It's been billed as 'the game that rocked America'. Its combination of flight combat simulator and arcade adventure promises much. Obviously it has to be a multi-loader to cope with such different types of game, but they combine to give a hazardous mission deep into enemy territory to deal with the Mad Leader.
The instructions are comprehensive and full of bizarre comments that take mickey out of many other scenarios. There's too much to tell you about here - unlike other magazines that just regurgitate the scenario from the cassette inlay in their reviews, we try to tell you about the game itself.
You start with the mission briefing, so you'd better keep an eye open while the game is loading. Then it's into the helicopter simulation. The screen view looks out of the cockpit with the instrument panel below it. Initially you're looking at your own base but once you're over 300 feet in the air the view switches to show just mountains on the horizon.
The controls are fairly simple. What will give you trouble isn't flying but locating your target and dealing with the other aircraft you encounter. After pinpointing the target you must stay on course for it despite the chopper veering all over the place. Jet planes appear intermittently; by radio you need to identify them as friendly or hostile. You can tell from their names - the enemy tends to be Weazel, Scum or Komie (subtle, eh?).
If you reply correctly to their request for identification you continue unmolested. Otherwise you'll have to fight it out. You're armed with missiles, cannon, chaff and flares. On the journey you can use a turbo boost; beware flying too low and running out of fuel.
If you get to the target you can land and load the next part of the game. This gives you control of a stickman figure who has to get into an enemy compound. Several commands are at your disposal: papers, sleeping gas, gas grenade, mine detector, explosives and camera. Using these you have to search the compound for useful items and complete your mission of photographing some documents. In buildings you view each room separately with larger graphics than for the compound.
This part of the game is riddled with veiled references to the 'enemy' being the Russians. You keep finding empty caviar tins and bottles of vodka next to bits of dismembered bodies. I find this sort of nationalistic drivel very annoying. The Americans may love it but it's got no part in computer games - let's stick to fictional enemies in entertainment games and not try to indoctrinate people with racial hatred.
This section takes quite a bit of work before you can complete it. It's more enjoyable than the flying stage. If you successfully complete that mission you'll proceed on to yet another one.
There's certainly a lot in the package, variety as well. However, you're left with the feeling that the game isn't quite all there: the flying stage is very mechanical and the graphics don't make full use of the Amstrad. It's still a good game and will keep you busy for many a long hour.
Second Opinion
A disappointing game for me. The graphics looked as though someone had cut them from a newspaper with wire-cutters. Even the sound and gameplay gave me a sinking feeling. True, there is a fair amount to Infiltrator, with various stages to go through. Sadly, none of them really got through to me.
First Day Target Score
Reach the compound.
Green Screen View
Newspaper print has always been in black-and-white (nearly). Green-and-green makes a nice change - you can't see as much!
Good News
P. Two very different types of game.
P. Well-thought-out game structure.
P. The second stage requires thought and lots of exploring.
P. Plenty of stages to keep you going.