BMK BMK The Bitmap Kid Presents... ----------------------------- AN XLent Review of KIXX XL's Recent Adventure Re-Releases ------------------------------- Operation Stealth - Atari ST/STE/PC/AMIGA - around œ15.00 The state of the art radar-invisible Stealth Fighter has gone missing (surprise, surprise) and it is your mission as CIA agent John Glames to find it, armed with such devices as rocket launching cigarettes (bet that works better than a nicotine patch!!), a passport forger and metal dissolving pen (for those major business deals) and destroy the vital computer data of the plane with a special virus. The manual is set out like a secret document and sets the scene for the game extremely well. It goes into detail about the facts of your mission and explains your gadgets, giving hints on how to use them. Only at the end are you given the details about playing the actual game and so makes the whole thing a lot more realistic. Goody! The copy protection is a fairly good type, you tell the computer what colour a part of a picture is according to the manual picture. This is a great way of doing it, however I did experience some problems when the computer failed to let me in even though I put in the right colours! After a few tries, it finally let me in and I could sit back to watch the intro. The intro is a fairly long graphic display of the events leading up to the start of the game. By the time you get control of Mr Glames you get the feeling of really having a mission to complete. I must admit that the Cinematique control system from Delphine Software is one of my favourites. It takes a little getting used to, as do all systems, but I've found it one of the best when you do get used to it. It is based around a simple point 'n click and menu selection method and the normal Space Quest type movement. Operation Stealth is definitely for older players - some puzzles are very difficult indeed and the arcade sequences are just impossible! My only gripe with this is that there is no way to make the arcade bits easier or turn them off, cos for major adventurers like me a bit of arcade in the middle of the game can be a shock! - In other words I ended up cocking them up many, many times! As you'd expect from a French game the graphics and animation are excellent, together with the sound effects which I would to have liked to heard more of, but there we go. I can only fault this game on the difficulty in some places, but I did manage to complete it fairly quickly - with a walkthrough! If you haven't played the game - get it, what have you got to lose at 15 quid?! GRAPHICS ------ 90% SOUND --------- 86% CONTROL ------- 85% GAMEPLAY ------ 90% RATING -------- *****/****** OVERALL ------- 90% - You gotta play it at least once. BMK BMK