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{subhead} ZeeWolf 2: Wild Justice{def}{p}
Review by Chris Seward
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Zeewolf 2: Wild Justice is a classic helicopter game in which you have
to defeat an evil company named Ecliptico. Through the game you have to
complete 32 missions in many different terrains using a host of fighting
weapons and many different types of vehicle.
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You take control of a helicopter titled 'ZeeWolf' which is meant to be
a top secret fighter helicopter in which you do battle. Aswell as using
the helicopter, on some levels you are allowed to link up with other
vehicles to go about your mission of world peace, namely the Cougar Tank,
a land tank which is good for destroying air defence weapons that cover
the ground to blow the ZeeWolf out of the sky at any chance. Kestrel
VTOL Fighter is a Stealth type fighter plane with quick handling and
easy to use weapons, just watch as you sweep past boats and other enemy
things and destroy them in one quick swoop. The next is the Barracuda
Torpedo Boat in which you can travel the seas and take out various
marine style vehicles. Although hard to control at first it is has the
good advantage of being able to fire a single torpedo at anytime in the
direction of a boat and destroy it without you having to come into contact
with it, it also boasts facilities to fend off air attacks. The last
vehicle you can link up with is the Albatross Transport which acts as
a carrying helicopter that can carry more people than the usual ZeeWolf.
It is not very good at combat but can help speed up the process of
transporting men from location to location due to the amount of people it
can carry.
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The basic idea of ZeeWolf 2 is to go around a kill practically everything
in site or at least disable it in some cases. There are some more specific
missions where you have to collect and transport men back to your main
boat or airlift friendly aircraft which can be told apart from the enemy
because they are blue and the enemies are nearly always green. This is in
the most but sometimes you will get a report of friendly tanks in an
area which you have to go and investigate only to find they are enemy tanks
disguised in your colours.
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Before each mission you are briefed and told what you have to do. It will
draw you a map and hitting any key will go into detail about what each
section of that mission entails and will tell you everything you need
to know. The further you get into the game the more parts will be in
a mission and the more likely they will be harder than the earlier levels
in the game.
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How the game plays is very good, the handling of the helicopter is very
easy to get used to and the other vehicles you can link up with have
a similar handling system. The helicopter can rotate into any angle
and pull off any position you care to put it in, this makes it very
good when you want to swoop past a boat and then quickly pull back to
finish it off with the last few bullets.
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The different vehicles have different types of weapons but most are
similar with only a few variants which are all self explained once you've
had a test fire. The three weapons you have on the ZeeWolf itself which
is the vehicle you will control for most of the game are bullets, rockets
and some sort of homing missiles. The bullets are by far my favourite,
although they may sound boring they are most effective although they
do take quite alot to destroy something. As long as you are aimed in the
general direction of what you want to destroy and tilt your helicopter
to be in line with your target you can keep hold of fire and take out
whatever you want with little trouble. As I said earlier they have the
disadvantage of taking quite alot to kill something and I don't recommend
you try using these on the anti-aircraft guns which are loaded with
missiles because the time you've started to shoot you'll probably be
downed with just a few of their missiles which nearly always hit you.
The rockets are good for none accurate shooting, if you want to kill
something and like the bullets you just aim half-heartedly hoping to
hit like you would with the bullets then you'll be sorely disappointed
as these take lots of aiming practise and you need to be very accurate to
get a hit. The best use for rockets is to swoop past anti-aircraft
which are causing you alot of trouble, aim at them and let the rockets
rip just hoping you'll get a hit. Lastly we see the homing missiles.
These are good in some situations but not in others. I suppose the best
use is in air combat where you fire one and it will 99% of the time
hit the enemy aircraft and make it go down instantly. They do not help
much on ground attacks and will mostly take two or three to destroy
something. Its best to keep them for air attack.
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The game consists of 32 missions which get progressively harder as you
get further into the game. The game also has 30 different types of
enemy more of which you will discover later through the game. You also
have the added advantage you can link to other vehicles which gives the
game a nice twist and lets you get out the helicopter seat and experience
some other controls and types of gameplay.
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The game may be sold as a "fast and furious shoot-'em-up" but as well
as the great action that takes place in ZeeWolf 2 it also is a thinking
mans game on how to carry out assaults, especially when your armor is
right down and you have very few bullets, working out how to blow 10
other enemies or more in that situation takes a bit of thinking.
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ZeeWolf 2 was made back in 1995 so it is not that old in the Amiga
games world. Although this is probably my third favourite game on the
Amiga ever I do have some problems with it which I think it could be
much better if they improved it. The first of my problems is if you
are carrying a certain amount of men which when you deliver them
enables you to complete the level and before you make the delivery you
get shot down then your next life brings you back but the men are
also dead and if there are no more men on the island so you have to
quit the game and start again from your last password'ed position. You
are given a password every 2 or 3 levels but if you've been doing a
hard level then it can be quite annoying to have to go back 2 or 3
levels and basically start again. Aswell as a few other niggles which
I won't mention I think in todays standards the playing screen that
you actually see at a time could be much bigger. I suppose it does
give that element of surprise that a tank appears out of nowhere and
if it was bigger you'd see it coming but it does take away some
gameplaying fun when you have such a small scrolling screen.
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Overall this game is brilliant and for £5.99 you can not go wrong
at all. The gameplay is excellent and the game will last you for a
very long time. If you have £5.99 then I honestly suggest you buy
this game as at this price it is a bargain just needed to be took
up. For me it was the best £5.99 i've spent for a long time.
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If your wondering when I said it was my third favourite game on the
Amiga what my first and second are then they are. First is Syndicate
by Bullfrog and Second, SWOS by Sensible Software.
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Some exciting news that has just been released is that Digital Images
are thinking about making ZeeWolf 3 for the Amiga. I've been speaking
to Stuart Walker at Digital Images and he confirms this story is
true, i'll keep you updated if I hear anything.
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{bold}Available from{nobold}: FORE-MATT Home Computing{p}
{bold}Address{nobold}       : PO Box 835, Wootton Bassett, Swindon, SN4 8RX. ENGLAND.
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{bold}Tel{nobold}           : +44 (0)1793 853802
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{bold}Price{nobold}         : £4.99 + £1 p&p (UK)
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{bold}Graphics{nobold}      : 83%{p}
{bold}Sound{nobold}         : 84%{p}
{bold}Playability{nobold}   : 92%{p}
{bold}Lastability{nobold}   : 93%{p}
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{bold}Overall{nobold}       : 86%