No Fragments Archive 10: Diskmags/nf_archive_10.iso/MAGS/MUCH/MSG01.MSA/ARTICLES_CAPTIVE.DOC

Text File | 1993-07-06 | 16.3 KB | 286 lines

                             CAPTIVE REVIEW
                            ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

CAPTIVE, by Mindscape International, is  a first-person perspective RPG
game set in the distant future. Apparently, you have been accused for a
crime that you didn't commit, and  have been sentenced to 250 suspended
animation. But halfway through, you are  woken  up by the main computer
to find yourself in a small cell.  By  the  looks of things, there is a
full scale battle going on  outside,  and  the  computer woke you up to
save you from dying (fat lot of good that will do).

Anyway, in the corner of your cell  you find a small leather briefcase.
Upon opening said briefcase, you find  it  to be a small remote control
unit for a group  of  four  androids  somewhere  in another galaxy. You
decide that you can use these androids to escape.

At the beginning of the  game,  you  find  yourself  to  be in the SWAN
mothership in the centre of  the  galaxy.  You select your first planet
BUTRE and set a course for  it.  On  the way there, you initialize your
four droids. This is where you  plug  in their individual ROM circuits,
and give them  their  names.  Here's  an  original  idea  for  you: the
computer decides the droid's stats  simply  by  what name you gave that
particular droid (and of course, some  good names appeared in the cheat
lists of some magazines).

By now, you should have arrived at  your  planet. You then point to the
landing pad on the planet and  launch  your  landing craft. You land on
the planet's surface, and the game is on!

DUNGEON MASTER fanatics (or generally  anyone  who  has played a first-
person perspective game) will be familiar with this one. You get little
boxes with icons, signalling  different  actions.  You get your control
cluster (forward,  backward,  turn,  side-step,  etc.),  and  your hand
contents. Along the top of the screen are five monitors. The first four
are readouts from any Optical devices  that  the  droids may buy from a
shop in the level, whereas the  fifth  one  is a display for the remote
camera unit (also available from the shop).

The four droids start off very  weak  and  basic, with basic armour, no
experience, and no weapons (well, fists actually). You land outside the
base (hopefully as  near  to  the  main  airlock  as  possible)  with a
prehistoric setting. There is  water  (very  acidic!),  long grass, and
dinosaurs! Luckily the dinosaurs are  pretty  weak during the first few
stages of the game, and a  couple  of well-aimed punches will send them
packing (well, actually they will kill them).

When you finally find the airlock,  you  have to find the correct four-
button sequence to open the door. Once open, you step inside...and into
the first level.

Inside the level is  as  gloomy  as  any  Dungeon Master coridoor, with
boring walls, boring floor, and boring ceiling. On the first level, the
coridoor ends abrubtly and there  is  apparently  no way top pass (some
geezer wrote into a magazine complaining that he had spend 25 quid on a
game that starts  you  off  at  a  cul-de-sac!)  If  you  were  to look
carefully at the wall at the end,  you  may notice small rollers on the
bottom. Right-click on the forward icon and you push it forwards.

You are then  confronted  by  your  first  set  of  nasties.  A vicious
combination of punches  sorts  them  out.  Once  you  kill  a  group of
enemies, you get a bag of gold which  can be used later in a shop (yes,
they do have shops in prison as  well!). You also get experience points
which you can use to allocate to various armour and weapon skills.

Walking around the level, you find  pretty  shutters in the wall. These
open up to reveal  more  gold  bags,  bouncy  balls  (can  be thrown at
enemies or bounced around  walls),  codes,  or  a  zlot!  (!) Zlots are
'temporary' weapons which have a set power or ammo level. Once used up,
they disappear. Zlot-shutters also open up  walls close by, letting out
another monster.

Pressing the right  mouse  button  takes  you  to  the  droid's various
inventories, where you can  place  items  you  have collected, see what
armour you have got  on,  view  your  stats,  etc.  You can select what
weapon to use simply by placing it in the droid's hand. Each weapon has
only one function (either hit  or  fire),  and  can be used from either
left or right hand (contrasting to  Dungeon Master). This makes a total
of eight weapons useable at a time! Unfortunately, if the people at the
back have striking weapons, they tend  to  hit  the people in front and
not the enemy (ouch!)

Throughout the level is a combination of twisting coridoors, blue doors
and push-button doors which you can  trap  monsters in to cause quite a
lot of damage. You eventually  come  to  a  room with lots of pulsating
electricity generators. The destruction of  these  is half of your task
on each level. The  other  half  is  to  find  the  planet probe from a
computer. And to  get  the  planet  probe  you  have  to  find  the mad
professor who holds the code. And to get  the code you have to kill the
mad professor (you will see what I mean by 'mad' when you hit him!)

Once the probe is collected, you  buy explosives from the nearest shop,
throw the explosives at the generators,  and  RUN LIKE F***! If you are
lucky, you will reach the main airlock in time. From there, you have to
type in the correct sequence  again  to  escape back outside. Then, all
you do is find your lander ship, get  in, and blast off! There, level 1
done, only 64499 more....WHAT? Yes,  Apparently  there are 65500 levels
in Captive. Don't ask.

