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Julia Chase |
Flying the Nautiflyus over mapped territory would take too long a time, so it was decided they'd pilot the ship over a forbidden zone. But disaster struck when they flew above a dark tower and suddenly the Nautiflyus went down as a rock. The ship wasn´t wrecked completely though, it could be repaired. All they needed was new cylinders of gas. The place to get it was the Black Tower.
Scans taken from various games sites, first picture is from the manual, second picture is from the games magazine PowerStation
Personally I think this is one of the toughest games of this genre to complete. And that had to do with a number of things. This game shows absolutely no mercy for the player. Each little mistake results in instant death of the character. Even the Game Over sign slams in your face like it tries to break the screen. Now dying in a game is never fun. But it's part of the game, it keeps you alert and it is rewarding when you stay alive they next time you try. And when it's a good game, after your character dies, you start thinking about what happened, why she failed and how to prevent it the next time. Come up with another plan, a new scheme, better tactics. Not here.
The main reason for dying is falling down. And of course, when you fall from a great height you did something wrong so you should die. But in this game it's almost impossible to prevent your character from falling. Before I figured out all the controls in the beginning of the game I died several times just by trying to descent a ladder. There is absolutely no merci. The tower you are exploring consists for the main part of platforms you got to hop on and pits you got to hop over. And that might be logical when in or on a high tower, but at least give the character the tools to jump with. This here is just a matter of pixel precise pushing the buttons on the controller and releasing them pixel precise again. When holding a split second too long your character takes a next step and slides over the next edge. And then it's back to the previous safe point which can be quit far back because safe point are sparse in this game. It's really frustrating.
Another thing is your ammunition. Maybe it's me, but I could in no way get past the second or third level without completely running out of ammunition. You got a lot to kill on the way and aiming is difficult and you find ammo just a little at the time. There is a little cheat code that enables you to always reload your guns but without that you can't make it. I couldn't. I doubt anybody has finished this game without using cheats.
When playing a game, you have to take it's shortcomings for granted. There is no easy way to finish this one and it is quite a challenge of course to start with. The characters and animation are good. The places you visit have a very distinct feel . Many of them you haven't visited before. There are dirty and muddy walls, strange rusty machines, the usual spikes and flames, carcasses in a dirty kitchen hanging on chains from the ceiling, cranes that lift your character to another place, rooms filled with machines only designed to crush people and about forty different kind of enemies, all very deadly. And always a hazardous jump to get there. The game is large and there is really plenty to look at.
I played the game on the PlayStation. Things might be different on the PC. I used cheats, a thing I hardly ever do.
To be continued on the Sophia Hawkins page
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