¢TEMPEST 2000¢¢Reviewed by Dan ODI Baverstock¢¢¢ Out of all the initial game releases for the Jaguar in 1994, Tempest 2000 was billed from the very beginning as one of the best. It even went as far as being named 'Game of the Decade', and some Atari bod even gave it a 97% rating. Tempest 2000, as with many of the new Atari games, is an old Atari arcade title that was very popular in the early 1980s, strangely called Tempest.¢¢ 97%! There was no question in my mind of where to put my money and as DOOM was not yet available, Tempest 2000 was at the top of my games hit list.¢¢ Before buying, I managed to get the game for a few hours, just to see how good it really was before nipping down to my local HMV to part with 55 big ones.¢¢ Hooking my Jag up to my trusty old hi-fi system and bunging in the cart, I switched on the Jag with great anticipation. After the usual Jaguar title screen, up came the Tempest 2000 (hereafter known as T2K) title screen. Nice use of colour and a good slow tune played in the background. Pressing a console button resulted in the screen swivel smoothly anti-clockwise while melting at the same time. Great effect!¢¢ Up came the options screen, giving me a choice of four variations on T2K: Tempest, Tempest Plus, Tempest 2000 and Tempest Duel.¢¢ The first is the original Tempest. The second is a mixture of both the original and T2K. The third is the new version, and Tempest Duel is a two player version. As you move between options and make choices, sampled psychadelic voices play, with a Bill & Ted style delivery - "Excellent" and "Yes!".¢¢ Time to start T2K! Pressing fire I watched the screen melt. Then a gorgeous rave soundtrack came through the hi-fi. Turn it up! This could enter the charts and get in the Top 10!¢¢ From the background came a 3D revolving web, growing larger until it shifted to the forefront of the screen. Here you can either choose to start on further levels (I counted 10 from which you can choose to start on) or enter that web. A web, by the way is the 3D wire frame landscape (usually blue) that battle commences upon. They vary in shape, ranging from simple flat grids to bobsled-stlye runs, tubes and S-waves.¢¢ Trigger fingers and brain at the ready, I started on level one, a tube web. A few seconds later the tube appeared, revolving and moving towards the screen, with the rave music kicking in. Full of anticipation, I watched as my ship came into view.¢¢ Moving around from left to right, my ship jerked around. The best way I can describe it is as a bent yellow wire-frame boomerang, but it didn't move as smoothly!¢¢ From the back of the web emerged wire frame shapes who insisted on firing on me, so I returned the favour, missing completely as they were in another lane of the Web. My firepower reminded me of a rapid-fire pea shooter! Eventually I succeeded in hitting one and 'Collect powerup' flashed and dissolved before me. A ring zoomed along the lane towards me, and after collecting it I was informed I now had a particle lazer. Lightening flashed down upon the enemy, a nice chunky arcade sounding boom accompaning it. Pressing another button sent a maniac looking thunder storm 'upon thy ememy' killing all that was on the web, the charming words 'Eat Electric death' flashing on screen.¢¢ Red triangles, coloured diamond shapes, sometimes a devil's head, and an asterix star shape were basically the only enemies that I came into contact with. Some fire back at you, some don't! The red triangles sometimes get past and crawl along the web edge towards you. The diamond shapes hit the edge, exploding into red triangles. These come in all at once, forcing you to wait until they reach you. You can get power ups that allow you to jump off the web to kill these, but I still found myself waiting about, aimlessly firing down lanes of the web.¢¢ OK, feeling a little disappointed with the graphics (all wire frames with only around ten colours on screen), the jerky movement of my ship, and the repetitiveness of this particular level, I still played on. I was sure that the next level would offer yet more suprises.¢¢ At last I found myself flying through the web into a starfield warp, a throbbing sound playing while my ship broke into three and disappeared. Next second a sexy female voice tells me I have "Super Zapper Recharge", and a new web approaches the screen, this time a flat grid.