Crash


Chain Reaction

Author: Nick Roberts
Publisher: Encore
Machine: Spectrum 48K/128K

 
Published in Crash #74

Chain Reaction

'Get in the middle of a Chain Reaction'.

Arrgh! Not Diana Ross please. As a matter of fact this game has nothing to do with Diana Ross at all, it's about nuclear power - had you fooled though, didn't I? [Pah! - Ed]

The Anti-Nuclear Party are real gits. They have reprogrammed all the robo-equipment in the power station to empty the containment vault and attack all humans. This not being enough to satisfy their evil hunger, they've scattered 18 canisters of radioactive fuel rods around the seven-storey building and you have to recover them all! You're helped only by your radiation suit, armour piercing machine gun and jet pack. This is a race against time as well as radiation because you only have 30 minutes to recover the canisters. To help you along the way there are decontamination showers dotted around the building. Taking a quick dip reduces your radiation allowing you to continue safely.

Chain Reaction

Chain Reaction is one of many 3-D style games where you move the character around then push forward. I could never get used to this type of control method and here you don't get any choice. This type of game can now be made simply by using the 3-D Game Maker, as we've found out with the many Powertapes you've sent in!

All the graphics are well drawn with lots of robots to do battle against and other objects around the building like computers, nuclear canisters etc. Colour in the game itself isn't anything special, but on the menu screens and Game Over message it will really impress you. Stripes of colour scroll up the text in a very convincing way, with no clash at all. Chain Reaction is let down by its lack of sound: there's only the odd beep, and no tunes or jingles anywhere.

While this style of game has been copied over and over again it still provides some challenge to those who didn't catch it first time round.

Nick Roberts

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