Producer: Ariolasoft
Retail Price: £8.99
Author: 'Tag' and Pete James

Treachery is the Varg's middle name; its also their first and third. They're that kind of race. And they're sending hundreds of combatants into the Deathscape, a gladiatorial arena where disputes are settled.

Varg fortresses have been built in the Deathscape - they must be destroyed. You have been chosen for the task in this ten-level combat- and-navigation game.

You fly a variable-speed fighter down a space tunnel. Indicators show your proximity to the tunnel walls, which through friction and contact weaken the craft's two shields. The fighter can reach other levels through tunnel junctions.

A grid map shows the craft's position and direction as well as fuel dumps, enemy fortresses and generators. Some regions of the grid are neutral and contain many generators and fuel dumps; they belong to the SOL FEDS. So discretion is essential if you're not to be labelled a rogue pilot and have your mission terminated.

The Vargs have five types of drones - fighters, scout craft, bombers, suicide ships and interceptors - attacking along the tunnel's length. They can be destroyed for points.

Your craft carries rapid-fire plasma cannons (capable of autofire) and up to eight target-seeking missiles (TSMs). An extra TSM is acquired when a Varg fortress has been destroyed, and a blue square registers, representing part of the 'Varg Code'.

After ten blue squares have been activated the drone-producing Varg mother ship can be reached. Plasma cannons are ineffective against the mother ship's armour; four missiles must strike the vulnerable reactor casings. Destroying these gives you extra missiles.

If your own control ship is activated you can teleport back to defend it with its own plasma cannons. After a successful transfer, a view of the control ship's cockpit is activated and six energy bars displayed. Should three of these fall to zero them the ship is destroyed and your mission is over. But if you repel the attackers, you can return to battle with two extra missiles in your armoury.

Your fighter has two independently-emptied fuel tanks; when a sideways movement is made, the tank on the appropriate wing is emptied faster. Fuel levels can be topped up by destroying fuel dumps, and the destruction of generators re-energises shields.

Just remember - treachery is their middle name...

COMMENTS

Control keys: V-M speed control. 1-8 for function keys
Use of colour: largely red-and-black viewscreen, but bright and varied instrumentation
Graphics: large, well-drawn; but some sticky animation
Sound: very few spot FX
Skill levels: one
Screens: simple 3-D screens

Deathscape is a mystery to me. The instructions are very long and say nothing of importance; they state the obvious and it with loads of jargon. Prominence is given to the folks who the sound effects and music, but for Spectrum owners hoping for some Ben Dalgleish tunes there is NO music, so don't be misled by the all-formats inlay. The graphics are well drawn, but the animation is very jerky. As shoot-'em-ups go there's very little to do in Deathscape, and it soon becomes repetitive.
PAUL

Ever since the Star Wars-type coin-ops hit the arcades several years ago, I've grown steadily tired of all the 'space, the final frontier' efforts. Deathscape is yet another 'shoot the aliens and save the Earth' game. Graphically it's good; the detail on the cockpit instrumentation is neat, especially the pilot's hands as he steers the spaceship. The aliens swirl excitingly round the screen and really cause you some aggro. It'll take many games to get anywhere near the mother ship... damn, I'm starting to like Deathscape now... it's not really as bad as I feared!
MARK

The packaging is good; I liked the artwork, but unfortunately (yes, you guessed it!) the game doesn't match it. There's nothing wrong with the programming apart from the minor awkwardness of the different control keys, but the game design itself is a letdown. I didn't play it for as long as I do most shoot-'em-ups, because of the repetitive action. So there's nothing gripping here; but Deathscape is a fast and pretty shoot- 'em-up.
MIKE

Starlight
£8.99

Why is it we're so paranoid about broken peace treaties? Here's another one blasted to smithereens, this time by the beastly Vargs.

The plot matters little with Deathscape. It could have been written at three in the morning on the back of a beermat for all its significance. Forget the funny names and future history... the only important info you need is that this is one ace shoot 'em up.

No - to be accurate, you do need to know a little more. As the press release so delicately puts it, "Owing to a slight cock-up at the printers, the keys are not as described in the manual." it continues to offer a tube of Smarties as a bribe to any reviewer who corrects this "cock up". Well that won't work with Old 'Incorruptible' Hughes.

(Hang on, did they say Smarties? I'd sort out any cock-up for that. Sound FX toggles on Q; A aborts from VARG mothership; W's the map. S fires missiles; E is auto-score update and D auto-fire; R teleports to the control ship and F to the Varg mothership. - Old 'Corruptible' Smith.) (And F to you too! Varg Mothership.)

Exc-use me! if I may continue... Thank you. Now where was I? That's right - not giving away the plot. Well, quite simply, it's this. You steer a Zarquon CAM III Multi-Role Fighter, which, as all Zarquon Spotters will know, is a pretty mean doody, down the tunnels of the Deathscape gladiatorial pit.

See, I said the plot was the pits. But the gameplay is all fast moving wire frame walls and a variety of aliens advancing at speed out of nowhere. Providing you've got the power left you can make a quick trip back to your control ship for extra missiles. But even they don't come free in this rigorous test of reactions, and you'll be expected to put in a spell defending your base against the space drones.

You'll need to learn your control panel and know where the info is, from the scrolling messages up top to the fuel and shield indicators down below. Keeping in touch with your status may just help you live that little bit longer... and rake up an even higher score. Yeah, verily, this game is a Hall of Fame Freak's daydream.

As the resume of cocked-up keys indicated, there's also a lot of control to learn, though this isn't as off-putting as in some games. As you can define your direction and fire keys, you may find it easier to junk the joystick just this once and keep your hands on the alphabetical bits.

