Countdown To Doom - Topologika/Peter Killworth RRP œ15 + œ2 P&P
             (Text adventure for PC and ST)

            Reviewed by James Judge on an STe

Neeeeeeoooooow! Wooooosh! Kersplat! Kerboom! Whump!

Those are probably the last sounds that you heard before crashing
your ship (spaceship, that is) on this lump of rock. A quick
examination of the ship (or the remnants) will tell you that it
is in a pretty dire shape and you need certain key components,
such as an engine.

That is how this game starts off, with you in your ship, a stick
of dynamite beside you, your control panel which is broken except
for a little button which you must press on completion of the
game, a cargo bay to the north with a blocked door and a shopping
list.

After getting blown up once (you've got to do that, it's
good adventuring) you should be able to blow the door open and
enter this strange world of Doom.  Around the world are certain
components that you need for the repairing of your ship and also
plenty of treasure which will get you more points if picked up.

This is your standard text adventure where you must collect the
treasures, put them in a certain room (this time your cargo hold)
and then press the button which will activate the ship's
self-repair system and send you on your merry way.

Once you've got out of your ship (quite easy, actually) you will
be in a landing area with directions leading in all directions.
This area is the centre of the game, with different paths leading
out from it so you will be coming back here often to travel down
the different spokes of the 'wheel'.

To the south there is a desert which needs some thinking to cross,
but once you have crossed, you need to be able to come back via a
jungle. Past the desert you will come to a seesaw problem which
was the first major problem I came across - it looks pretty
simple, but I haven't completed it yet because after I went
walkabout I found that I needed a certain item to get back to my
ship and I hadn't got it, time to start again.

To the west is a jungle where you will be assaulted by various
species of animal and wind up in a maze of barriers which I
haven't been able to figure out yet...

To the north is a jungle and to the east is, apart from some
termites, an old alien artifact (a building, actually) which you
can enter. The only problem is that you will soon come across a
maze that has still got me stuck.

That is one thing I hate about this game, and that is the mazes.
Readers of Red Herring will know why I dislike them, but it is
enough to say that I hate them. You are treated to plenty of mazes
in this game, there are four that I can think of straight away and
I know that there are a few more. One of them is very easy to map,
because the room descriptions are different (in a very subtle way)
but another (which has got me stuck at the moment) uses the old
'drop an item...' method which is the method I hate the most.

The help system, though, is very good. What Topologika have
done is to incorporate a help sheet with the game which has
certain questions on it (just like Magnetic Scroll games,
actually) with certain key words blocked out. You then look at a
table at the front of the sheet, find the words that are missing
and, if the sentence makes sense (they are all coded, so it
shouldn't be too much of a problem) you then type <HELP> in the
game and it asks for the hint number you require, which you type
in, and it then gives you the first in a series of clues.  The
more clues you have from a particular set, the closer you get to
the answer and the less cryptic the clues get.  There is also a
help number that will ask you for the name of a particular object
and will then tell you what the object does in the game - a great
way of finding out what are red herrings.

All in all quite a good game that is spoilt by the mazes. I
realise that they were all the rage in the early 80s so I forgive
the game that, but it has spoilt it for me. Minus the mazes it is
excellent. With them it is OK.

If you don't mind mazes, get this game (which I swear is bundled
with Return To Doom and Philosopher's Quest, Sue) if not, don't -
it'll drive you crazy whatever you prefer!

@~According to the ads I've seen, it is sold on its own ... I know
@~I was wrong about Lemmings 2, but I'm pretty sure I'm right this
@~time!









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