INFESTATION

 Up until now, Psygnosis has concentrated mainly on bit-mapped, sprite-based
designs that are essentially arcade-oriented, featuring wonderfully drawn images
and fully developed soundtracks. INFESTATION is a departure into the realm of
3-D filled-polygon vector graphics. It succeeds admirably both as an adventure
game and as a visual/aural feast. (This review is based on the Amiga version;
Atari ST version notes follow.)

 The premise of INFESTATION is much like the premise of the film "Aliens":
You're sent on a mission to deal with the invasion of a remote scientific colony
(Alpha II on Xelos) by aliens who have planted eggs throughout the colony and
destroyed all local human life. Your main goal is to get into the colony's
underground complex and destroy all the incubating eggs with cyanide gas.

 The game is played from within your spacesuit, whose helmet contains a full
array of indicators in a Heads-Up Display (HUD). The suit's instrumentation
resembles that of a good flight simulator, and includes a number of different
full-HUDs for navigation, systems status, inventory, life support check,
atmosphere analysis, and simplified avionics. (There's even a scratch-pad mode
so that you can type notes while playing the game).

 Unlike DARK SIDE, whose design basics INFESTATION most closely resembles, most
of the actual controls are relegated to function keys rather than onscreen
buttons. You control movement and fire of your shoulder-mounted pulse laser gun
with a joystick, but all other activities involve the keyboard. This control
combination takes a little time to learn, but once you're familiar with the
various keyboard commands, you'll have little trouble controlling the suit's
features.

 An interesting array of systems is available in your suit for access during
exploration. Your suit's power runs off of batteries that require periodic
replacement (an indicator tells you when their charge is waning), much like the
fuel system in flight simulators.

 There is a gauge that displays oxygen remaining in your suit's supply, which
also needs replenishment. Of course, in most of the indoor game spaces, you
don't need your suit's oxygen; learning when to turn your separate air supply on
and off is crucial to your success in the game. Sometimes the air is breathable
but slightly poisoned, so you can operate without suit oxygen for a short while,
but you need to turn it back on when you have trouble breathing.

 The suit's helmet can be opened and closed, another important aspect of the
design: When indoors, swinging open the helmet makes outside air available and
improves your peripheral view. To conserve batteries and oxygen, you can also
power down your suit systems if they're not needed (when you're pausing to think
about what you're looking at, for example). All systems that require use of the
HUD can be run only with the helmet closed, which adds another twist to the
process of control. The best exploration policy is usually to move into new
spaces with your suit powered up, helmet closed, HUD systems available; after
checking atmosphere, location, systems status, outside temperature, etc., you
can power down and open the helmet, circumstances permitting.

 Air quality is a problem inside the complex, due to the presence of the aliens
and their eggs, but in certain locations there are also problems with radiation
levels (also indicated by your suit's instrumentation). Prolonged exposure --
with the helmet either on or off -- can lead to trouble.

 Finally, at the beginning of the game, you were equipped with a Manned
Maneuvering Unit (MMU), which makes it possible to fly quickly from point to
point on the surface of the moon. This is also helpful when trying to escape the
menacing population of hostile ants and droids before you figure out how to get
below the surface.

 A wonderful animation sequence depicting your arrival on the surface of Xelos
initiates gameplay. Your first task is to find access to the underground
scientific complex. While this is primarily an introductory portion of the game,
it is well worth enjoying. There are numerous filled-polygon objects
above-surface: radio antennae, the hostiles mentioned earlier, computer access
boxes, and transport devices. There are two suns that rise and set over the
horizon of the planet; surface terrain includes mountain ranges and passes, and
a landing strip. If you head in the right direction, you encounter a supply ship
that approaches the airstrip and land, thus providing you with an extra
equipment and supplies. It's possible to fly alongside the supply ship with the
MMU; you can even crash into it if you're not careful!

