Encore
£2.99 (rerelease)

'Get in the middle of a Chain Reaction'.

Arrgh! Not Diana Ross please. As a matter of fact this game has nothing to do with Diana Ross at all, it's about nuclear power - had you fooled though, didn't I? (Pah! - Ed)

The Anti-Nuclear Party are real gits. They have reprogrammed all the robo-equipment in the power station to empty the containment vault and attack all humans. This not being enough to satisfy their evil hunger, they've scattered 18 canisters of radioactive fuel rods around the seven-storey building and you have to recover them all! You're helped only by your radiation suit, armour piercing machine gun and jet pack. This is a race against time as well as radiation because you only have 30 minutes to recover the canisters. To help you along the way there are decontamination showers dotted around the building. Taking a quick dip reduces your radiation allowing you to continue safely.

Chain Reaction is one of many 3-D style games where you move the character around then push forward. I could never get used to this type of control method and here you don't get any choice. This type of game can now be made simply by using the 3-D Game Maker, as we've found out with the many Powertapes you've sent in!

All the graphics are well drawn with lots of robots to do battle against and other objects around the building like computers, nuclear canisters etc. Colour in the game itself isn't anything special, but on the menu screens and Game Over message it will really impress you. Stripes of colour scroll up the text in a very convincing way, with no clash at all. Chain Reaction is let down by it's lack of sound: there's only the odd beep, and no tunes or jingles anywhere.

While this style of game has been copied over and over again it still provides some challenge to those who didn't catch it first time round.

Durell
£8.95
Reviewer: Gwyn Hughes

Does this sound like Mission Impossible? The Anti-Nuclear Party has reprogrammed your favourite reactor's robots to attack all humans, meanwhile the radioactive rods are set to meltdown in just thirty minutes. This synopsis will self-destruct in ten seconds!

Presumably the silly plot is somebody's idea of political satire. Still, it provides a hook on which to hang a fast moving arcade and maze game, whichever side of the nuclear power fence you should choose. (I prefer the lead-lined one, away from the reactor, myself!)

It could be that your radiation suit lacks real designer flair or maybe you really are as bland as you look, but the central sprite is unbelievably blocky and monochrome. At least you're armed with a machine gun and a jetpack, and you'll need them both to avoid the android perils of the powerplant.

The building has seven storeys, each linked by lifts and holes in the floor, which let you drop back towards the vault, into which you have to kick the rods. If you're really skilled you can float across the pit and release them as you go.

Meanwhile your radiation level increases every time you're hit by a robot or when you push an isotope. There are decontamination showers on every level, but as you have to clear the place in half an hour you can't afford to stop for a sing in the bath! That's basically all there is to the game. It's just a question of mapping, shooting and dodging, all against an incredibly tight time limit.

Though the rooms themselves are interesting shapes and pleasantly uncluttered, there's nothing really exciting about the graphics.

If you're into maze games this should provide some fun, but anybody else may find that it looks rather old-fashioned.

BARGAIN BASEMENT

A bumper New Year collection of cheapie rubbish (whoops!) from that king of the skin-flints, Marcus Berkmann, and his preppy pauper (ha ha) Jonathan Davies.

Encore
£2.99
Reviewer: Marcus Berkmann

Another rubbishy old Durell game disinterred from Elites vaults and bunged out on its cheapy label, and, like some of the others we've sampled these past few months, Chain Reaction doesn't really make the grade. The plot's all about an atomic pile that needs neutralising, and you have to run about killing nasties and solving problems and all that sort of thing. Sadly, though, the graphics are so basic - especially as the game is only two years old - and the gameplay so drab that it's hard to maintain any sort of interest. Instead you find yourself, well, throwing it out of the window with frustration and boredom. It's really getting quite messy out there, isn't it?

Durell clean up the mess.

Nuclear power's always a good excuse for a game. In this one the Anti-Nuclear party have done all sorts of nasty things in the reactor, and you must sort out the mess, collecting and then disposing of the radioactive rods. It's got a clever almost-3D view and interesting jet-pack propulsion mode. Graphics are neat but not special. An enjoyable game that looks just a little old-fashioned.

Reviewer: Pete Connor

RELEASE BOX
C64/128, £6.99cs, £9.99dk, Out Now
Spec, £6.99cs, £12.99dk Out Now
Amstrad, £6.99cs, £12.99dk, Out Now

Predicted Interest Curve

1 min: 60/100
1 hour: 65/100
1 day: 70/100
1 week: 40/100
1 month: 20/100
1 year: 0/100

Encore
Spectrum, C64: 1.99

This budget re-release, originally from Durell, has nothing whatsoever in common with the vomit-inducing Diana Ross ditty of the same name. Well, perhaps it does. They're both dire.

Some Green Party member has gone and dumped eighteen radioactive canisters throughout a seven-storey nuclear treatment plant, endangering the lives of all the staff who work there. Not very environmentally friendly, wouldn't you agree? What's more is you have 30 minutes in which to collect the canisters, make them safe and combat the robot security system which has, purely by chance, gone haywire.

Chain Reaction is a particularly awful piece of software. Pathetic, chunky sprites, gaudy colour and a lack of anything to do other than collect the canisters results in a game best buried in concrete tomb for the next 10,000 years.