Crash


Con-Quest
By Mastertronic Added Dimension
Spectrum 48K

 
Published in Crash #31

Con-Quest

Oscar has trouble with squatters. There he is, just about to move in to his spacious gothic castle, only to find that someone has got there first. The evil Demon Grell and his merry band of sprites have set up residence already and are none too keen to vacate the property. But if Oscar doesn't persuade his unwanted visitors to find somewhere else to live, his soul will be condemned to eternal hell. The game follows Oscar's efforts to rid his castle of ghoulies.

Various objects lying around the rooms of the castle can be used to destroy the spectral nasties. At the bottom of the screen is a row of Icons that must be used in conjunction with the action pointer. When Oscar sees an object which he thinks might help him, moving the pointer to the picking-up hand and pressing the action key collects the item and stores it in one of his spacious pockets. This icon select systems allows objects to be examined, used or dropped.

The Demon's apprentices are a vindictive lot and try anything to steal Oscar's soul. Contact with them drains Oscar's life energy which is shown on an hour glass at the bottom of the screen. If Oscar finds his life-energy being used up too quickly, he must find the Globe of Invulnerability. Once inside, he can travel around the castle, impervious to the attacks of the beasties.

Con-Quest

It isn't very nice having a supernatural presence in your house, especially when it's trying to kill you. Will Oscar manage to rid his Real Estate of the multi-coloured nestles, or will he be forced to flat share for ever after? As usual, it's up to you to sort things out.

Comments

Control keys: redefinable
Joystick: Kempston, Cursor, Interface 2
Keyboard play: very poor, slow response
Use of colour: lots of colour which sometimes results in colour clashes
Graphics: fine detail but occasionally too small
Sound: slightly above average
Skill levels: one
Screens: about 300

Comment 1

'Oh dear. Why have MAD gone and ruined their reputation by putting out such a bad game? The biggest pity though is the game itself. It's acutely unprofessional in that it's boring, both graphically and playability-wise. For three quid, it's not good value, and I don't think I would play it for pleasure.'

Comment 2

'I was really disappointed with Conquest mainly because of the poor graphics and slow playing. The screen is very poorly presented, with some very average looking characters which are all very colourful but result in lots of terrible clashes. I thought that the screen had a good 3D perspective but that didn't always act true. The game couldn't really make its mind up between an being arcade game or an adventure, and as a mixture it's terrible. There are much better budget games on the market.'

Comment 3

'I've seen so many games like this before that even if a really compelling one came along I don't think I could get enthusiastic about it. The graphics are about average for this sort of game: lots of flicker, colour clash and poorly detailed characters. A nice touch is the way in which your character looks at you every now and then as if to say: 'what's going on?' The sound is slightly above average with lots of well placed spot effects and even an awful little tunette when the game finishes. Generally, as with countless other trite offerings from MASTERTRONIC, I wouldn't really recommend this as there are many budget games around from the same company which are a lot better.'

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