Producer: Martech
Retail Price: £7.95
Author: Creative Reality

The very latest in licensing deals finds MARTECH transforming 2000 AD's Nemesis the Warlock from pen and ink into pixelated state. As ever the struggle between good and evil forms the plot, with Nemesis as Clint Eastwood, Thomas de Torquemada as Lee Van Cleef and Torquemada's castle as the wild west.

Defeating evil is the name of the game, and taking the part of Nemesis, the idea's to top the man at the top by infiltrating his bastille. Not an easy trick that, as Torquemada's whacky fanatics are on the loose. Being a sensitive, socially aware type of superhero, the warlock finds that the only way to get to the heart of the problem is to hack a fair few minions to bits. Not that Nemesis needs to hack them apart with his bare hooves; equipped with a swinging sword, venomous acid spit (look out Jan Leeming) and a death dealing firearm, our hero can blow 'em away with the best of them.

On screen this is how the action happens: left and right controls Nemesis in those directions while Up and Down means jump and duck. Platforms are the backing for the big man's heroic exploits, with his movements limited by the screen's boundaries. Only when an alloted number of denizens are destroyed is the passageway to the next level opened - however, this doorway is not obvious and must be searched for. As the bodies pile up it's possible, and sometimes necessary, to use the corpses as stepping stones to new heights.

If you're lucky enough to have bullets in your gun, pressing the fire button sends them in the general direction of your enemy - otherwise it activates a swiping sword. Extra ammunition can be picked up about the landscape, but quantities are finite so it's nifty to be thrifty. A display at the bottom of the screen keeps you informed by delivering a host of useful information. This includes the amount of ammo remaining, the required number of terminated terminators and a particularly gruesome depiction of a hand squeezing a heart. This bloody graphic relates to Nemesis' strength, each time he comes into contact with a terminator the hand squeezes a little tighter - eventually wringing out all of the warlock's life blood, and thereby ending the game.

Also worth attention is the ever changing icon of Torquemada, which dictates his spiritual presence. This affects his minion's fanaticism so that even after disembowelment Torquemada's goons are often prone to transformation into axe wielding Zombies when their master is near.

As the levels progress new hazards threaten our hero. Flying swords appear and bottomless pits open, waiting for a careless step. Torquemada's terminators are fanatical.in their quest to purify the universe - so be pure, be vigilant... but most of all BEHAVE!

COMMENTS

Control keys: definable, left right. duck/jump, fire and spit fiery acid needed
Joystick: Kempston, Interface 2
Use of colour: basic colour scheme with appalling clashes
Graphics: indistinct as sprites merge with background
Sound: below average, but an excellent Rob Hubbard 128 tune
Skill levels: one
Screens: thirty

Fans of the 2000 AD comic strip may be a little disappointed by this release from MARTECH, as all it really amounts to is a simple shoot 'em up scenario, worked around the cult characters. Even when viewed as such, it's only an average hacking game, the action being ultimately repetitive. The attribute clash as figures walk along the platforms is really annoying, and leaves the screen looking messy and unfinished. Unfortunately, there is little real connection between the game and the comic strip: gone are Grobbendonk, Ro-Jaws and the ABC Warriors, and possibly any lasting interest with them.
MIKE

Dear me! Nemesis the Warlock must be one of the most pitiful platform games I've ever seen. The graphics are so horrific that when Nemesis is walking, his head disappears into the bottom of another platform. The mighty sword Excessus looks more like a bamboo cane, and flickers on and off when fighting. The computer-nasty graphics are certainly not for the weak stomached, and I found them to be in very bad taste!
GARETH

Although a lot better than MELBOURNE's Judge Dredd, Nemesis the Warlock is still not as good as it could (or should) have been. The bloodthirsty comic-strip style is adequately recreated, but the graphics still leave a lot to be desired. Fighting off the Terminators offers no real challenge as they don't do much damage - if you obliterate enough of them fast enough there shouldn't be any real hassle, until the later levels where deadly swords and bottomless pits make an appearance. Nemesis the Warlock is a slightly above average platform hack 'em up, with the added attraction of a big name licence.
BEN

Martech
£7.95

Yet more superheroes! This time it's 2000AD's Nemesis The Warlock who's work you get to do. You have to kill Torquemada, the Grand Master of Termight. Sounds easy, doesn't it? The catch, as you might expect, is that Torquey baby has other ideas, so he sends out wave upon wave of demented Terminators to do you in. Each screen has a set number of Terminators to be terminated before your exit from the screen is possible.

The game is a platformer, with the action taking place on the main screen. Underneath that are some smaller screens displaying complex goings on related to the game. One gives you the number of Terminators you have to kill to finish off a given level, another is the number of bullets in your gun - though bullets run out, and once they do it's back to hand to hand (well, sword, actually) fighting until you find some more. Then there are two other panels,one of which shows a mass of dots which eventually become the face of Torquemada, and the other shows Torquemada's hand gently squeezing your heart! Each time you're hit, the hand squeezes tighter. When it completes the action, you be dead, my boy, and off to heaven you do go!

