Lightforce is the first
release from the new
Gargoyle label, Faster
Than Light, and it's a
shoot 'em up. Remember
Imagine's
Arcadia? Well, this
is the same thing three years
on, with the addition of
vertical scrolling and super-large characters.
You start the game in an
asteroid shower, which should
warn you that things can only
get worse. Your simple choice
is to dodge them or blast
them. The way to survive is a
combination of these two,
which should get you through
to the first alien craft. You
then have to score multiple
hits on its control chambers if
you want an extra life.
But, of course, the enemy
is well protected, with craft
that drop down - only you
can't blast these! And things
have hardly started to get
difficult yet, because the
enemy fighters perform
elaborate little dances. Before
you can say Red Arrows,
they're weaving all over the
place dropping bombs on you.
Nobody could deny that
Lightforce looks nice, and
you'd expect nothing less of a
Gargoyle game. But it doesn't
quite seem to have captured
the elements that make a
shoot 'em up totally addictive.
Instead it becomes frustrating
and though the graphics
move fast for their size, they
seem rather sluggish on-screen. So though it's
definitely not a 40 watt bulb
on a snail, it's not Faster
Than Light either.
| Ratings given by other magazines |
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| Info supplied by the SPOT*ON database |
