Amstrad Computer User
1st August 1989
Author: Adrian Wall-Hayes
Publisher: Dinamic
Machine: Amstrad CPC464
Published in Amstrad Computer User #57
Navy Moves
It is a man's world in today's Navy. So you can imagine my reaction when I saw the cover to Navy Moves. It portrays a macho nautical type in rubber clutching a weapon in both hands. The scenario is straightforward. You play a muscular Navy commando whose mission is to locate and destroy a nuclear submarine which is harboured in an enemy base.
The first part of the game consists of three zones which have to be negotiated successfully before moving to part two. Zone one has your commando driving a motorboat through mine-infested waters.
Timing is crucial as you jump over mines and shoot kamikaze commandos bearing down on you with their aqua-bikes - a very frustrating stage.
Progressing to zone two and your commando has slipped into wetwear to find the undersea entrance to the enemy base.
Watch for the sharks - I found a sharp blow with a handbag to the snout deterred them - and enemy scuba divers which guard the entrance. Once past them you have to capture a bathyscaphe, a miniature submarine with which you move into zone three. Things start to get very exciting now. Cruising in your bathyscaphe you are inspected closely by giant octopi and eventually come face to face with a giant, long thick sea monster, which can be killed by shooting it repeatedly in the mouth.
Part two of Navy Moves has your man emerging from the bathyscaphe inside your nuclear submarine. The objective is to make a deep penetration of the submarine and place a bomb at the base of its nuclear reactor, stop the submarine, make it emerge from the sea and then transmit a message from your base. Unfortunately access to the main computer is needed for all the actions, plus the correct code words to activate each action in turn.
Codes can be gathered by killing and searching; the First Official will give you the code needed to stop the submarine and make it emerge. The First and Second Machine Officials hold the codes to open the base of the reactor door and the First and Second Transmission Officials hold the code to allow you to transmit a message to your base.
Kill the Captain and you can have access to all the codes. The submarine is swarming with enemy marines armed with guns and flamethrowers, while you have only limited ammunition - although more can be gained by searching marines you have killed - so do not shoot too soon; rather avoid the enemy by lying prone on the deck, when they will ignore you. Navigating the submarine is tricky and the cutaway map provided will help enormously, as will the pause button. The game ends when your commando has completed all the tasks successfully and transmitted a message to his base; then you make your way to the top of the control tower to be rescued by your chums.
Navy Moves is a good followup to Army Moves. The graphics are of a very high quality, especially during the submarine sequences - much better than I would have expected from an Amstrad machine - and there were enough levels to satisfy even me. An added bonus was the inclusion of numerous illustrations and annotated diagrams of the equipment and the submarine.