Captive - Mindscape RRP œ24.99
                        (RPG)

                Reviewed by Nigel Nock

You are cast as a fugitive, jailed for unspeakable crimes against
the state. At the start of the game, you are awoken from your
cryogenic suspension by a safety feature on your captor's computer.
Your present location is under fire from rival factions and the
heat is on! Taking this chance to save yourself, you have
discovered a briefcase computer in the corner of your cell which
can remotely control up to four droids. Scampering through the
manual, you find a hint towards your escape ... "a man held captive
could use this to control droids to release him" and the game begins.  

Dungeon Master similarities come almost immediately, with a party
of four and a forward-looking screen viewer. The droids' limbs can
be interchanged as could the clothing in DM and the traditional
pills and potions have been replaced with guns and grenades. Given
the difference in monsters (and believe me, Captive has copious stores
of these) then perhaps the difference is justified. A magic potion
has more gall than a peashooter pop-gun when it comes to mummy-bashing
and how could you destroy a Darth Vader-like giant with a bottle of
purple vapour?

So, enough of all these comparisons, how does it play? Getting into
the game is easy - an illustrius intro screen guides you to an
opening briefcase and a view of all droids and a map of the present
universe. The first time this screen came up, the old heart
fluttered for want of Elite on the BBC. It's funny how that game
seems to have influenced all future works, but there you are. The
next thing that I learnt to do was to 'plug in' the droids. Simply
drag the chip over the brain icon and name your droid. I don't know
why these names aren't pre-programmed (to Donatello, MichaelAngelo,
Raphael and Leonardo) and you have four fully-functional robots at
your service, cap'n.

Landing your droids safely is a pretty important first step. Putting
their ship onto a ball of fire is not going to do them much good,
neither is dropping them onto a planet infested with dinosaurs and
'green meanies' (no offence meant). The planet to reach is highlighted
enough. If anyone can't get to Butre after it being mentioned
directly in the manual and the fact that it has a big green spot next
to it, then they deserve to be annihilated immediately. Once you've 
reached this haven, clues are just left around, waiting to be acted
upon.  

Getting into the 'dungeon' is simplicity enough after reading the
first, the second one is a tad deceiving as you get a bundle of
explosives and a locked door on one side, shut wall on another. So
what do you do? Use the explosives to blow the wall, use the
explosives to blow the door? NO! Push at the far wall with the
right mouse button. Now, anyone reading this who already has Captive
may be laughing their socks off at that, but judging by the way the
girl on the Mindscape switchboard helped, I was certainly not the
first to ask. It turns out that this 'push a wall' business is
pretty common in the game. You soon start examining walls for
tell-tale signs of movement.


Once into the dungeon proper, you are met with a feeble set of
opponents - the green plants and a set of mad pixies are unlikely
to cause too much trouble. Your droids can brawl on this level,
building experience points which can later be traded for weapons
or droid experience, allowing you to handle more powerful tools.
One lovely touch here, as you explore the passages, are the
button-operated doors which - yes, you guessed it - can be used to
crush your foes to a pulp. A couple of 'chase me's and they're
squelching in that door like good 'uns. Dead beings conveniently
trans-mutate into bags of gold which can be collected and spent
at one of many corner shops. When trading at these shops, your
humble ecu can buy you anything from a bomb to a camera, spiked
gloves to a ball. You can also use this opportunity to repair
your droids or even sell parts of a recently departed friend (if
you're callous enough). Some weapons are not instantly usable,
the droids not having enough combat experience for example and so
may not be such a good buy.

Power is one of the key points to take note of in Captive, and
I'm not talking about the sort in Powermonger. This can be
obtained by sticking your finger in a sparking socket and then
transferring it to your chest. It's not exactly recommended that
you do this at home or indeed to any other bit of your anatomy
(it will just disappear in an 'oh nooo' poof!). Luckily a
comprehensive 'save game' option can help to make experimenting
a little safer.

I'm writing this review at the point of being at the end of Level
One (I hope) and stuck! Yes, I've been here and there. I've
collected my knuckle-dusters and traded an arm and a leg for a
fire-proof chip (and even a gravity-proof one) and found out how
to set the explosives off. The only problem that I have is that
of leaving the planet before incinerating it and me together. I've
visited the mad professor, got the basic map and the locater,
together with operation instructions, but there's still no way to
avoid getting my toes burnt. After trying to get help from
Mindscape, I was given an 0898 number for assistance. Okay, so I
respect the fact that support costs money, but I have a deep
reservation for these numbers and living at home with itemised
billing, would find it pretty difficult to disguise it. I've never
come across people dialling these on pay phones but I can just
imagine the response if you were to stop in the foyer of Woolies,
dialling a carefully scrawled 0898 number to hear about Captive.
A little moan, but there again, Mindscape promise to issue a
œ2.99 hint book pretty soon so I'll try to hang on.

All in all, an excellent game at an honest price. Considering
the fact that this type of game usually sells at œ35.00 upwards,
Captive's œ25.00 gets you a choice game with excellent value
for money.