niobium@arrakis.nevada.edu (Christopher W. Carlson) (10/29/90)
Somewhere far above his head, Idruk knew, lay the exit from this hellish pit
into which he had been cast for his crimes, and between himself and that exit
were uncounted masses of bloodthirsty, mindless beasts bent on his death. It
was most definitely _not_ a situation in which he wanted himself to be.
A klaxon roared out, breaking his pensive mood, and suddenly a quiet burbling
sound filled the air from below. The liquid. Idruk threw a mental switch
which he had been told of just moments before and activated the mechanical
exoskeleton upon which his survival depended. The crudely-formed joints and
servos creaked into action, and the prisoner hurtled himself across the catwalk
floor towards a small blob on the ground--a casket. One, two, three bursts of
fire from the weapons built into the exoskeleton flamed forth and shattered the
casket open wide, revealing a shiny, triangular stone. A key.
He rushed forward and kneeled to allow what now acted as his hands to scoop
up the key, pausing for a fraction of a second before racing off again, the
putrid, acidic odor of the death-dealing liquid rising even as the liquid rose
to fill the shaft. Idruk leapt upwards and clamped onto a vertical wall, his
sensors trained on another casket just above and to his left.
Without warning, a swarm of metallic avians burst from a well-disguised hole
in the wall and dove at him, chipping away huge chunks of armor with each brush
of metal against metal. Idruk swore bitterly and leapt away towards the new
casket, leaving the senseless avians to their frenzied dance. Another three
bursts of his rifle, and as the dust settled, Idruk spied a long, wide cylinder
fashioned of white metal and bolted to a mounting bracket. Grinning, he ran
forward and kneeled at the beam weapon, which unfurled a long, spindly arm and
clasped onto the exoskeleton. Even as Idruk ran back the way he came, the
weapon climbed mindlessly across the exoskeleton and nestled into a crook
of its' own free will. Drills bit, leads snaked, and the weapon was suddenly
powered up. "Weapon," it announced.
Idruk reached the end of the platform upon which he stood and glanced down-
ward. The liquid was nearly upon him. "Never!" he scolded himself, "Never
look down!" He crouched, tensed the servoes in his metallic, barrel-like
legs, and jumped... Too short.
Legs reached out, toes clenching, arms scrabbled against metal walls, searching
for a handhold, a deliverance, and the viscous liquid below burbled in
anticipation... An explosion, and one solitary, thin scream was all that
marked the passage of another contestant in...
The Killing Game Show
---------------------
Gameplay: The object of TKGS is simple--to reach the top of each of 16 pits
filled from top to bottom with deadly, semi-intelligent beasts,
lock-and-key puzzles, and the everpresent, forboding Deadly to
Organic Life Liquid. A simple enough goal until you reach the
third level, upon which you discover that they're _Serious_ about
this lock-and-key thing, and that it's not always easy to jump
up a few platforms and leave the DOLL behind.
Control: Intuitive. You control your on-screen persona from a side-view
perspective. Push left for left, right for right, and up to
jump, with up-diagonals for jumping from side to side. To pick
up tools and weapons, a quick crouch is all that's needed, taking
up a minimal amount of time. Using a tool is equally simple: hold
down the fire button just a split second longer than you would to
fire a weapon.
Graphics: _Excellent_, period. Backgrounds and platforms are well-done, with
plenty of detail. The enemy creatures could be more fleshed-out,
but the rotating, pulsating beasts move quickly enough and with
enough purpose to keep you from complaining for too long. And your
character is as well-done as in any Psygnosis game, which is to
say wonderful. Seemingly a cross between Robocop's ED-209 and a
chicken, the robotic beast runs, jumps, and generally behaves as
you'd expect it to, with smooth-enough animation to make you weep.
Sound: Also excellent. You've got a choice between a quick-beat musical
score or sound effects (which I prefer). The sound effects alert
you to such things as the picking up of tools and weapons, the
damage being done to you by enemies, and just about everything
else that could happen to you, all in stereo.
Intro: I wouldn't normally mention something like the introduction to a
game, but this one is so absolutely incredible that I feel obliged.
Heck, I've had people stop by my room and swear in amazement that
it's the intro to a GAME... I don't want to spoil the surprise
except to say that the intro sequence would look right at home in
a movie, and could even effectively be used to show off the power
of the Amiga like no other demo I've ever seen.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Verdict
-----------
Buy it. If you like arcade games, this game is packed with enough arcade
action to keep you jumping for a LOOOONG time to come. If you like cerebral
games, TKGS has enough puzzles and memory-testing to make you scream. A
perfect blend of the two genres, TKGS is the everyman's game.
Playability, you ask, and rightfully so. Psygnosis isn't known for the
playability of their products, and this one has proven beyond a shadow of
a doubt that nothing, save NOTHING is beyond these guys. Addictive, and
just enough so that you'll sit in front of the machine 'just one more time'
in an effort to reach that last lock before the DOLL comes up to take your
life away...