As you hack your way through the Terminators they fall down and die as you'd expect them to. However, as Torquemada's influence grows, the bodies have an unsettling habit of leaping up. Torquemada turns them into deathly zombies when he gets stronger, and they're armed with swinging scythes, so not only do you have to fight with your sword and gun, but you have to beware the zombies who are intent on parting your feet from the rest of your body.

It's hack and slay all the way, though when you find the bullets you can fire on the baddies from a distance - very useful in my case 'cos my swordplay leaves a lot to be desired. Watch how many bullets you pick up though, 'cos you can only hold so many, and if you collect them all, you can't hang onto 'em and they run out all the quicker.

The graphics are of the large 'n' chunky variety, which means you get to see the action in grizzly close up. It's a great game that's nice and easy to get into, but which takes a while to get to grips (har har!) with. I thought it was great, but then I'm a great fan of the hack 'em to death style of game.

Label: Martech
Author: Catalyst Coders
Price: £7.95
Joystick: various
Memory: 48K/128K
Reviewer: Jim Douglas

If you're the slightest bit squeamish, then forget about getting Nemesis The Warlock.

If, on the other hand you get a kick out of hacking armies of alien warriors to pieces with a sword, or blowing them in half with a laser pistol and can stomach having to climb on top of them, you'll probably be playing it well into the early hours.

Nemesis The Warlock is the fourth 2000AD character to find himself made into a computer game. And he's certainly made the most smooth transition.

Set on a world ruled by the arch loony Torquemada, the comic strip is a constant tale of mortal combat fought on landscapes of broken bones and horrible drippy bits of things that are very hard to make out.

Nemesis (the hero) is the leader of the resistance organisation, which is constantly attempting (and just failing) to overthrow the tyrannical reign of Torquemada who is busy killing all the non-humans on the planet.

The game follows the same plot. You control the weird alien shape of Nemesis, who looks a bit like a cross between a horse and a man, guiding him over various screens of platforms, killing the Terminators - Torquemada's henchmen.

It's not sounding particularly interesting, is it? Well, you're completely wrong.

While Nemesis The Warlock isn't the most inventive game concept in the world, it's executed with such style as to make it stand head and shoulders over most of anything else about at the moment.

The graphics are extremely finely detailed, and the animation is great. Nemesis stalks around, jumping and ducking in order to avoid the onslaught of the bad guys. Not being a wholly pacifistic, you can dispatch the ever more vicious fiends with a swift swish of your sword instead of just disappearing in a puff of smoke, the bad guys double up and fly back through the air. When they hit the deck, they begin to pile up, forming a rather grotesque platform on which you can walk.

The main problem with walking over the corpses of Torquemada's fallen army is that after a few seconds (depending on how close you are to T, and thus how strong his influence) they will twitch and jump and gradually turn into zombies who are very, very unpleasant and decidedly dangerous.

The zombies wander around, wielding scythes which will - on contact - drain your stamina points at a rapid rate. The only way to bump off a zombie is to spit acid at him. You only get one mouthful of acid per screen, so you'll probably have to stagger around for quite a while with it sloshing about. No wonder, Nemesis is in such a bad mood all the time.

Should you be fortunate enough to come across a pile of bullets, you can waste a few guys with the gun. The graphics here are just as detailed as with the sword-swinging section. Hitting Fire once causes you to raise the gun to shoulder-height. Hit the Fire button a second time and you'll unleash a bolt of photon plasma ray death (or something) which is quite sufficient to kill anything in its path.

Once you've wiped out your quota of terminators - which increases according to your progression - you must look for the exit and once you've found it you'll move on to the next screen which is even tougher.

Finally you'll find yourself'face to face with big bad T himself and that promises to be quite a fight.

Nemesis is probably the most enjoyable killing spree I've had for a long time.

MACHINES: Spectrum, Amstrad, C64
SUPPLIER: Martech
PRICE: £7.95 (Spectrum), £8.95 (C64/Amstrad), £12.95 (C64 disk), £14.95 (Amstrad disk)
VERSION TESTED: Spectrum, C64

This MUST be the first computer comic spin-off to actually capture the feel of the character it's based on.Nemesis the Warlock - not to be confused with Konami Nemesis or The Edge's Warlock - breathes fresh life into the ancient platforms and ladders format. How? By adding a gruesomely amusing hack, slash and shoot-em-up elements that's how!

It may not have spectacular graphics - the Spectrum version suffers a bit from colour clash problems - but it is immensely playable and horribly addictive But, you ask, what do you have to do? Read on...

To finish once and for all the evil regime of Torquemada, Grand Master of Termight, Nemesis must fight his way to the heart of Torquemada's empire.

To protect himself, Torquemada sends out attack waves of his demented followers, the Terminators.

