ARMOUR-GEDDON

 Psygnosis are fabulous arcade game designers. They've had a few clunkers, but 
more often than not, you know when you get a Psygnosis product you're getting 
your money's worth, even if it may sometimes take subsequent hospitalization 
to recover from the injuries sustained while attempting to come to terms with 
the level of difficulty these people seem to take for granted.

 Well, ARMOUR-GEDDON is not about to break the Psygnosis mold. More in the 
style of INFESTATION than any of their other releases, this one is rich in 
design but excruciating to play. Not likely to appeal to either serious flight 
sim or wargame fans, ARMOUR-GEDDON nevertheless touches that middle ground 
where action, simulation, and strategy sometimes meet. (This review is based 
on the Amiga version.)

 One starts off with another of the company's ongoing series of ray-traced 
demos, always a bit of fun to watch. The opening screens, with a wide range of 
selections, give the initial impression that there's quite alot to the game. 
In fact, there is -- if the player can survive long enough to spend some time 
with it. I guess it's time for me to finally lodge a complaint with Psygnosis, 
after a few years of being delighted with what they've had on offer. Guys, 
lighten up! It's no fun dying all the time, and even veteran arcade gamers are 
going to come away from first rounds with this one with the impression that 
the best one can do is waste oneself on the field of battle in vehicle after 
vehicle, hoping to get in a few shots on a seemingly invulnerable opponent in 
the process.

 The designers seem well aware of this potential problem, since the game 
includes a disk with four separate scenarios, as well as both a Hints page and 
an ARMOUR-GEDDON Diary walk-through to provide evidence that, in fact, at 
least a modicum of success is theoretically possible. But here's the problem: 
if I may quote a little from the manual Hints section, Press the 'WAYPOINT 
BEACON' key to activate your Waypoint Navigation. A small indicator appears 
on-screen (above your Engine Status indicator) to... --- Nik! Hang on there! 
Can't follow you, my vehicle's under attack and it just got blown sky-high! 
What were you saying?

 Well, I exaggerate a little. Let's presume this tendency in design will be 
taken for granted, and get on with the review.

 ARMOUR-GEDDON is indeed a complex, real-time strategy game, in the mold of 
things like STARGLIDER II, CARRIER COMMAND, and DARK SIDE. It integrates 
incredibly intense action with the need to do a good job of both managing 
one's resources and planning one's pattern of attack. 

 The player must first go through a research and development phase, and 
allocate engineers and scientists to develop and produce a series of vehicles, 
weapons and instruments necessary to the task of defeating the opponent and 
collecting the five pieces of the Neutron Bomb. This bomb is part of the means 
available to accomplish the task of eliminating a beam cannon being aimed by 
the Ultimate Bad Guys at planet Earth.

 Six different vehicles are available in the game, and each handles quite 
distinctly and serves a specific purpose. The Hovercraft, for instance, glides 
quickly over both land and water and serves as an excellent scout craft. The 
Light Tank moves even faster and proves a formidable attack vehicle in the 
right hands (not mine, yet). The Helicopter does a nice job of simulating 
chopper performance in a rudimentary way, and can perform both tank-attack 
Base guard duty and swift ground attack. The Jet Fighter is the primary full-
scale assault weapon, and performs magnificently (and rather oddly -- do a 
steep bank and the engine loses power, the plane slows incredibly and turns 
sharply -- puts new meaning behind the concept loses energy in turns, one of 
the things most real flight sims are faulted for not doing!). Finally, the 
Stealth Bomber and Heavy Tank both serve as object-collecting facilities; the 
Bomber also performs yeoman service dropping off fuel caches and the like for 
other units on more extended missions.

 Each vehicle needs to be developed and produced, and can be equipped with a 
host of different weapons and protection devices, as well as extra fuel 
(Training mode, which allows neither wins nor losses, basically dispenses with 
the resource management side of the game and provides lots of everything). 
Lasers, bombs of all sorts, air-to-air missiles, air-to-ground missiles, 
cloaking devices, telepods (for rapid deployment of forces to front-line 
areas, I bet the US military would like to have a few of these), all the 
vehicles, and more can be researched and put into production. The essential 
raw materials for production are consumable, and must be replenished by 
recycling recently decimated (hah! quadrimated would be more like it) enemy 
forces. Different weapons and vehicles are useful at different stages of the 
game, so some thought has to be given as to what needs prioritization. The 
number of scientists and engineers put on any particular project determines 
(in part) the rate of development and deployment, so priorities can be 
controlled by adding or removing members of the team (Stealth Bombers take 
forever to make, don't waste these like soda cans or you'll be sorry). If the 
player has overproduced units for early stages of the game which are no longer 
necessary for play later on, they can be recycled for more raw materials. 
Running out of any of the basic raw materials halts production of any item 
that needs it.

