Mountain Adventure - author Mieke van der Poll on PD 511
          (3D Construction Kit Game for Amiga only)

                  Reviewed by Nigel Parker

When this game plopped through my letter box, I must admit I had
feelings of nervousness (my first review) and excitement (I knew
nothing about the game). The game is a 3D disk written using the
3D Construction Kit. Memories came flooding back of Total Eclipse,
a game I played on my Amstrad CPC donkey's years ago, written (I
think) by the authors of the 3D Con Kit and I wondered how far
things had progressed since then.

Upon loading you're greeted with a pleasant picture of a mountain
range and a natty little tune. This is followed by the control
instructions which then disappear before you have a chance to take
them all in! So after reloading I managed (just about) to get the
gist of things.

The game's plot is a little sketchy, you are told of mountains up
ahead which look just the place to land a flying saucer (oh
really!), you can see an opening in one ... and does this make you
curious? But beware the Alien! Well, after this stunning opening I
could hardly contain myself.

You begin your adventure facing the said mountain when from the
sky comes a little spaceship (sounding strangely similar to the
contestant's buzzer in the TV show "Catchphrase") and out hops an
invisible alien, before the ship takes off again. It's time to
investigate!

For those of you who have never played one of these 3D Con Kit
games, the game screen consists of a large border containing your
controls and a window through which to view the "action". Movement
is achieved by clicking with the mouse on a cluster of arrows (for
forwards, sidestep etc) and you can also squat down or tilt your
head, again using arrows. There are icons for saving, loading and
a couple never explained. Clicking with the LMB (left mouse
button) on the viewscreen fires a shot at your movable crosshair,
whilst the RMB activates one of the collectable objects on the
obstacles you come across. Brief text descriptions appear above
and below the viewscreen.

Once you start moving you realise that the 3D is a bit jerky, but
I can live with that if the gameplay is good enough. After
entering the mountain it's not long before you come across the
first object (a bag) and picking it up is as easy as clicking on
it with the RMB and it automatically enters your inventory. After
wandering a bit further a door closes behind you which needs a key
to be reopened ... and so the quest begins.

The graphics are ok, if a little bland, with not much use of
colour. Most of the rooms encountered were much the same, just a
different colour, and door openings could have been much better.
Sound effects are a bit thin on the ground consisting of about
five or six different one, including that "Catchphrase" one which
popped up now and again just to irritate me! But the main problem
is the puzzles are far too easy e.g. there's a wooden door you
can't pass. Oh, here's an axe, I'll click on the door and,
surprise, surprise. And so it goes on, giving you very little
challenge. (I completed it in about 2-3 hours). In fact some of
the puzzles just involved you actually having the object in your
inventory and then just walking into the obstruction! Mapping was
also a bit illogical in places.

So to finish off I have to say that I can't really recommend this
game as it just seemed to be something Mieke had pieced together
more as a programming exercise than a serious attempt to create a
challenging title.