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Lemmings
by cheffrey When Lemmings was released by Psygnosis in 1991, it was hailed as one of the most brilliant games of its day, and its simple idea and gameplay allow it to be just as accessible today. The premise is devastatingly simple. You are the sole protector of the Lemmings, which are green-haired, blue-clad dopey little creatures who ... must be guided from their point of entrance on the screen to the exit. Using a variety of tools and resources at your disposal, you can give them skills or building materials to navigate the map to the exit. Sounds easy, doesn't it... The Lemmings have the annoying tendency to act like, well, lemmings. They will continuously walk in a straight line until they either: a) bump into an obstacle, then turn around and continue marching in the opposite direction, or b) walk blithely into their own death. This is usually the outcome. The level starts with the cute call of 'Let's Go!', and a trapdoor opens in the ceiling and out pour the Lemmings. The number of Lemmings that you have to rescue per level varies from 2 to 100, and the load-out screen will tell you what percentage of Lemmings must be rescued to progress to the next screen. The exit is usually at the other end of the screen, with a variety of obstacles and deadly traps to cross. The 2D landscape is destructible, which was a very cool feature for the time. Across the bottom of the screen is the inventory of resources available. You can only select one Lemming at a time, so they must be used wisely. These are as follows: Climber: This allows the chosen Lemming to climb vertical surface, which can be very handy. However, there is no telling them NOT to climb up to places you don't want them to explore. Once made a climber, a Lemming will stay a climber. Floater: This is a really handy tool, as it equips one Lemming with an umbrella that allows them to fall slowly over any distance. Being quite fragile, they can only survive a drop of about 30 pixels or so on the screen; any higher and they splatter into bits. Like the climber, they handily retain this skill Builder: If selected, the Lemming will build a bridge from where he is stood. It extends for a little while at a 30 degree angle, and when he runs out of brick, simply shrugs his shoulders and steps off the edge. Bomber: Sometimes sacrifices are needed for the greater good... In this instance, the unlucky Lemming will start to count down from 5 to 0, then explode, leaving a crater in the landscape and a shower of Lemming bits. Blocker: This turns your chosen Lemming into a nightclub bouncer. Immovable to the end, he will block Lemmings from continuing on their way, and can normally only be removed by blowing him up. Basher: This allows a tunnel to be 'bashed' horizontally. The chosen Lemming does a diligent job, continuing until he breaks through to the other side, finds an impervious barrier, is told to blow up, or finds a gaping chasm. Digger: Like the basher, but digs vertically downward. Miner: Like the above, but the Lemming wields a pickaxe to tunnel down at 45 degrees. With these few tools, which are limited in number, you must carefully choose where and how to employ them to achieve the goal of rescuing the Lemmings. The game is divided into four 'stages' of 30 levels. Each successive stage becomes more challenging, aptly titled 'Fun', 'Tricky', 'Taxing' and 'Mayhem'. As the game progresses, the percentage of Lemmings released increases, and the amount of resources available decreases. Be prepared to get see the same screen quite a few times as you attempt and re-attempt to best it. The game employs a system of passwords, revealing the next password upon completion of the level. The individual level designs vary greatly in their theme and construction, despite the goal remaining the same throughout. Industrial architecture, natural caves, crystalline landscapes and bizarre alien worlds are all well-rendered and add variety. There are also cunningly hidden traps to discover and avoid, such as falling rocks, bear-traps and acid pools, which will all bring your precious Lemmings to a sticky end. Oh, and they can't swim either, so avoid water where possible. Some of the levels are fiendish in design, and this can be a real test of lateral thinking. Steel plates cannot be destroyed, exits are sometimes false or hidden, and sometimes the Lemmings appear from two or more entrances. Thankfully you can pause the game to survey the land and make your next move, but this does require a quick mouse-hand. And if it all goes wrong, you can 'Nuke' the level, which will quite cathartically blow up your entire Lemmingy entourage. At the last stages of the game, some of the levels are so hellishly difficult they require pixel-perfect placement of bridges, or split-second timing of placing a bomber. Whilst it may get infuriating, the sense of satisfaction at having cracked a difficult screen is immense. A bit like finishing the Times Crossword. Sort of. And when you've done all of those, there is an expansion pack called 'Oh No! More Lemmings!' which adds an