Buy it. That's the most honest appraisal I can give. Congratulations,
Psygnosis. You've truly outdone yourselves.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I am in no way associated with Psygnosis except as a satisfied customer.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-=* Christopher W. Carlson
niobium@arrakis.nevada.edu
P.S. I'm still looking for TKGS maps, for any and all levels. Anybody?
--
__ _ _ _____ _ ___ __ | Christopher W. Carlson | _ //
/ __ / \ | / \ | / \ |__ / \ (__ | niobium@nevada.edu | \X/
\__// /_\ |___ / /_\ | / /_\ |___ \__/ ___) |--------------------------------
Galataeus, Wizard of Brigadoon | I never said these words...DEB110@psuvm.psu.edu (Doug Bischoff) (10/30/90)
Is this game playable on an Amiga 3000? Anybody? It sounds excellent!
C503719@UMCVMB.MISSOURI.EDU (Baird McIntosh) (10/31/90)
In Message-ID: <2218@unsvax.NEVADA.EDU>
niobium@arrakis.nevada.edu (Christopher W. Carlson) said:
>
>Somewhere far above his head, Idruk knew, lay the exit from this hellish pit
>into which he had been cast for his crimes, and between himself and that exit
>were uncounted masses of bloodthirsty, mindless beasts bent on his death. It
>was most definitely _not_ a situation in which he wanted himself to be.
>[...]
> say wonderful. Seemingly a cross between Robocop's ED-209 and a
> chicken, the robotic beast runs, jumps, and generally behaves as
> you'd expect it to, with smooth-enough animation to make you weep.
Just a comment: the manual says that this 'robotic beast' is the upper
torso of your former humanoid self, decked out with twin guns and some sort
of metal alloy armor. From the title sequence and game, it looks more like
a robot, but the manual implies that there is a living humanoid under all
that. Did I read that right?
>Sound: Also excellent. You've got a choice between a quick-beat musical
> score or sound effects (which I prefer). The sound effects alert
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Me, too.
If I were to describe the game, I'd say it's a cross between the movies
Robocop and The Running Man. BTW, this was a really well-done review!
>-=* Christopher W. Carlson
> niobium@arrakis.nevada.edu
>
>P.S. I'm still looking for TKGS maps, for any and all levels. Anybody?
Just to confirm the slight ****SPOILER*** I read here in a previous post:
Press HELP in between levels to see a map of the level you are
about to escape from. (or try to escape from :-)
| Baird McIntosh | c503719@umcvmb.missouri.edu <-or-> c503719@umcvmb.bitnet |
| COOL DRIVING TECHNIQUE #23: Drive without brake lights. |
| (Light deactivation method is unimportant; just try to appear oblivious.) |schur@isi.edu (Sean Schur) (10/31/90)
In article <90302.125905DEB110@psuvm.psu.edu> DEB110@psuvm.psu.edu (Doug Bischoff) writes: > > Is this game playable on an Amiga 3000? Anybody? It sounds excellent! YES. One of the Few Psygnosis games that is. ============================================================================== Sean Schur USENET: schur@isi.edu Compuserve: 70731,1102 Plink: OSS259 ==============================================================================
sparks@corpane.UUCP (John Sparks) (11/01/90)
Great review! but I would like to know: 1> What's the copy protection? That is, ... is it installable on a hard drive? can you make backup copies? 2> Will it work on 68010, 68020, and 68030's? 3> Will it work under AmigaDos 2.0? I realize you may not know all of this, but if you know any of it (or anyone else for that matter) please include that info in your reviews. Thanks for a great review. -- John Sparks |D.I.S.K. Public Access Unix System| Multi-User Games, Email sparks@corpane.UUCP |PH: (502) 968-DISK 24Hrs/2400BPS | Usenet, Chatting, =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-|7 line Multi-User system. | Downloads & more. A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of----Ogden Nash
C503719@UMCVMB.MISSOURI.EDU (Baird McIntosh) (11/03/90)
In Message-ID: <3438@corpane.UUCP> sparks@corpane.UUCP (John Sparks) said: >Great review! but I would like to know: While I didn't write the review, I have TKGS and can answer one (1) of your questions: >1> What's the copy protection? That is, ... is it installable on a hard drive? >can you make backup copies? It has a disk-based copy protection like most (?) Psygnosis games. Anyway, this implies it won't run off hard drive and you can't make back-up copies. Worse, the game expects you to let it write high scores to the Master Disk 2. I decided to let it do it...you only live once. But, I don't like using the originals and writing to them. If anyone knows how to back the disks up, tell us! I tried NIB 1.0 and NIB crashed in mid-copy (?!). >2> Will it work on 68010, 68020, and 68030's? Don't know... probably? >3> Will it work under AmigaDos 2.0? Wasn't this game supposed to be one of about 3 recent Psygnosis games that are 3000 (and 2.0) compatible? But then someone posted here that the game is *not* 3000 compatible (at least it crashes on some 3000s). >Thanks for a great review. Yes, that was a well-written review. | Baird McIntosh | c503719@umcvmb.missouri.edu <-or-> c503719@umcvmb.bitnet | | COOL DRIVING TECHNIQUE #23: Drive without brake lights. | | (Light deactivation method is unimportant; just try to appear oblivious.) |