¢¢ My ship reappeared, and unfortunately so did the same enemies. Back to my original rapid fire pea-shooter, I mindlessly jerked around the web holding down fire. This time a warning told me to mind the spikes, green lines that would destroy me if I was unfortunate enough to run into them after completing the level and going into warp. The same weapons were encountered, and after a while I found myself going into warp again, easily avoiding the spikes. The third level web appeared, a bobsled-style one. Same gameplay, same weapons, same enemies!¢¢ At this point I was seriously doubting the sanity of the Atari bod who named this 'Game of the Decade' and gave it 97%. I was becoming rapidly disheartened and felt I had little control over the gameplay. I was simply there to hold down fire and move my ship in circles, collect the same uninspiring weapons, or hold still until the red triangles came into my lane.¢¢ Every level offered no variety and the only other weapon I managed to get in the process of playing 5 levels was a droid friend - a blue wire frame cube who did most of the destroying for me.¢¢ By now I was convinced I was playing the original version, so I quit and chose T2K again. Alas, I had been playing T2K.¢¢ I tried advancing through a few of the later levels. These offered me the same difficulty of gameplay the others had displayed. Some levels used filled-in webs, each lane a collection of different shades of a colour, which made the graphics a little, but not much, better.¢¢ What a disappointment! Despite the excellent music, sound effects and some of the typical great effects of a Jeff Minter game (he of 'Revenge of the Mutant Camels'), the gameplay was old hat, repetitive and uninspiring! To be quite honest it was rather boring to play after the first five minutes.¢¢ I tried the other versions including the original and Plus versions. I didn't think much of them. It definitly reflects a game from the 1980's. The graphics are nothing spectacular, both the webs and enemies. Worst of all it's not as fast and frantic as it's made out to be. The webs are stationary while the enemy approaches from the background so you have very limited controls. It hasn't got the blast'em'up feel to it - where you feel you are really in control of the gameplay weapons. Talking of the weapons, throughout my games I only encountered around four, hardly varied for a 16-bit shoot'em'up, and a massive let down for a 64-bit game. Especially one that has had so much hype! The ship's lack of detail is also a big let down.¢¢ Tempest Duel is a minature two player version, where you play against each other. I found this even less playable than T2K!¢¢ There are a lot of small options including controls indicated with the joypad overlay. During play you can choose from what angle you see the web, moving the centre off a little, reducing or increasing the size of the web. These options don't actually make much difference. You can also turn down the volume of the music and sound FX, or turn them off altogether. On the initial option screens, among other options, you can choose the thickness of the web, and therefore detail, and choose to play alongside a droid.¢¢ As I mentioned before you can choose to start from up to level 10. I assume there are far more levels after this, perhaps with new varieties of enemy, weapons and effects. I have seen a fantastic hyperwarp which you jump into, which uses a great stretch effect on a coloured pathway, looking something like a red stormy sky.¢¢ As the game purposely relies (too much) on supposed 'Out of this world' gameplay, the graphics are neglected.¢¢ Perhaps I am being a little premature and unfair in my judgement of the game as I have only played on it for a couple of hours and haven't got further than the first 10 levels. However, with a game of this kind you can usually tell if it's a winner when you first start playing. Unfortunately this isn't the case with T2K.¢¢ In my mind this game is greatly over-rated and many like myself will be very disappointed. I am glad I had a chance to try before buying. The game is way too expensive at 55 pounds. A more realistic price would be around 30 pounds. It might appeal to real shoot'em'up freaks with loads of cash or Eighties arcade Tempest players, but not to me.¢¢ Atari were looking for a shoot'em'up to boost the Jaguar and have named T2K as the ultimate. Yet it doesn't come nearly as close to showing the Jag's graphic capabilities. Thankfully, the same can't be said for the music, which is truly 'Out of this world!'¢¢ You'd be far better off (and sane) buying DOOM if you want a truly stunning, action packed and involving game!¢¢¢¢RATINGS FOR TEMPEST 2000¢¢Gameplay, Action - 5/10¢Effects - 6/10¢Music, Sound FX - 11/10¢Over-rated and over-priced!¢