 One can easily just stay underground for awhile, watch the beam cannon 
increase in energy as it readies for fire, and happily construct away. This 
won't win ARMOUR-GEDDON, though; time and attention must be paid almost 
immediately to a number of different factors. For one thing, the components of 
the Neutron Bomb need to be located as quickly as possible, so effective 
attack plans can be implemented. For another, power lines to the beam cannon 
can be destroyed by hitting them at certain points, thus reducing energy to 
the cannon. Attack units must thus be routed regularly to key points to keep 
the pressure on this aspect of the game. Enemy units must be scouted out to 
determine their location, likelihood of counter-attack, and strength. Finally, 
putting together one's own successful attack in a series of phases will 
require some careful analysis and implementation; ideally, once familiar 
enough with the design, the player can start up a combination of different 
vehicles for a multi-unit attack. This is not for the faint-of-heart, though, 
and at least for this reviewer, proved extremely difficult to implement at all 
successfully (I could have used another two hands, minimum).

 The intelligence map available in the game updates regularly to display all 
discovered units; it will also indicate the positions of the player's craft. 
It can be used to plot out waypoints for each vehicle, which help guide the 
player towards the right targets. One thing that seems missing in the design 
and which would have made it immensely more successful is the ability to set a 
vehicle on true auto-pilot. Vehicles can be left running while the player 
jumps into others, but they don't automatically follow the waypoint plotted 
into the navigation system, and will not initiate an attack on their own. Left 
to its own devices, for instance, a tank or hovercraft will just run in the 
direction the player was last going until it's out of fuel. Psygnosis 
obviously started to plan some work on this aspect of ARMOUR-GEDDON, as the 
aircraft, at least, will fly to a waypoint and circle there until the player 
returns (or until they're shot down).

 The enemy units' artificial intelligence is interesting enough to provide for 
some variety in the game. I found that sometimes, when I took too long to 
initiate an attack, I'd launch to the surface only to find scads of enemy 
helicopters, hovercraft, and other nasties just waiting to pummel me into 
scattered polygons. Attacking defense units before deploying one of the 
heavier, slower vehicles to pick up supplies or a portion of Neutron Bomb will 
limit retaliatory activity during the transport phase. Wiping out an airstrip 
will reduce air attacks over one's own Base.

 ARMOUR-GEDDON comes with some beautiful graphics and animations. Unlike most 
of the IBM conversions that have been showing for the Amiga lately, this 
solid-fill design runs smoothly and quickly on a stock A500. There are lots of 
flight-sim-style outside and internal views, which won't be of much use until 
the player is really in control of the game, as the time it takes to figure 
out which direction you're looking in is often all the time an enemy 
helicopter needs to send you in all directions at once. There are night-time 
situations, which are even more deucedly difficult (though the player can just 
sit things out and wait for daylight), especially when it comes to returning 
to base and getting a vehicle back underground. During the war, flashes of 
light light up the skies and horizons, making (again, especially at night) for 
a real fireworks display.

 The game comes on three disks (two are needed for play, the third contains the 
four extra scenarios), and also features a multi-player option via direct 
serial link. Control is primarily via the joystick, though the mouse is used 
well for various option selections when not rushing around at full panic in a 
vehicle. The sound effects are all wonderful; ARMOUR-GEDDON features some of 
the best engine sounds to show in a vehicle simulation game, and they go a 
long ways to helping provide credibility for the performance of each vehicle.

 I would have liked to see ARMOUR-GEDDON show up as something less of a hybrid. 
With some work it could have been much more of a simulator-style air combat 
game, in the mold of FLIGHT OF THE INTRUDER. Or, going in a different 
direction, it could have been more of a Battlemechs-style game, tossing 
realism out the window for strenuous, fantasy electronic battlefield play. But 
the game falls somewhere outside such desires, and requires the player's 
adjustment to the terms of engagement it imposes. If one is willing to make 
such adjustments (and to survive the initially brutal beatings), there's 
plenty on offer to work with. I just wish my hovercrafts were a little 
hardier.