To complete each screen Nemesis must first kill enough Terminators to weaken their resolve Then, and only then, can he search for the exit to the next screen.

The exit from one screen to another can be anywhere leading off the screen (up, down, left or right) and only trial and error will reveal its location.

Nemesis need not rely only on his sword Excessus to kill his enemies. If he manages to find any ammunition hidden on the screen he can use his gun until he runs out of bullets.

Nemesis has the power, just once to spit fiery acid each screen.This will kill everything it touches!

As the bodies of dead Terminators pile up. Nemesis may find it helpful to climb up or walk across them in fact, this may often prove essential if a screen is to be completed.

The longer it takes for Nemesis to leave a screen the greater will Torquemada's influence become on it.

As Torquemada's face becomes more visible at the bottom of the screen, he will direct his twisted mind to the Terminators' corpses who will grotesquely burst into life as scythe-wielding zombies. Zombies are more difficult to kill than Terminators, but once dead, they stay dead.

Watch out for the ghostly swords of dead Terminators.

The display at the bottom of the screen shows:-

- A panel where Torquemada's face will gradually appear as his influence grows.

- The number of Terminators left to kill before Nemesis can search for the way out to the nut screen.

- The number of bullets in his gun.

- The heart of Nemesis. As he weakens, Torquemadar's grip will tighten. If the life blood is squeezed out of it Nemesis dies!!

As we've already said, you have to explore each screen to find the exit after you've wiped out enough Terminators. The body count can be horrendous on some screens!

Beware of too much contact with your enemies even after you've killed enough to escape.

And remember that hitting the firebutton once draws Nemesis' gun a second hit actually fires it. Move and Nemesis puts his gun away and to fire you have to go through the whole thing again.

Run out of ammo and Nemesis uses his evil sword Excessus.

Sounds on the 64 version are excellent - both this version and the Speccy have sounds by none other than C+VG Golden Joystick award winner Rob Hubbard.

Don't collect all the ammo at once on the 64 version - you only get 12 shots even if you collect every bit of ammo on screen. So empty your gun and then go for more ammo.

And be careful not to kill a Terminator over the ammo. If his body is on top of the ammo you won't be able to pick it up.

The Spectrum and C64 animation is excellent - although the backgrounds on both versions lack imagination. They are simply blank. Still, that's a small point put against the total playability of the game.

The only other criticism is that there's not an accurate energy level indicator. The "heart being squeezed" is nicely gory but not accurate enough. A winner from Martech. Check it out!

Spectrum (£7.95); CBM«4 and Amstrad CPC tape (£8.95); CBM64 disk (£12.95); Amstrad CPC disk (£14.95)
Publisher: Martech

Just when you thought it was safe to consign the platforms and ladders theme to the history book or the budget shelves comes a game from Martech to make you think again. Based on the well-known 2000 AD comic books, and officially licensed, Nemesis the Warlock must battle his way through screens full of vicious Terminators to eventually find and destroy Torquemada, the cruel Grand Master of Termight.

It's not strictly platforms and ladders, as what they've done at Martech is combine that with a touch of the Exploding Fists, a hint of the Bombjacks, and added bullets and the spit of fiery acid from Nemesis himself.

The graphics are slightly blurred, but nothing to moan too much about, and certainly do not detract from the gameplay, which is enhanced by yet another soundtrack from the prolific and talented Rob Hubbard. The first screen contains a fairly simple series of platforms, a host of Terminators wandering round ready to do you mischief, and Nemesis at the bottom with his arsenal of weapons. The dreaded fiery spit can only used once on each screen, by pressing the space bar, so has to be used to maximum effect as it wipes out everything it comes into contact with. A gun is also available, but initially this has no bullets. They have to be found on each screen enabling the gun to be fired till the bullet supply dries up and needs replacing.

Nemesis's basic weapon is his trusty sword, Excessus. He wields this in response to the fire-button, and the joystick controls his own manoeuvres: left, right, duck or jump. Curiously the Commodore version (reviewed here) is joystick only, with the others offering keyboard options.

At the foot of the screen is the necessary info. This includes the number of bullets left in the gun, the number of Terminators needing to be killed before the escape from the current screen, a face of Torquemada which fills in the nearer you get, and, gruesome but brilliantly done, the heart of Nemesis which is slowly squeezed by Torquemada's hand as Nemesis weakens. The graphics of this on the Commodore version have to be seen to be believed.

You hack and shoot at the Terminators, can climb on their bodies when they fall, but have to watch out for various of Torquemada's nasty tricks. Even dead Terminators can sometimes wave ghostly swords at you, and as the evil influence increases, the dead may turn into scythe-carrying Zombies, which are even harder to kill than Terminators but at least they stay dead the second time around.

Each screen presents a different variation on the platforms theme, and there's the complication of having to find and reach the exit even when you've seen off the required number of Terminators. Graphics are excellent. This is easily one of the best of this month's releases.