Zzap
1st September 1990
Categories: Review: Software
Publisher: The Hit Squad
Machine: Commodore 64/128
Published in Zzap #65
The Vindicator
This original game was, for some reason, subtitled Green Beret II by Ocean. But rather than being an out-and-out shoot-'em-up, this epic comprises three very different sections, the second and third accessed by a password.
The first section is The Complex, a four-level maze (linked by lifts) of corridors and small rooms. Your aim here is to find the bomb components to blow The Complex apart. The rather strange 3D perspective shows you running 'out of the screen' as you go forwards. To go the other way you must first do a 180-degree turn.
This can be disorientating, so the compass in the status panel is invaluable. Some of the rooms are inhabited by aliens who shoot you, draining your energy - which can be replenished by finding oxy-gum. When killed, aliens drop any lift or computer pass-cards which they are carrying along with cartridges for your rifle.
On accessing a computer, you're given an anagram to solve - the correct answer is rewarded with your position in relation to the next bomb component.
Section two is a vertically scrolling shoot-'em-up with you controlling a plane with which to strafe and bomb the landscape. Then it's into your jeep to go through the landscape again (why didn't you just parachute out?), shooting or avoiding enemy tanks and helicopters. At the end of this level is the third and final section: a Greet Beret-style shoot-'em-up with lifts to take you up and down levels of the large, nasty ridden play area.
Three very different sections might seem good value for the budget price but I'm not so sure. None of them is particularly playable. The first is disorientating and extremely tedious, the second a very straightforward vertical scroller, and the final section miles too difficult. Does the variety vindicate the lack of quality? Not quite.