are to death. All the turns in the city are at right angles and the thing to watch for are radiation areas that you want to pass through as quickly as possible. The instrument panel at the bottom of the screen is beautifully drawn to show the dashboard of the car. It shows speed, fuel, time left, turbo, rpm, shield and distance to base. Most of these aren't needed at all until the second stage. Both stages feature smooth multidirectional scrolling and although this display is only half the screen it has some excellent detail on it. The control and time limit may seem unduly harsh at first but they'll act as quite an incentive to get further and better. A nice package that just lacks a little depth. BW , AA
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