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1995-10-06
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5KB
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89 lines
Subwar 2050
Rob Hays
Imagine if you will, fifty-five years into the future.
Current aircraft technologies have been applied to undersea
craft, and multi-national corporations are trying to outmaneuver
each other for the riches of the deep. This is the world of one
of a crop of new releases distributed by MicroProse, called
Subwar 2050.
This undersea world is full of high speed submarines, armed
with deadly torpedoes, rockets, and other weapons. The
corporations have escalated their disagreements into outright
warfare, and if you have the right stuff, they will pay
handsomely for your services.
After proving your abilities with a series of training
missions, you can choose from any of four multi-mission
campaigns. These can be played in any order, and each presents
its own challenges. Ranging over the globe from the North
Atlantic oil fields to the rich fishing grounds around
Antarctica, you will be called upon to perform a variety of
missions. Depending on the campaign selected, your term of
service may be for a set number of missions, a period of time, or
for the duration of your employer's difficulties.
As each mission is successfully completed, your bank account
is credited with your pay, and for an especially well-done
mission, a grateful corporation may add a bonus or a medal. This
accumulated pay can come in handy to pay for emergency
resuscitation or rescue should the bad guys succeed in
destroying your sub.
The cockpit areas are dominated by a large display screen
that takes the place of windows. This screen displays information
gathered from your submarine's sensors, because sunlight
penetrates only the first few hundred feet of water and these
subs perform most missions at depths of many thousands of feet.
One important piece of information displayed is the layering
caused by temperature differences. These layers can be critical
to your survival, since they reflect sonar waves like a mirror,
allowing you to hide from enemy subs. Other information includes
navigation waypoints and weapons status, as well as information
on sonar contacts.
Like the oceans themselves, Subwar 2050 is full of sound.
The far off songs of whales echo through the haunting musical
theme. Moving ships cause varying amounts of noise, from a
whisper to a bubbling rush, as they move through the water. Be
sure to connect the headphones or speakers for this one.
As with most flight simulators, control is best through a
joystick, although the cursor control keys or mouse can be used,
and different views of the area are available through the
function keys. Many missions involve a formation of several
submarines. For instance, you may be assigned to a fighter
escorting a troop carrier. You can give these wingmen various
orders from your keyboard to expedite the mission, such as
"attack current target." If you become overwhelmed with enemies
or your own weapon systems become damaged, you can also tell the
wingmen to "cover me," and they will attack whoever is currently
attacking you.
Game options include three levels each of control
sensitivity, skill, and graphic detail. These options can be
changed during a mission, so if you find the opposition too
tough, they can be toned down a bit before they kill you. Games
cannot be saved in progress, but player accomplishments are saved
at the end of every mission. The graphics of objects outside
your sub are of the filled-polygon variety, so movements are
quick and clean, although there is no surface detail to them.
Just remind yourself that you are looking at a computer-generated
representation of sonar data. Besides, you will be too busy
trying to dodge incoming torpedoes and targeting your adversaries
to notice the lack of detail.
Three booklets are included with the game; a general manual,
an Amiga Technical Supplement, and a copy of "Under Currents, The
Maritime Corporate Defence Journal", with a cover date of May
2050. This last includes pages of specifications of the
submarines used in the game, containing the required copy
protection for the start of each game. The journal also contains
a short history of submarines in general, and some background on
the current corporate structures and infighting.
Like virtually all Amiga games these days, this is not only
a port from Clone-Land, but also from England. While some
features were left out of our version (the manual calls this
"enhanced"), at least the British Amiga users have discovered
hard drives. Using the Commodore Installer, the files from the
two disks are placed in a new drawer on your partition of choice.
The disks themselves are not protected, so playing from copies of
the floppies is possible if your hard drive lacks the minimum two
megabytes of free space.
Subwar 2050 requires an Amiga 1200 or 4000 with a minimum of
two megabytes of RAM. A joystick and speakers or headphones are
recommended.
Submarine combat will never be the same.