Reviews

Original use of isometric 3D graphics, distancing itself from the tons of games in the vein of Knight Lore.

The game plot being the only letdown because of its simplicity, but if you prefer action to adventure, this is for you.

I like the look the this game and how it plays, but the main problem I have is I was often left confused with the controls and the speed, one moment I'm going slow and the next I'm going really fast and that confused me a lot.

Chain Reaction is a 3d action game, with slightly more coloured backgrounds than your usual isometric specimen, vaguely similar to Strike Force Cobra [Phirana, 1986], plus a black main sprite. It's not a 3d platform like Head Over Heels [Ocean Software, 1987], and neither an arcade/adventure like Fairlight [The Edge, 1985]: your aim wandering among the rooms, find the small radioactive cylinders littered around, and dispose of them letting them fall into the circular hole at the center of the structure: the cylinders, though, are distributed over several levels, and you must use elevators to move among them - the disposal operation, anyway, it's only possible at the first level - to complicate things you have three kinds of shooting guardian robots, and the obvious time limit.


You have unlimited bullets to wipe off the robots, though, and a jetpack if you want to try to hover over them, or over holes in the floor from the second level up [which are anyway very useful when you need to reach the disposal hole in the first floor very quickly]. Some of the robots are a sort of small flying pyramids with antennas, so it's particulary difficult to fly over them, although sometimes you'll find yourself standing over them. Each time the robots hit you with their bullets, the "Rad" bar decreases, so you must be careful - because you've only got one life. Anyway, luckily for you, there are anti-radioactive showers here and there, which will clean you from the radiations and restore your health.

I think it's playable, it looks good and can become quite addictive . An obscure but good game.

4/5

And coincidentally the next game presented to me randomly on Spectrum Computing is a Durell Software game, ok technically it came after two text adventures, a ZX81 game, an MIA game and Taffy Turner which I had already done, but still, coincidence. This looks great, I really like the detail in the graphics, but the gameplay felt flat for me.

interesting game that suffers however from being not very extense. At least if you compare with the likes of Alien 8, Knight Lore, Head over Heels...





Although now that I think about it, it may be too unfair to compare it with the best of the genre.
After all, it's a Durell's game. They were very good, but not at the top. It's more than correct.. they tried to put some color in a somewhat monochrome genre.