 The above-ground portion of the game is the most arcade-like. You have the HUD
equivalent of the horizontal radar available in most air combat flight
simulators, which provides short-range indications of the direction and
proximity of all above-surface objects. You can use your pulse rifle to fend off
a seemingly endless stream of attack droids and ants; unfortunately, it's of
little value in achieving your main goals. This part of the game serves mainly
as an initial red herring and puzzle: Once you figure out how to access the
entry computer, log on, and transport yourself underground, you'll realize that
most of what you can do on the surface has little bearing on your eventual
success. It's best to restart the game, quickly gain entry to the complex, and
save, as soon as you know how. I guess the designers figured some people would
enjoy the surface arcade sequence as a game in and of itself, which I did...but
only for a little bit.

 Most of the rest of the game is spent exploring the extensive underground
complex, which by far outshines the polygonal worlds of DARK SIDE or TOTAL
ECLIPSE. Not only are the polygons amazingly smooth, fast, and detailed, but the
variety of enclosed spaces gives the complex a real you-are-there feel. You can
see from one room into another, look around corners, remove ventilation tunnel
grates, and open and close various kinds of nicely animated (and soundtracked)
doors -- all of which makes the environment seem much less abstract.

 An extensive variety of objects lets you manipulate and/or destroy; you can
familiarize yourself with them by accessing a highly recommended 3-D rotating
object database before starting the game (a la STARGLIDER II). Lights can be
turned on and off, invisible alarm systems can be triggered by your passing,
elevators are available to shift you from level to level in the complex, and
indoor shuttles move you quickly from point to point (in a straight line only).
You can discover various computer terminals that provide a map display of the
layout of the complex, and indicate where more eggs are located.

 All in all, INFESTATION offers an unusually rich gameplay environment. It's
obviously competitive with any good adventure game in terms of available space,
complexity of puzzles, and manipulability of objects. No parser to worry about,
either.

 INFESTATION comes on one copy-protected disk, which you may leave
write-protected. You can save the game to a separate disk at any point; any
number of saves at different locations can be collected and retrieved. The
program requires a joystick and 512K of RAM; it runs on the A1000, A500, and
A2000, and is not hard-disk installable.

 Some have criticized INFESTATION for its lack of originality. However, while
none of the game _elements_ is a startling innovation, the game _design_
improves all elements drastically, and combines them into a thoroughly enjoyable
and exciting experience. The polygonal design is much advanced, the suit's
system feels more authentic than DARK SIDE's, and the adventure reminds me of
one of my favorites (PLANETFALL), without being overly derivative. The sound
effects (among other things) are so realistic that they contribute greatly to
the experience of the game: I found myself quite literally short of breath as I
heard my suit's oxygen-delivery system running out of air. I hope Psygnosis
plans future releases of games in this style, because I consider it an
enormously successful departure from their usual efforts.

 ATARI ST VERSION NOTES

 The Atari ST version of INFESTATION looks and plays much the same as the Amiga
version described above. The 3-D world of the underground complex is a marvelous
piece of work that moves smoothly and swiftly, with no flicker or breakup. Other
than the above-ground arcade sequence (which was annoying, at best), and faulty
save-game and format-disk options, INFESTATION is an excellent game, even if the
usual slimy and disgusting Psygnosis graphics are not in evidence.

 Saving and loading games, and formatting a disk, occurs at the Start menu.
Unfortunately, there is no way to reach this menu from within the game: No
keystroke is indicated in the Quick Key guide, nor did any key work during play.
In fact, the only way I could ever get to this menu (other than shortly after
booting) was, for example, to remove the helmet so my head would explode, -- not
an opportune moment, I'm sure you'll agree, to save a position. The format
option worked in a most outrageous way; that is, it formatted a disk, and it
also froze the machine.

 Apart from these faults, INFESTATION plays well. The joystick controls general
movement and the firing of the pulse rifle. All else -- HUDs, use of items,
doors, MMU, everything -- is controlled via function keys, cursor keys, and the
keypad. The INFESTATION package comes with one 720K disk that's copy-protected,
and an instruction manual.

 INFESTATION is published and distributed by Psygnosis, Ltd.

*****DOWNLOADED FROM P-80 SYSTEMS (304) 744-2253