Previous Next

First things first - if you've ever played the ST version of the original Chase HQ, don't panic. This is nowhere near as shabbily-programmed or aesthetically distressing as that nightmare disaster of a travesty of decency, so sighs of relief all round. Mind you, it's still a long way short of being a classic.

For some reason Chase HQ just doesn't seem suited to micros, having been pretty appalling in virtually every incarnation it's had, with the notable exception of the Spectrum version where keyboard controls eliminated much of the physical pain of having to continually hold the joystick forward for acceleration and wrench it from side to side on the diagonals to perform the smallest of on-road movements.

That's the main problem with this version of the game, mainly because of the exceptionally jerky side-to-side scrolling which means you've got a titanic struggle just trying to keep your alleged high-performance sports car on the road as it lurches wildly around trying to keep up with the erratic and sudden movements of the screen. It's tough to keep it away from other road users, too - the cars of the Sunday drivers who make up most of the traffic on these town and country highways appear in front of you with almost no warning, and you spend as much of the game filling in accident insurance claim forms as you do chasing bad guys.

Still, SCI's not really that bad. If you've got strong hand muscles and unfazeable eyesight, this is quite a diverting and tricky racer. You won't finish it in a day, for sure, and you'll certainly get ten quid's worth of entertainment out of it. The question is whether you can get more than ten quid's worth of entertainment by spending the same ten quid on something else.

1. Much better than the first game.

1. Very jerky scrolling around bends.
2. Annoying control mechanism.