extra 100 screens. The real reason why Lemmings works, is that it taps into the side of you that likes a challenge, and you end up genuinely caring about these furry little idiots for some reason. It's probably because they're cute and funny - if they'd chosen black widow spiders as the hapless creatures that needed saving, this game would've been a disaster. If there are any gripes, it's that you have to keep a notepad of passwords, and the music is immensely irritating. A MIDI version of 'How Much is that Doggy In the Window' on loop is enough to drive anyone bonkers, but thankfully you can turn it off. You can easily get Windows for Lemmings for about 1 pound these days off ebay or in the bargain bucket at PC World. Be warned though, this is an incredibly addictive game, silently challenging you to beat it, almost wishing you to do so. This is classic computer games design. A brilliantly simple premise, wonderfully drawn landscapes and a memorable little character. It's a sad truism that as budget and technology increase, imagination tends to go down, whether it be in the film, music or games studio. There have been few recent blockbuster games that possess the originality and brilliance of Lemmings, the only two that spring to mind are 'Portal' and 'Plants vs. Zombies'. If you want a game that's a real challenge, this is well worth a look. Read the complete review |
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Gods
by cheffrey Released by the Bitmap Brothers across multiple gaming platforms in 1991, this stood head and shoulders above a raft of standard, 2D platform games. The Bitmap Brothers, in case you've never heard of them, were one of the most well-respected games development houses of the time, and were released some very good games. 'Gods' is a very ... slickly executed game, which was very impressive given the technology available at the time, and is still worth a quick look if you like a bit of retro gaming. Set in mythological Ancient Greece, you are put in the role of Heracles on a quest to defeat the challenges of Mount Olympus and attain immortality. Split over four worlds which each have their own distinctive architecture and enemies, the player must defeat the four guardians in order to do this. The gameplay is very simple, with controls for movement, attack and activate. Puzzles play quite a big part, with an easy inventory system to hold puzzle items which need to be found and used in the correct locations. And as with every platform game, there are the usual switch/moving block puzzles, but it doesn't overly rely on these. Treasure can be found, either dropped from killed enemies, or in bonus treasure rooms and locked chests. Occasionally you will encounter a trader, where you can spend your loot on extra weapons and power-ups to aid your mission. The weapons available rise with power as you find them, and you'll need them as the enemies become more powerful. What set this game apart from its contemporaries was the quality of the programming and attention to detail. The graphics, which were well-drawn depictions of Ancient Greece, with columns and facades lovingly reproduced to give the locations atmosphere. Some, though not all, the creatures are clearly inspired by the Greek setting as well, with harpies, a dragon, minotaurs and a giant hoplite in their number. The others are unidentifiable alien-looking things, which is a bit disappointing as there are loads of creatures that would have been good to model them upon. The animations are slick, and the collison detection is good so there are no annoying bugs like falling through the scenery or problems loading between rooms. The AI was also revolutionary for the time. The game would gauge how well you were performing, and would have the monsters attack more aggressively if you were doing well, or ease off if it thought you were struggling. Different enemies had different patterns of engaging with the player, and wouldn't just rush dumbly at the player like so many other games. Some exercised caution and would retreat, others would attack in packs and pursue. Most impressive is the 'thief' enemy, which would steal important objects from the player, and would occasionally be needed in puzzle solving. This is not to say that it ever becomes easy - this is an old-school game with no savegame function, employing the now-archaic password system to access levels. Trial and error, and patience, are required here! The sound effects were crisp and well recorded, and not intrusive or annoying with little repetition. The soundtrack is probably the best part of this game, composed by former Ultravox leader John Foxx, under the guise of Nation 12. The moody electronic theme, overdubbed with choral effects, suits the action well and is very memorable - the main theme, 'Into the Wonderful', can be found on the Nation 12 album 'Electrofear'. If you're interested in tracking this down, ebay is your best bet. It was released on the PC, Archimedes, Amiga, SNES and Megadrive, amongst a few others, so if you have one of these platforms then it's worth a look. It turns up every now and again for a few quid. You may have trouble getting it to run on modern PCs too, I've not tried to run a copy on Windows XP or later. Yes, it's 20 years old, but has a place in the history of the development of games, most notably for its AI. I loved this as a kid, and it inspired me to buy a copy of 'The Iliad'. Now who says games can't be educational, eh? Read the complete review |
