C&VG


Mission Omega

Publisher: Mind Games
Machine: Spectrum 48K

 
Published in Computer & Video Games #60

Mission Omega

This may well be a good game. Trouble is, the instructions are so inadequate that it's hard to tell. The basic idea is fairly good. You have to construct - literally - a team of droids to explore a moon-sized UFO code-named "Omega" which is hurtling towards Earth and threatening to collide with our home planet.

The military want to destroy it but scientists think it should be explored and possibly deactivated by a disposable team of droids. You have just one hour to complete your task.

The first part of the game involves constructing your droids. You have a limited supply of materials to do this.

Mission Omega

Once out of the construct droid screen you find yourself actually on Omega. A window on the left shows a large plan view of your surroundings while the right hand side has various status and control windows accessed by an arrow cursor. It also shows a small picture of the droid you currently control.

Then it's really all down to you. You have to guide your droid team around - attempting to find the four reactions which will shut Omega down before it is destroyed by a defensive missile strike from Earth.

There is a map option which enables you to find out just where the members of your team are within Omega. It appears there are four quadrants and there are teleports which you can use to reach them. The map only operates when one of your team is in that particular quadrant. You'll also come across defence droids in Omega's many rooms and corridors who seem constantly hostile to you.

The game is totally icon-controlled. These work quickly and smoothly in both versions of the game.

A nice touch is the "program" option which enables you to "tell" your droid how to move without having to guide him around manually via keyboard or joystick.

I've a feeling that Mission Omega could well grow on you after prolonged exposure. But you're going to have to be a fan of this type of game to be prepared to give it that chance.

Going back to the limited instructions for a moment - here's a little gem from them. "The first of these icons is the one you should select first." Yeah, OK! The packaging and instructions should always reflect the complexity of the game - in this case it doesn't.