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{subhead}Death Is On The Way{def}{p}
Review by Hugo Wilkinson
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Following last months activities with Charly The Merc, Charly is back
for some more arse kicking action in - Death Is On The Way.
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This time he's accompanied by a little bloke who you wouldn't be
blamed for thinking is his twin. Your mission - once again - is to save
the known universe from complete abuse from a bloke who cheated his way
to the top, lost an eye and doesn't deserve to be there. So, in true
Twin Dragon style, you shoot off to show him who's boss. The twist about
these two guys is that they are from families who generally dislike each
other due to their up-bringing. One is a Samurai and the other a ninja.
Personally I'm not too sure what the difference is, but one of them
likes chucking knifes, and the other likes chucking 'death stars'.
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The game has been built on the same game engine as before and it is
unclear what the capabilities or limitations are. Emilio has added a few
extra battle options. Firstly, if you HOLD fire, you can direct your
weapon in any of the 8 possible angles available on your digital
joypad/joystick. Secondly, the ability to jump on your opponents. The
control response to the game have been improved since Charly set about
becoming a Merc, however, some of the collision detection in certain parts
of the game is still almost unbearable - e.g. I've reached the Volcano
level, and I'm jumping around on these little stones in a pool of lava,
and I slip off. So I try jumping back onto the stone I just came off - but
it proves impossible - and thus, I lost 3 lives because of it! What happens
is that you jump into the air, and tap left/right to just nudge yourself
over the block so that you'll fall onto it. When you do come to land on
it, you slip straight back off again, and if you do anything more than a
TAP, then you'll just slip off the other side of the block when you land
on it. The ACTUAL way to get out of this, is to jump for some OTHER stone,
where more movement is required to get there, and you can more precisely
position yourself so as not to slip off - grrrrrrr!
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Putting that to one side, it is a shame that there hasn't been a little
bit more effort on enemies and the level environment. There are only a
handful of different enemies you come across (at least it would seem - I
havn't actually reached the end yet, but I'm pretty close and I'm still
fighting the same guys). Also, you walk past the same tree all to often.
Its not clear if this is a limitation of the game engine, or if Emilio
is beginning to rush his games a bit?!?!? Thankfully, our ear drums are
stimulated with various music for the different levels. The music does add
a great part of the environment to this game, and if it wasn't for the
music the games environment wouldn't keep attached for long!
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For those of you that have never played Charly's adventures, then
prepare for a gruelling battle to the death. You control both characters
with the joystick (not simultaniously though). If Emilio could add a two
player option then things would really start stiring, but can the engine
manage it? Can Emilio do it? And would enough people sit up all hours of
the night ripping their hair out in doing so!?!? I think so!
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On a last note, the gameplay is much the same as Charly The Merc, and
regrettably there is very little variation with the enemies.
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{bold}Available from{nobold}: Aminet:game/actio/d1.Llha + d2.lha{p}
({link ftp://uk.aminet.net/pub/aminet/game/actio/d1.LHA}Download d1{end}){p}
({link ftp://uk.aminet.net/pub/aminet/game/actio/d2.LHA}Download d2{end}){p}
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{bold}Graphics{nobold}      : 85%{p}
{bold}Sound{nobold}         : 84%{p}
{bold}Playability{nobold}   : 88%{p}
{bold}Lastability{nobold}   : 90%{p}
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{bold}Overall{nobold}       : 86% (Although there is more game content than CTM, its a little TOO similar - but GOOD WORK nevertheless!)
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