In fact, the main commands that you'll need are the ones that summon up the map of the grid, with its invaluable view of where you are in relation to Vargan installations, and the teleport to control. The mothership only appears at the end of the game, by which stage your fingers will be flashing around like a concert pianist's, so a couple more keys shouldn't cause chaos.

The secret of success seems to be trying to get the aliens before they get too close. They all emerge from a very small point, so if you target this you can wipe out a while wave before it splits. Identify their attack patterns too. Particularly nasty are the spinning wheels which strobe backwards and forwards before crashing in for the kill.

Also, use the time-honoured techniques of trashing fuel dumps and generators to refuel or replenish shields. You can score extra missiles, with the same lack of logic, bu destroying the fortresses within the grid, but they serve a more important purpose. Each time you wipe one out you'll obtain part of the code that lets you take on the mothership.

Deathscape's plot may be doomed but Starlight has a sure-fire winner in the arcade action stakes. Go vanquish a Varg - you know it makes sense!

Label: Starlight
Joystick: various
Memory: 48K/128K
Reviewer: Tamara Howard

Wouldn't it be nice if you could trust people? If you could rely on people not to go back on their word? Well, you can't, especially if those people happen to be members of the Varg Empire.

For the past two hundred years or so, shunning debates and elections, the Sol Federation and the Varg Empire have been settling political disputes by each sending a starfighter into the Deathscape. The one that comes out not dead is deemed to be the winner of the argument.

However, the Varg Empire is determined to win the latest argument by cheating, and has sent in the Mothership to produce alien craft nineteen to the dozen. Being honourable people though, the Sol Federation are still only sending in one representative. And that's where you come in.

Yup - this is a 3D vector graphics into-the-screen blast. Fairly conventional stuff, but quite nicely done. It's also the second title (after Greyfell) to be released from the new Starlight label.

Destroying on-coming ships isn't as hard as it sounds. Your Zarquon C.A.M. III Multi-role fighter has all the latest equipment: plasma cannons, target seeking missiles, quadrophonic stereo sound and cigarette lighter.

Blowing up the Mothership is different. It's not quite as easy-peasy as it sounds. It's only possible to get on board and blast away if you've cracked the Varg code, and that's only possible if you've managed to destroy several Varg settlements. You can tell if you've cracked the code, because a series of blue lights will flash on a code board inside the space consul.

The flight consul itself is fascinating. As well as the usual spacey type things, fuel indicators, shield indicators and so on, there's also a neat little graphic of the pilot's hands. As the speed increases, the hands move further and further up the consul, as you press Fire, so do they. There's also the score grid and a map of the Deathscape itself, should you wish to call it up. With all this going on, it's sometimes more interesting to watch the consul than play the game.

Playing the game. The all important thing. Well it's fast, there's no denying that. It's essential that you keep on blasting away, because there are several different craft, and some of them need to be hit more than once to destroy them. Some are suicide teams which think nothing of ramming you and making you go wobbly. Some people just don't fight fair.

The best thing about the meanies is that they fly in fairly consistent patterns, so they're usually quite easy to hit.

Perhaps the most worrying aspect of Deathscape is the gameplay. It's quite possible to get a really respectable score on Deathscape without really knowing what's going on. Just fly along and fire at random. But eventually you'll run out of fuel and that's your mission.

Deathscape is a good 3D action shoot em-up. If you're keen on shooting, with a little bit of strategy thrown in for good measure, then it's worth a look. But be patient, it takes some time to figure out what's going on.

CBM64/Spectrum/Amstrad CPC
Publisher: Starlight Software

How's your joystick these days? I ask because it's going to have to be pretty robust to stand up to the action of this frantic space shoot-out game from Starlight by a team of people including the renowned Tony Crowther on sound effects, and the end result is a game that I bet Mr Crowther would be pleased to have written himself. Deathscape has all the heart-pounding relentless excitement of some of the best of his little numbers, especially in the Commodore version reviewed here.

Once again the galaxy is at risk. Or is it the universe or the solar system this time? Whatever, the VARGS, who sound like utter rotters to me, have decided to ignore the Mars Peace Summit and it's your job (who else would they call on?) to get down into the futuristic gladitorial pit known as the Deathscape and sort the blighters out.

This is the type of game which would take this whole page to explain, but there are two main aspects, the navigation and the combat. On the initial combat you're thrown headlong down one of those tunnels which will be familiar to gamesters everywhere, with ships coming straight at you and your sights forced to flash around all over the place to see them off. Like many another game, you might think, but the presentation and sound effects make it a cut above anything else you'll see.

At the foot of the screen, where the usual complex control panel lies, you can even see your hand holding the joystick and corresponding almost exactly to the movements you make. Options are chosen by pressing the number keys, and if you press T to choose the music or sound effects option, then the hand reaches across and punches the appropriate button on the display panel and the option changes. Mind you, how you choose between music and effects I don't know, as they're both terrific.

One option you might go for is the autofire mode, if you want to give your own stick a break, and this you might well need as the enemy craft coming at you include fighters, bombers, suicide ships and so on, all needing to be dealt with differently. Another option will teleport you back to your control ship, if you want to vary your zapping a tittle, and ultimately you might be able to teleport to face the VARG Mothership. To do that, though, you first need to collect 10 pieces of code from fortresses you will have to destroy as you travel down the tunnels of the Deathscape arena.

The navigation element is what moves you round the tunnels, a grid of which will be called up by the little hand onscreen if you press the '3' key, and you have to watch the messages, both verbal and visual, which give out information the whole time as to your whereabouts and surroundings.

With the usual problems of shield strength and fuel supply, and some new ones thrown in for good measure, I needed a lie down in a darkened room by the time I'd finished my first session with Deathscape.