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                             PHASE ZERO PREVIEW
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system.... Atari Jaguar module

publisher. Songbird Productions / Hyper Image - 1994-2oo2

players... 1

genre..... 3d shot'em'up

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Besides a lot  of other  interesting stuff  FLASH brought  a lot of  rare Jaguar
games to the Unconventional Party and so I don't want to hide the stuff I saw at
his  machines. One game, that  impressed me much  is this one, PHASE ZERO, which
comes along as playable demo version on module.

PHASE ZERO is a futuristic 3d shot'em'up, a bit like CYBERMORPH, but only a bit,
since it is a lot better. So it  features a mix out of  gouraudshaded landscapes
and bitmapped objects, coming along with nice light effects that makes the whole
appearance very impressive, at least for a Jaguar game.

Anyway, this game  was developped  many years  back and wasn't  finished like so
many other games for the Jaguar. But today, as more and  more games and previews
are popping up  again, CARL FORHAN from SONGBIRD  digged it out and announced to
finish the game.

SONGBIRD  itself took over  the rights and  released this  playable preview that
contains about 6 levels and I think this is reason enough to  take a closer look
onto it, since it's  more than a running  demo but a full game. Ok, enough words
lost, lets take a closer look!



The title screen...

PHASE ZERO is a futuristic shot'em'up, you  have your  hover craft or something,
at least it seems as it can't fly (without a manual it is  hard to find out) but
you are not fighting in the  endless space but on the ground of some planet that
reminds hard to the earth. There you're moving around with your vehicle  and you
have to fullfill  missions that are given  in the briefings, usually you have to
search for something, like ship wrecks, navigation points and so on, furthermore
you've  to destroy  all enemies  that are  coming along  your way  or even enemy
objects like tanks and so on.

Therefore your ship is equipped with a powerful  doubled blaster, a radar system
that helps you to navigate in the quite big world of the single levels and shows
you incoming enemies. It helps to navigate  in the way as it shows when you have
to turn your direction  to find your goal with  small route signs right and left
at the screen.

Other displays are speed, the power  of your shields (you have  a doubled shield
into  all directions  and the  display shows  what part  of the  shield  is most
damaged), as well as it shows how many enemies are left on  the level. This is a
bit special  since if you're  a good fighter and  you have your ship under heavy
control, you can move  your ship in a battle in  a direction where the shield is
not as damaged as the front shield usually is, just  to catch the enemies' shots
with a better saved side of your ship... what aren't you doing all to survive :)

And as we're speaking about controls, after some mins you have got the trick and
they aren't very  complicated either. There  is just  right/left, accelerate and
fire, ofcourse. So you can concentrate onto the game completely. So lets battle!

The first mission is described to find some ship wreck and Commander Ripley (hu,
where have I heard that name  before?) Ok, after  a short  status screen (surely
just used as loader  screen, where you  can see the single sections of your ship
or vehicle or whatever) you're dropped onto the ground of the planet.

And what should I say?! The first impression  is marvellous! This first level is
called wastelands and so  it looks a bit  like some desert. In the near distance
there are some  trees and columns of some greece temple ruin or something, right
nearby a hill. The  landscape  is completely  gouraud shaded  while the  objects
appearing  as bitmap grafix. And  while  I'm "staying" there, impressed  by  the
landscape, I realised that my radar got something and my target is already going
to be locked. So something  must be in that oasis, and firing a few bullets into
it doesn't sets only  the trees on  fire, no, also an enemies' spaceship or what
ever jumps out of the small oasis and opens the fire on you... blam, blam...



Burning the fields, eh, trees!

I was a  bit shocked but  as I recovered  the fire button  on the Jagpad I fired
back and after a few  hits the enemy explodes in a big pixel explosion, followed
by a lightning circle that enlightens the surroundings a bit. Cool effect!

Unfortunately  here  the engine  shows some  drawbacks... as written  above, the
engine combines  gouraud shaded landscapes  with bitmapped  objects, this brings
the problem that those objects can't be zoomed in from farer distance and so not
only the  trees appearing with a  splash onto  the screen, no, also  the enemies
are, even  if the  target is  locked, appearing  very close  to your ship and if
there are more  of them around, you  have to move  backwards fast to avoid it to
jump into their crossfire...

