dwl10@amdahl.uts.amdahl.com (Dave Lowrey) (06/28/88)
This is being posted for a "netless" friend. Comments, questions
or flames to him, not me.
================================================================================
Subject: Game Review: Apollo 18
Title: Apollo 18
Description: Moon Shot Simulation
Publisher: Accolade
System: Commodore 64 disk (C-128 in C-64 mode), joystick required
Price: $20 discount
Overall Grade: C
This game is quite a disappointment. It's clear that a lot of effort went
into the graphics and sound -- CapCom even talks to you with synthesized
speech! But they forgot that this was supposed to be a simulation and a
game. The game play is uninteresting, pointless, and barely related to the
simulation.
In fact, most of the game play falls into two categories. In the "telemetry"
phases, you go to a screen filled with status information and either go down
the list turning things on (by pressing "return") or you type in the number
of the next "program" to execute (which appears at the top of the screen).
A 2-year old can handle that.
The other major type of game play consists of pressing and/or releasing the
fire button when your computer tells you to. For fuel burns, the computer
gives a countdown from 5 and you press the button. Then you hold it down
until the computer starts incrementing a counter. You are graded on your
reaction times. Great, huh? Oh, and you have to be pretty sharp to pass.
The game play for the other phases are:
landing on the Moon -- just like the Lunar Lander game that I first saw in
1971, except with better graphics and the complication of sideward
motion;
Moon walk -- follow the prescribed path *or else*;
space walk -- maneuver to retrieve a satellite, joystick controls grossly
oversimplified;
re-entry -- hold wandering crosshairs in center of circle using joystick.
Detailed report card:
Realism: B everything's fine until the game play intrudes.
Credibility: D too much "press button when computer tells you to".
Variety: D many different phases, but most with the same game play.
Graphics: A the game's strongest point.
Sound: A synthesized speech.
"Style": B+ fits together fairly well.
Manual: C- unclear play instructions, few details, little background.
Bottom line: if this is any indication what it's like to be an astronaut,
I've changed my mind. It's like being a passenger in a jetliner. There's
no room for any personal expression at all -- just do as you're told, when
you're told to. Boring!
--
Doug Pardee {ames,hplabs,sun,amdahl,allegra}!oliveb!edge!doug
Edge Computer Corp., Scottsdale, AZ uunet!ism780c!edge!doug
--
-------------------------------------------------------------------
"This isn't Heaven, this is Cleveland!!!!"
Dave Lowrey
Amdahl Corp.
Houston, Texas
(713)-850-8828
...!{ames,sun,decwrl,uunet,....}!amdahl!dwl10
[ The opinions expressed <may> be those of the author and not necessarily
those of his most eminent employer. ]