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Through the commercials they blasted through the tube for
weeks on end and the mind-numbing pleasure of the original and
highly addictive product, I was sucked into the hype about the
Asteroids game and gave it a try.
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I must say the load time in this game is appalling. Every time
this game starts, it's a ten minute wait, followed by an annoying
and repetitive cinema cut scene. The game itself has very little
over the original Asteroids. Of course, graphics and sound have
come a long way since the archaic days of the Atari but overall
there is really nothing new in this product. And here's the biggest
shock, it's not even 3D! |
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That's right, there is nothing about his game that can even
remotely be described as three dimensional, other than the short-cut
scenes perhaps and possibly the asteroids themselves which were
polygonal this time around. The spaceship, which you control,
moves on a totally two-dimensional plane, and the camera cannot
be toggled to different perspectives. These are features we have
come to expect from a game which calls itself to be 3D nowadays,
so I think anyone who actually buys this product should be aware
that it's really nothing more than a 2D game with some polygons.
It took me about two hours to finish this game on the medium-skill
level, two hours of the same old blasting and zipping around
that's still very addictive. Each stage is almost exactly the
same as the last, with the odd space monster or black hole thrown
in to keep things interesting, though just barely I might add.
This one ends in an action-filled stage in which you must
defend the earth from a hail of - you guessed it - asteroids
and leaves you cursing at the screen as you are given a five-second
victory cut scene and your initials are inscribed in the Asteroids
hall of fame.
All in all, this game is as addictive as the original without
offering anything you would expect from the commercials. Buyer
beware! This one isn't worth the money. My suggestion is to find
one of the shareware clones at download dot com, or better yet,
pop a few quarters into the old arcade game. |
