BAT - UBI SOFT - RRP œ24.99 on ST (reviewed), Amiga, PC
  (Mouse-controlled RPG Adventure on 3 disks with sound card)

                     Reviewed by Alan Beer

     About two months ago Vrangor a mentally-ill psychopathic
genius escaped from the 'Saint Yver of the Angels penal colony'
for the third time.

     Also escaped with Vrangor was a small-time crook known as
Merigo and there was no doubt that they would try something.

      You've been called to your superior's office who informs
you of some new information on the Vrangor case.

      We've received a message on a frequency reserved
exclusively for the Bureau of the Astral Troubleshooters (B.A.T.
to you and me) which only a small number of people know. It seems
to be from Vrangor himself and tells us that he has planted
sixteen nucturobiogeic bombs in a well-frequented place which is
extremely important to the Confederation of the Galaxies. He has
chosen to eliminate all life in the city of Terrapolis on Selenia
in ten days, unless an act of property is drawn up in his name for
that area. We have traced the presence of an EMC corresponding to
that of Merigo the prisoner who escaped with Vrangor. Merigo is
now our only possible lead to Vrangor.

     It also seems that we have a leak in our organisation so
it's out of the question to warn the authorities at Terrapolis
of your arrival.

      You must work under cover and eliminate Vrangor; then we
can discover the traitor. Upon your arrival you must make contact
with an agent already on duty, he will provide you with more
information  necessary to your mission. Good luck.

    Well that's the story out of the way, now let's get down to
the basics. Bat is an RPG adventure with a bit of flight
simulator thrown in. It's played mainly on static screens with

some nice and sometimes humorous animation of robots, aliens and
the like milling in and out of the area you are in.

   When you first boot up you are given the option to go straight
into the game using the predefined character or to create your
own character with your own characteristics, which the manual
recommends and will give the game a lot more depth as it's a part
of you that evolves in this world. This is also the screen where
you choose the weapon you start off with (but not the ammunition).

    The controls are all mouse-driven (you know, the point & click
type). There are about 12 cursor types which determine your actions.
Let's say your cursor turns into a face (which the manual calls
Interpellation), this means that there are some characters passing
by who you can interrupt and chat to, click on the right mouse
button to bring up a sub-menu.

      In this situation you can do a number of things, like buy or
sell something, make them an offer for some information or just
attack them. You can even do a bit of pick-pocketing and steal
from them. When you do get around to a bit of pocket-dipping you
will hear a long beep if you are successful (or for that matter
if someone has stolen from you!) If you don't manage to steal an
item successfully your victim will say 'hey put that back'. You
will then have the opportunity to say yes or no.

       If you say yes and then steal it again they sometimes
just give up, but if you don't give it back you may end up in a
shoot-out in which case the screen changes to a static picture
of a fleeing crowd with your opponent in the centre. You now
have a couple of seconds to click on your weapon (and force
field if you have one) then aim the cross-hair cursor at your
opponent and click like crazy. If however you decide you can't
handle the shoot-out, this screen also offers the option to
chicken out and just leg it.

     Other cursors bring up similar sub-menus, like the bottle
which allows you to buy something to drink. The usage cursor
is a type of arrow. When this appears you can use a number of
machines, like public telephones, and if you are down at the
amusement arcade you can have a go on the Bizzy game, the most
popular game on Terrapolis. The Bizzy game is a memory game at
which you are shown an increasing number of different shapes
which you have to repeat and is dead simple to do. It's also
an easy way of making loads of cash.

      How about movement I hear you say!  Well this again is
where your cursor changes into an arrow pointing in your desired
direction and once clicked on you then travel in that direction.
However if a question mark comes up you still have to do
something or carry an item to go that way.

     When the eye cursor appears you can click the left mouse
button and a sub-menu appears which enables you to check and
use your inventory, also to eat, sleep and so on. But if you
click the right mouse button you gain access to your
Bidirectional Organic Bioputer (B.O.B. for short)  which is
a computer that has been implanted into your arm. The different
functions of B.O.B. are to check your characteristics,

physical condition and to translate languages. You can also
control your heart beat.

     Another function is programming B.O.B. which means you
can program it to warn you that you are tired, injured or
hungry and will also change your heart beat for you when you
are in a battle. Those are just some of the things you can
program. Also once you've done some programs you can save
them to disk and reload them at different times, plus they
can be saved to the same disk as the one you are using to save
your game position.

     The flight part of the game I haven't found yet so
unfortunately I can't tell you much about it but as far as I can
tell it's fairly simple to control and is in 3D, but comes later
in the game.

       As to the sound FX! Well, on the box it reads and I quote
"Extraordinary musical possibility with 1 meg of memory"
unquote and as I bought my copy of BAT by mail order I did not
know about this. Unfortunately I only have an 520ST so I can not
give you a full review about the sound and I must admit I was a
bit disappointed with it.

     The only music you get is at the beginning and at the end
of the game, other than that the only FX are if you are in a
shoot-out, if someone steals something or if you use a machine.
As for the sound card the game will not run if it's not plugged
in, there is a socket to which you plug your headphones in or
if you have the right leads you can connect it to your HiFi. The
other thing I was a bit disappointed with was that the sound is
in mono and at a set volume, but if you've connected to your HiFi
you have your volume control but you lose some quality on the way.

     The graphics on the other hand are very good and as I said
before it has bits of animation going on and with the moody
graphics all adds to set the atmosphere.

     As to the gameplay!  Well it all starts off good and then
goes downhill. The pace is a bit slow and at times gets a bit
repetitive after asking the same questions and getting the same
old answers back for the umpteenth time. Also the shoot-out
takes some getting used to.

      Another thing that slows the game down is almost each time
you go to the next screen the disk is accessed, but if you have
a second disk drive the game will use it to cut down on disk
swapping.

      In conclusion it's a case of nice graphics shame about the
gameplay and after the novelty of a new game wears off you'll
find that you won't be rushing back too soon.