A few levels afterwards you will  have  had  quite a lot of experience.
Skill points can be 'brought'  using  experience  points. There are two
main categories of skill;  weapons  and  robotics.  Your robotics skill
determines what level of armour  your  droid  can wear (Human armour is
the most basic, Tindron is the  next, then Coppator, Bronzite, Ironide,
Chromize, Silovsh, Rosteeld, Stenforcer, and  Titaniux. You get to wear
Titaniux by about level 50!)

The weapons category is split into  the nine different types of weapon.
First of all, the four droids  start  with  skill 1 in Brawling (punch-
ups). Once this is increased to 9  out  of 24, you can start allocating
to the next  skill,  Swords,  then  Handguns,  then Rifles, Automatics,
Lasers, Cannons, Sprayguns. There are  three  different weapons in each
weapon category (making 23  different  weapons altogether). Each weapon
has a power rating, from BASIC to  mark 8. So, someone with Sword skill
12 can use all weapons up to power 4 or the second sword weapon.

Different shops sell  different  gear  at  different  prices. Each shop
generally offers these services: repair whole droid, repair body parts,
buy item off droid, or sell item to droid. You can buy weapons, armour,
ammunition, batteries, explosives, cameras,  mines,  balls (!), Optics,
and Dev-scapes.

Instead of your usual food  and  water  levels  in  DM, you get a power
level instead. This shows how  much  electricity  you have in you. Once
this reaches 0, you have  got  one  run-down  droid  on your hands. The
place to get electricity from, believe it or not, is from power sockets
on the wall. Shove your finger in  a power socket, and you can recharge
yourself! You can also fill up batteries  from here to store power. You
can also partly recharge batteries from  fire on later levels. Stuffing
anything else up a power socket  (ahem!  by way of armour, money, etc.)
will promptly burn it up!

Cameras are handy (should you have enough  power), for you can put them
on the floor, and control them remotely  - sending them up ahead to see
what's there before charging around a corner.

Mines can be planted on the  floor, waiting for some unsuspecting enemy
(or droid who forgot they put it there!) to step on one.

Optics and Dev-scapes are small  chips  which  the droids can plug into
their head sockets. There are eight of each type. Optics are solely for
informative purposes, while Dev-scapes modify the droid(s) in some way.
For example, the first Optic is called  the AG-SCAN, and shows how much
damage you are inflicting on the  opponent.  The  next one is the ROOT-
FINDER, and points to  the  way  out  (useful!).  The  third one is the
MAPPER and draws out a map as  you  walk along, which you can then move
around to see where you haven't been. The  best of the lot is the RADAR
which shows where close-range enemies are. The next one is less useful,
the MAGNA SCAN. It points to the direction you are facing (handy if you
stand on a 'spinner'). The sixth one is the BODY-SCAN and shows quickly
which parts of your  droids  are  injured.  The  penultimate one is the
VISION CORRECTOR, and reveals false walls when you are looking at them.
The final one is  the  VISOR,  and  is  useful during blackouts (where,
because  of  the  roof,  the  droids  cannot  relay  their  camera-view
proporly, and everything ends up blank).

The Dev-scapes are as follows: ANTI-GRAV allows you to walk on the roof
(allows you to either walk over mines  and pits, or fall back up pits!)
The next one is  a  SHIELD,  and  reduces  how  much  damage the droids
receive. Then, the FIRE-SHIELD, which  filters  out  most of the damage
caused by fire. Then, GREASER,  which  speeds up the droid's movements.
The POWER-SAPPER is the least  useful  of  the  lot,  as it reduces the
droid's energy to 0!. Then the FIXER,  which  repairs a body part up to
10% (allowing it to still be used until  you find a shop to repair it).
Then,  the  RECHARGER,  which  slowly  regenerates  your  power  level.
Finally, the DEFLECTOR bounces back enemy's  bullets (handy in a no-win
situation!)

Optics and Dev-scapes can be turned on and off by using a small control
panel at the bottom-right of  the  screen.  Whenverer they are on, they
drain away the droid's energy (although  most  of the time te amount is
of no real matter). Optics  are  always  on full charge, but Dev-scapes
can slowly run out; they need to be repaired.

Here are a few tables, just for the sake of it.

