Maiden voyages of almost anything seem to attract drama. There was the sinking of the Titanic, Paul Newman's beautiful glass tower burnt down in Towering Inferno, and now, during the opening of New York's newest skyscraper, the Mayor has got stuck between floors in the lift and the chain holding the lift is slowly breaking. The hero of the piece is not Robert Redford but Orson who has been summoned to rescue the Mayor before death sets in. Orson must get enough ropes from the building to tie the lift to the steel beams to prevent its plummet. The skyscraper is seen as three screens (this isn't exactly a TOWERING inferno) or floors, and you can move between them by using the many relevant staircases, whilst avoiding being crushed by concrete blocks, grabbed by a zombie doorman or mutant revolving door or falling dust (they did say this was a NEW skyscraper?) and collecting the ropes necessary for the task. Fire doors on the second screen are shut and can't be opened unless you fire at them.
Comments
Control keys: Q/A up/down, O/P left/right, SPACE to fire
Joystick: Kempston, Protek, AGF, Sinclair 2
Keyboard play: sensible positions and responsive
Use of colour: good
Graphics: smooth, with some nice animation, generally simple looking
Sound: poor
Skill levels: 1
Screens: 3
Special features:
Comment 1
'Plummet! is an above average game with good graphics. The game is playable but a task reduced only to getting ropes does not help the addictive qualities very much. Perhaps the imagination should have been used more in game creation than on variants of well trod themes. Fair enough, the game has not been brought out before but it seemed to have those properties of so many other games which make it feel familiar. For example, after seeing a few episodes of American TV series (no names!), the plots wear a little thin, an although this is an above average game, it is made up from the same old material. A little more imagination and originality please!'
Comment 2
'Plummet! is on the whole one of the most infuriating games /have played. Once you get to the top of the screen, shoot the doormen and dodge the failing dust and put a rope in the lift, your fire button stops working. I thought the graphics were very good but the sound, what there was of it, wasn't. I generally enjoyed playing it, even though it is infuriating.'
'Interceptor are probably better known for their CBM64 games where the graphics are great but the game content is game content if often lacking. This seems to be the case with Plummet!. Graphically, the screens are very good, the player and the Zombie Doormen are well animated and even the sound is good; but the game's challenge will be gone within a week even for people who find 'Breakout' games mystifying. Especially when priced this high, good graphics are not enough. We Spectrum owners are not averse to games being complex and mean, so a three-screen cousin of Manic Miner is hardly likely to set the Hotline Chart ablaze.'