Computer Gamer


Gods And Heroes

Categories: Review: Software
Publisher: Alpha-Omega
Machine: Commodore 64

 
Published in Computer Gamer #20

Gods And Heroes

Sitting on top of Mount Olympus all day playing at being a God isn't everything that it's cracked up to be. All work and no play makes Zeus a dull boy and he and the rest of the Pantheon enjoy their fun and games as much as us lesser mortals. Their idea of a good time is to set up the Ancient Greek equivalent of the Krypton Factor in the guise of quests for aspiring Superheroes. All the time that Jason was chasing the Golden Fleece, them upstairs were probably making side bets and trying to influence the course of events by helping or hindering the hero as they saw fit. Now is your chance to solve no less than fifty puzzling screens.

A sequel to the excellent platform game Hercules, Gods And Heroes continues in a similar vein although a lot of the complaints levelled at the original have been attended to. The main grouse against Hercules was that it was too hit or miss. With little or no time to think, you frequently had to hurl yourself into space and hope that a platform would appear and break your fall. Now, you have a lot more time to think before making the wrong move. There are two basic types of screen. Those where your route is apparently obvious, in which case it usually isn't, and those where you haven't the foggiest idea what to do in the first place. There are a lot more ropes, platforms and monsters than in the original game but quite often they are no more than a red herring, tempting you to leap on to a collapsing rope or a platform built with spontaneous combustion in mind.

Many of the screens contain invisible platforms which only appear when you leap on them. On others, you have to collect building blocks in order to build a launching pad for previously inaccessible bits of the screen. As well as the traditional elements of timing usually associated with platform games, there is a heavy emphasis on puzzle solving as well, which makes this game stand out from the crowd. All right, so the graphics and sound aren't exactly wonderful (although they are infinitely better than the original) but that isn't important. You can slow down or speed up the game as you want and can choose to start on any of the fifty screens so that you can at least see the whole game, even if you can't complete it. This game is just great fun to play and at only £1.99 shouldn't be missed.