Outwit The Sentinel

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The Sentinel is a game which possesses something which is far too rare in the software business...originality. It is also well implemented and terribly addictive.

There are some 10,000 levels in the game, each laid out as a landscape of peaks, plateaus and valleys. At the top of the highest peak stands the tall figure of the Sentinel.

The features are constructed from simple rectangles, squares and trian gles but they create an amazing feeling of reality.

Somewhere high above you stands the Sentinel. Your first job should be to find out where he is and which way he is facing. This is most important as the Sentinel slowly rotates looking for you! Should his gaze fall on you then he will absorb your energy reserves one unit at a time.

The trick is to avoid detection by transporting yourself to a new location before the Sentinel finds you. This is performed by switching on your sights and aiming them at the square to which you wish to transfer.

Pressing R will create a new image of yourself on that square. You can then transfer yourself to this new body, a process which expends 3 units of energy. To reclaim these you turn and face your former body, aim your sights and absorb it.

Your objective is to manoeuvre yourself into a position on the landscape which will allow you to look down upon the Sentinel and absorb him, at which point you are hyperspaced to a more complex landscape.

You can increase your height by creating piles of boulders, costing two energy units each, and positioning your new body on top of the stack.

On the more difficult levels the Sentinel is accompanied by sentries. Occupying the lower peaks they rotate at a faster rate and really reduce your thinking time.

The Sentinel will stimulate the old grey matter for many a cold dark winter's night.

Jon Revis