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{subhead} DropZone V1.0{def}{p}
Review by Lee Hesselden
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DropZone is based on Archer Maclean's classic C64 Defender-style
shoot-em-up 'n' save-the-men. Although I've never heard of such a game
I'll take the authors word for it.
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The story:
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"It is the year 2085, and only a handful of people have survived the
devastating robot wars. In a final bid for human survival the peoples of the
earth unite to develop the ultimate transportation; a Tacheon propelled star
cruiser, capable of overcoming relativistic limitations to fresh new star
systems.
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The Tacheon drive relies on bombarding very rare Ionian  rystals with
quarks. But all the earth's resources were used up developing a prototype
and so a consignment of men is despatched to the hostile young planet of IO,
Jupiter's 2nd inner most moon. It is here that the crystals are found in
abundance scattered all over the surface. They are continually thrown up
from the depths of the planet by the elemental forces of the three active
volcanoes, first discovered way back in the 1980's.
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Not long after building a moonbase in the flat bed of a large crater the
first wave of aliens arrive from Jupiter to rid their moon of the human
invaders.
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It is your mission to protect the men and their crystals from the marauding
aliens. You have  been equipped with the latest pulse laser back pack system
capable of carrying an extra man and becoming invisible and indestructible
for short periods of time. You must safely escort each surviving man and his
crystals back to the Dropzone where the landing pad of the moonbase is
located. You must succeed, the future of mankind depends on you alone."
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Basically you've got to pick up the men that walk amlessly around the
level and then fire at everything else on the screen until there is
nothing left.
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Dispite the simplicity of this game, it is quite difficult. I have only
reached level 2 and I'm addicted. The graphics are far from perfect, no
3D here! I find that when I'm wizzing around the long levels gravity
makes it difficult for me to stop so I hit a bad guy and lose one of my
three lives.
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There are loads of different enemy types, some of which explode to
become lots of little enemies. You won't get bored by the same thing
repeating.
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Drop Zone eats up a lot of RAM, but booting from startup works fine with
me. It requies an AGA machine, I can see why, because when there is
lots on the screen the game does slow down a bit.
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This is great addictive fun, but I think after a while I'll get tired of
it. The levels are all the same, which could bore the demanding gamer.
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{bold}Available from{nobold}: Aminet:game/???/DropZone.lha
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{bold}Graphics{nobold}      : 68%{p}
{bold}Sound{nobold}         : 70%{p}
{bold}Playability{nobold}   : 83%{p}
{bold}Lastability{nobold}   : 80%{p}
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{bold}Overall{nobold}       : 76%