Btw, right here a  few tips, so  you really  should try to avoid it to go into a
head-to-head battle, since your front shield will not hold very long. Also to go
into combat with two  or even more enemy  ships at once should be  avoided since
the intelligence of them isn't  that bad and  they're going  nearly everytime to
fight from different directions and this can be very dangerous if you're trapped
between some walls of sand. The best way is always to  search the long direction
fight and if the enemies are going to follow  you, move always backwards to hold
the distance or you wont survive very long.

Another tip is that you mustn't kill every enemy on the level, you can or better
you could, but you wont survive since  3o enemies or more  are too much for your
shields and so it's better to  leave them behind and to follow only your mission
briefings...

When you  have fullfilled your  mission, you're coming  back to the menu screen,
giving you the possibility to save the game and to go on then.
The second  mission starts on a  level that features  now also water  and so the
whole scenery is looking much more interesting, also clouds are appearing on the
screen and this looks quite cool  when you're finding the way up to the hills to
watch  them from above. Anyway, I wont write  much more  here, since your job is
the same, just find the wreck of a spaceship or something, and in the next level
it is a mountains scenario, that is  going to be more  complicated since some of
the enemies are located up on the hills and are firing down on you and, as it is
normal on higher  levels, the enemies are  appearing  in real  swarms, mostly in
groups of three ones  and in the  small canyons they're  hard to fight, the best
but a quite dangerous way is to break through the enemies lines in fullspeed and
to turn  back then to go into  the battle  on a bigger  place where you can draw
back if there is a need  since in the small canyons  it can be that you're going
into some corner and  you can't escape anymore... and  then you're  exploding in
a red fading screen...

What to say more? Yeps, I forgot the sound! In the intro and the menu's there is
a technoing stomping soundtrack, in  the game itself  you have only fx, from the
blaster, from your hovercraft, explosions and so on.

As mentioned above, the controls  via Jaguar pad are  very good and  the game is
also for not so  big joypad  fanatics easy to  control and  that makes this game
much more  interesting  since you  don't  need to  study some  books or put some
layouts onto the pad, it's realised  in the easiest  possible way and that turns
the motivation much more on.

Yes, the motivation. Alone  the game engine  brought me  again  and again to the
point to  start  that game, even if I  needed quite  long untill I  finished the
first level (I didn't red the briefings carefully... ;)
It always  impressed me  that  much and  so the frustration  to die after 6 or 7
killed enemies  was always on a  quite low level. But the  motivation will get a
big kick if you finished mission one to see the new surroundings in mission 2!
Yes, alone the fact that the levels are different  styled are making the game so
damn absorbing that it isn't easy to  switch of the Jaguar for a break since you
always want to see the next level...

And I think that is what a  good game should  be. It shouldn't bore you to death
with its styling or game construction, it  should always offer you more and more
to hold you  on the screen. It should  be easy to play but without getting a bit
too childish and never reach a high  frustration level. And that are points that
are fullfilled to the edge by PHASE ZERO!

So, at last I haven't more to say here and want to come to the...

final words... PHASE ZEROš  isn't a bad  game, no, furthermore  it is  one of the
               best games around, that were released in the last time. It offers
               technics that show off  the Jaguars capabilities, it's incredible
               fast and smoth, the control's are quite easy, the levels are very
               atmospheric, it makes fun  to play and  since  this demo  version
               contains several levels it gives a  good impression of the things
               to come if the game will be finished  somewhen... If you're a JAG
               fanatic  and shot'em'up  fan, just try to  get it, even that demo
               version and watch out for the final one...

_ratings________________________________________________________________________
grafix ......  9o % - the game engine truely rocks! bitmaps bring some drawbacks
sound/fx ....  65 % - too less attractive in the game itself
control ..... 1oo % - in my eyes not better to solve...
gameplay ....  5o % - quite odd idea, shot'em'up, follow the missions...
motivation ..  9o % - curious onto the next level, great game design, controls!
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overall .....  79 % - maybe the best 3d shooter on the Jaguar?
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Let's hope to see a final version  somewhen since this game could be a state-of-
the art  title on  the Jaguar... After all, if  you see when the development has
started it  is so bad that the  game didn't made it in the time it was scheduled
for...

_.tSCc.__________________________________________________________moondog_o9/2k2_