WEAPONS (Only Basic and Super costs are provided, not II to VII)
-------
                  -- COST --
NAME             BASIC  SUPER  CLIP TYPE   CLIP COST  AMMO  SKILL

Fists                                                       Brawling
Knuckle-Duster    49      84                                Brawling
Battle Glove      99     169                                Brawling

War Blade         189    259                                Swords
Lyte Blade        399    469                                Swords
Fire Axe          459    599                                Swords

Pistol            999    1139    20mm          20           Handguns
Colt              1199   1339    45mm          50           Handguns
Magnum            1419   1559    50mm          300          Handguns

Rifle             2140   2280    45mm          50           Rifles
Shotgun           2159   2539  Cartridges      400          Rifles
Hunter            2500   2780    50mm          300          Rifles

Uzie                           20mm Auto       500      39  Automatics
Rapedo                         45mm Auto       600          Automatics
Booster                        50mm Auto       800          Automatics

Hand-Laser        8000   8350  Laser pack      1000     20  Lasers
Lyte-zapper       8549   8899  Laser pack      1000     20  Lasers
Ion-pulse         9025   9375  Sonic pack      1500     25  Lasers

Mono cannon      10000  10700   Shells         1500     20  Cannons
A51-Launcher     11002  11702  A51 rockets     1989     15  Cannons
Twin cannon      12039          Shells         1500     20  Cannons

Aerosol                        Poison gas               21  Sprayguns
Acid Dispensor                 Acid gas                     Sprayguns
Flame Thrower                  Flambos gas                  Sprayguns


There, that's all  of  the  weapons  out  of  the  way...next  come the
baddies! There are about 39  different  types  of monster, ranging from
(these names are what I call them, because there is no real definition)
Miners, Stumps, American  Footballers,  Red  Indians,  Freds  (?), Evil
Freds (??),  Ships,  Frogs,  Robots,  Fire  Elementals,  Flying Robots,
Professors,  Porters,  Droids,   Tabs,   Dragons,  Ninja-swirls,  Dogs,
Computers, Defence Flyers,  Rock  Piles,  Globs, Laser-Gunners, Demons,
Skele-Freds (???), Battle Droids,  Pulsites,  Invisos, Guardians, Water
Dwellers,  Dinosaurs,  Pterodactyls,   Stegalosauruses,  Knights,  Fire
Serpents, Blue Globs, Faceless  Freds  (????),  and Mini-Dinosaurs! For
the people that  already  have  got  Captive,  try  to  find  out which
monsters I am referring to!

There are plenty of features to  each level, such as coridoor, pushable
walls, blue  doors,  push-button  doors,  punch-doors,  naitan security
doors, raising walls, airlocks,  grates,  8-way  and 16-way combination
codes, fire,  water,  levers,  shops,  computers,  ladders,  pits, fake
walls, lifts, and generators. Phew!  You  would  have thought that each
level would be completely  different!  Sadly,  not true. Although there
are three different types of wall  and  ceiling  (four if you count the
space station at the end of every  ten  levels), each level tends to be
the same after a while, and the lasting appeal wears thin.

If you like this kind of game,  you  will  be hooked for days and days,
because there is so much to do and  try out. But, once you get to level
thirty or so (I am  on  about  35),  things  tend  to get the same, and
because there are 65500 levels,  you  just  give  up and lose interest.
After a  few  levels  you  start  to  get  complex  combination  locks,
consisting of either 8 or 16 buttons  which have to be set correctly to
open up a bit of wall elsewhere. The  only way to find out the code (if
you can't be bothered to guess) is to find the monster that is carrying
the code. Sometimes he/it can be on  the  other side of the level (gets
daunting running  all  of  the  way  back  to  type  the  code  in, and
sometimes, only to find that it was a total waste of time!).

Sometimes, impossible situations  occur:  Somewhere  on  the  level, an
enemy detects you, so he shoots (if possible) at the wall. If there was
a raising wall there, it lifts up.  A baddie which carries a vital code
walks aimlessly underneath,  the  raising  walls  comes  crashing down,
kills the enemy, and crushes the code, making it impossible to find. On
most levels, you manage to explore the whole level (just to give you an
idea, for the levels 30 onwards, each  floor is probably twice the size
of your average Dungeon Master floor, and  there are about four or five
floors!) and find that there is nothing else to do, except for this one
code which you can't find! So  you  have  to run around the whole level
looking for a code or a monster to kill, and get so frustrated when you
can't find it! Eventually, you give up and play something else.

The whole of Captive comes on  one  disk  (!!),  with an extra disk for
those single-sided lamers. The disk access  is  the fastest I have ever
seen (takes about two seconds  to  save  out  the  whole level where it
takes DM about 10  to  20.)  and  memory  usage  is very efficient. The
graphics are superb, there is  sampled  sound to accompany most actions
(and in stereo for the STE'ers), there  is catering for two drives (and
ten saved game positions) and extra memory  - the whole game runs as if
from  a  hard  drive!  There  are  keyboard  short-cuts  for  movement,
inventory access, etc. so if you had  a friend that liked the game, you
could have one  person  doing  the  moving,  and  one  person doing the
shooting (like I do).

So, to finally sum up: Captive is a game of high quality. Everything is
superb: gaphics, sound, playability. There is  so much to each level by
way of content, things to do, different  weapons and armour to try out,
a wide variety of baddies...the  only  let-downs are the ever-recurring
levels, the impossible bits,  and  the  "spending  hours  one one level
trying to find what you have missed".

I would rate this game very highly, between  80 and 90%. It is good for
the first few months, but you eventually lose interest, and leave it on
the shelf to collect dust and rot. Shame, that.

Article: BLACK EAGLE 7/7/93