1st June 1987
The object in Plan B is to guide your little robot on a mission through 54 screens which represent the different rooms of a Togrian Computer Complex, destroying the numerous vital parts of the computer as you go.
The golden rule to observe as you make your way from screen to screen, is that if it moves it must be an enemy, so you should either avoid it or instruct your little robot Rambo to blast it out of existence.
You might think that this is a fairly standard scenario and that there is nothing to set this game apart from at least a dozen or so other games. So let's look at what makes this one so different and so special.
For a start it's a little difficult to classify what type of game it actually is, but I suppose Plan B qualifies as a multi-screen shoot-em-up, arcade adventure maze game. Although I think this may be an oversimplification.
Each screen shows a room with many different puzzles to solve and nasties toblast. The nasties are different types of security guard robots that attack your drone. Each one causes a varying amount of damage, shown as a drain on your energy level.
Another problem isthat the security robots are teleported to the current room and the longer you spend there the more robots are beamed in as reinforcements. In fact if you hang around too long in certain rooms they start to resemble Piccadilly Circus in the rush hour.
You are able to fight back but you'll need to top up your ammunition from time to time, when the chance arises. The energy level of your robot can be restored by maintenance, achieved by collecting the spanners and cans of oil you'll find on your travels.
Your passage from room to room is not always as straight forward as it appears. You will need to collect numerous keys and use them to get through locked doors in certain rooms.
However, you will soon find that a door will not open if the correct key has not yet been collected.
In addition to the obvious routes through the screens, many of the walls conceal passages which will only be revealed when the wall is shot away. Similarly many of the passages contain barriers which can be destroyed only from a particular position on the screen.
A further complication to those bent on charging through and blasting everything in sight is that stray shots have a nasty habit of always hitting an ammunition dump or oil drum.
While that does not do you any immediate harm it can be very frustrating to battle through a pack of security robots then find yourself without the means to reload.
The game appears to have something for everyone, from those who enjoy painstakingly producing those complicated maps and diagrams, showing us how to get from A to B in the easiest and most efficient manner, to those who just wish to work off a head of steam and spend an hour or so nasty-blasting.
The only minus point is that all the graphics are in black and white, but the quality more than compensates for this. They are extremely detailed and each screen seems to offer another example of superb design which is almost an artform.
Character movement is super-smooth and at times the action is not just fast, it's lightning fast. Sound effects are fairly good. A neat little tune is played between games, although this can beswitched off if it becomes annoying.
Movement iswith the Zand Xkeys for left and right with the Shift key producing lift up the screen. It's nice to see the Return key being given a rest and this is only used to open a door.
The nasties areblasted with thespacebar. There is also a pause facility which can be useful to examine a screen without being zapped.
The only criticisms arethatyou only getonelife - you then have to restart - and the lack of colour. But Elite proved it's not essential for a first-class game and that's certainly what you have here, and at a bargain price.
Screenshots