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Resident Evil 2
by Bullydc1 Now I never played the original RE1 myself, but I had seen it played many a time and decided that when the sequel was released I would get it. Res-Evil 2 was released by Capcom in 1998 as the second in the popular series. This time instead of the original haunted mansion approach, the protagonist is able to venture around a ... city. Synopsis: Our main two characters are Claire Redfield and Leon Kennedy (you get to pick which one you'd like to control as they first meet right at the beginning...decide to split up and look for survivors..that's a good idea. You are now in Racoon city away from the haunted mansion and 'the hive' but the T Virus, a biological weapon, has escaped and the story takes place two months after the first games plot finishes. Raccoon City, is a mountain town whose current population now have a hankering for Brains and flesh in general, all thanks to the umbrella corporation. Leon is a rookie police office on his first day on the job ! and Claire are looking for her brother Chris, he is long since gone, so you stumble around the city and into the hive looking for survivors and a means to escape. In the end you bump into William Burkin, the creator of the T virus, who ahs now been turned into a great big monster by an even more prevalent G virus. Through out the game you will be expected to kill all sorts of bosses ranging from a huge crocodile (who is dispatched with some ingenuity with a fire extinguisher like in Jaws) and a huge plant. As you go deeper into the hive you will come up against experimental zombies as well. It turns out that the nasty police chief Irons is in on a cover up about the T Virus, and he gets taken out by a nasty 'licker' mutant marauding around the police station. In the end you try to escape with a girl you find ,sherry, onan underground emergency train, which is promptly attacked by a mutant boss, Will Birkin, and the trains auto destruct system takes him out. Gameplay: I cant speak for RE1 but in 2, the camera angles are annoyingly and purposefully placed so that when you run into a room, you get the cut shot door opening (this becomes tiring after a few looks) and you end up in the corner of the room, with the camera facing inward, not outward, yet you can hear shuffling, then moaning, indicating zombies are ruddy close. To have more then a 90 degrees angle of fire and not box yourself in you have to walk forward, but you dont know if the zombie is closer then he seems so you could end up walking right into the arms of the undead....annoying but effective. So you do what I did and fire off a few rounds to catch the buggers before they even get close. Still the jittery movement and angles of firing on the characters meant you sometimes faced the wrong way...this was a constant problem. Each character you play has their own storyline and plot, meaning you should complete this game twice to find out the whole story. RE2 was one of the first games where you had to conserve your ammo, no more assault mode, round flying everywhere- if you found a clip with 5 rounds in it, you thought it was Christmas, if you found a new shotgun (the explosive shotgun was brilliant) you'd say happy hanika !!. You also had to conserve usage of the healing , blue, green and red plants (one is for poison) so ultimately you would have to wait to your were nearly dead to use them. So the game was as much about scavenging for supplies then pure action, which meant you looked everywhere and this opens the game up. RE as a series went from being all about suspense and puzzle solving to action and puzzle solving in this one (the cog in the clock tower puzzle was particularly difficult) Weapons: ranged form a knife or pistol, to flamethrower and explosive shotgun which, if your not careful, would blow you up too...basically all long range weapons were best...don't want the zombies to get too close Graphics: were a vast improvement on the first RE, rendering in the school, hospital and police station were far better, the zombies look more human then blocky zombies, and the bosses are made increasingly more scary by the detail applied. Fire although better still looks lame though. The objects around the city like cars and phone boxs looks great, and its detailed enough that you can see a gun in all the stuff lying around because it looks that much better. The soundtrack was also very harrowing, and scary enough so that you knew when a boss or jumpy bit ws coming up, but although you knew this, you never knew exactly when something was going to jump out on you. The music would also play over the cut scenes Read the complete review |
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