ST Format


Psyborg

Categories: Review: Software
Author: Adrian Price
Publisher: Loriciel
Machine: Atari ST

 
Published in ST Format #36

Psyborg

Once more our Gallic cousins have come up with a crazy game design, such as only they know how. And believe us, this one is mental.

You take control of Duncan Norton who's been given the job of seeking out enemy Androptere (?) Psyborgs and eliminating them. But Dunc's not your common or garden Psyborg hunter. He's a psychic and can project his spirit through space in order to get the job done. Quite why Loricel just didn't bung him a spaceship armed to the teeth is impossible to say, but then this wouldn't be the game it is with a spaceship.

The game is a basic reaction test. Simply put, you race along a tunnel while trying not to fall off and get lost in space for all eternity. The tunnel is four-sided and occasionally panels are missing from the side you're racing along. This means you often need to rapidly rotate in space to switch to another side of the tunnel, or else you fall off into a void and lose energy.

Psyborg

It's similar to Stun Runner in the looks department, but the gameplay - racing along a tunnel at breakneck speeds, trying to collect objects and avoid coming a cropper - isn't very original. After plenty of tunnel-racing, you reach the second part of the game - the shop, where an extra-terrestrial shopkeeper sells you extra time so you can complete the longer courses.

The game is set over eight solar systems with a total of 40 planets, so it's not small. Unfortunately, however, the word "repetition" seems to become lodged in your brain. Level after dull level you have to try and keep on the Vortex by spinning around the walls and missing the gaps, and it all gets somewhat monotonous.

Verdict

This obviously French game hasn't got much going for it, except that it does move fast and smoothly, but in a field of very strong titles, this game doesn't stand up too well. This *isn't* a good game and the gameplay is only just on the right side of the border between existing and not. You'd be better off spending your cash on something else.

In Brief

  1. Doesn't stand up too wall as a game, and unfortunately, it doesn't even have great graphics to fall back on.
  2. Fast and testing for a second or two.

Adrian Price

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