C&VG


Xenomorph

Author: Paul Rand
Publisher: Pandora
Machine: Amiga 500

 
Published in Computer & Video Games #102

Xenomorph

Janitors have it rough at the best of times, but their problems are nothing compared to this particular caretaker's. He's just discovered that, during a two year research mission, the rest of the crew on his ship, The Mombassa Oak, have been killed by a computer malfunction leaving him the sole survivor.

What's more, the whole computer navigation system has packed in, leaving the Oak drifting in space. Switching over to manual control the janitor makes the jump to the nearest hospitable mining platform and after docking, scans the area. To his surprise, no traces of human life are found - what has happened on Platform Atargatis?

Xenomorph is a graphic adventure designed in the icon-driven, 3D style of Dungeon Master. You play the lonely janitor, whose mission it is to repair the Mombassa Oak by entering the Atargatis mining platform and finding the microchips required to replace those burnt out by the computer malfunction. Not only that, but there are also fuel rods to find and a variety of aliens, which have wiped out the miners on Atargatis, to seek out and destroy.

Xenomorph

You begin with nothing but a food dispenser credit card, but there are loads of other useful bits to find, including a wide variety of weapons and grenades, medical supplies and the key cards needed to open the doors in the Astargatis platform. Survival is quite a problem and as well as seeing off alien attacks, you have to continually bolster flagging energy levels with food, and keep an eye on radiation absorption readouts.

Amiga

Xenomorph is an almost instantly appealling game, due partly to its Dungeon Master look. The feeling of solitude is total (not even your usually friendly computer will speak to you!) until your first contact with the alien attackers and that turns out to be something of a shock!

The aliens and the scenery are nicely drawn and, while the animation is jerky, it isn't a hindrance to the overall atmosphere. There is a lot to do in Xenomorph, and it's imperative that you plan ahead to stay alive, and it's probably wise to make a map.

I'm writing this review after a four hour session of blundering around during which I collected most of the chips, though now I haven't got enough strength to last longer than another half-hour. The game's addictive qualities ensure that I'll return time and time again until that lonely little janitor escapes to sweep floors in more hospitable parts of the cosmos!

Atari ST

Apart from the addition of an extra disk, this version contains absolutely no differences to the Amiga version - it's still a game worthy of anyone's time and money.

Paul Rand

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