Subject: REVIEW: Zeewolf
From: [email-masked] (C.J.COULSON)
Date: 18 Jan 1995 18:55:51 GMT
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.reviews

PRODUCT NAME

	Zeewolf (Version 1.02)

BRIEF DESCRIPTION

	A one-player arcade game with elements of Virus and Desert Strike
all rolled into one.

AUTHOR/COMPANY INFORMATION

	Name:		Binary Asylum
	Address:	28 Brock Street
			Bath
			Avon
			ENGLAND
			BA1 2LN

	Telephone:	(01225) 428494
			(01225) 427954 for Customer Services
	FAX:		(01225) 427950

	E-mail:		[email-masked]
	
	NOTE: Binary Asylum, unlike other games companies, actually 
	responds to e-mail, and not just with a standard reply either.

RETURNS DEPARTMENT

	Address:	Returns Dept.
			Empire Interactive
			The Spires
			677 High Road
			North Finchley
			London
			ENGLAND
			
			N12 0DA
			
	Send only the disk, with a letter detailing the problem and
a return mailing address.

LIST PRICE

	25.99 UK Pounds.  In the UK it is available for 17.99 UKP 
from a very well known high street retailer.

SPECIAL HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS

	HARDWARE
	
		At least 0.5 MB Chip RAM
		At least 0.5 MB Fast RAM
		
		All processors from 68000 to 68030 are supported for 
		definite.  I don't know for certain whether the game
		works on a 68040 (or 68060...) so those of you with
		these processors may want to exercise a bit of caution
		if buying Zeewolf.
		
		Personally, I'd recommend at least a 68020 with some 
		32 Bit Fast RAM, and even then you'll notice some 
		sluggishness once in a while.

	SOFTWARE
	
		None that I am aware of.

COPY PROTECTION

	A non-standard disk format is used.  Additionally, once the game is
loaded and immediately prior to the first mission, you are asked to select
three of the in-game vehicles, based on small pictures of these vehicles
printed at the bottom of each page in the manual.

	The custom disk format is partially annoying, as it eliminates any
possibility of hard drive installation (and is also responsible for problems
with certain drive units - see BUGS, below).

	The manual protection would be acceptable on its own, but after
listening to the floppy drive crunch its way through the on-disk protection
it seems a little over the top.  I'd rate the protection as annoying. (It
would have been acceptable if it were manual-based only.)

MACHINES USED FOR TESTING

	A500
	7 MHz 68000	
	0.5 MB Chip RAM, 0.5 MB Slow RAM
	Kickstart Version 1.3

	A4000
	25 MHz 68030
	2 MB Chip RAM, 4 MB Fast RAM
	Kickstart Version 3.0

INSTALLATION

	None required or possible.  Just boot from the single disk
supplied.  (YES! a ONE disk game, in this day and age.  Wow :-)

REVIEW

	As a young lad I was a frequent visitor to my best friend's house, a
friend with a passion for Acorn computers.  One day, he excitedly phoned me
up to say he'd just got a new machine, with a very impressive demo program.
I went round and got my first taste of the program that was to become the
much talked about Zarch.  That game has been one of the few I have ever
played that has left a lasting impression on me, and although an Amiga
version (called Virus) was released.  For some reason, I never bought a copy.
Well, now I don't have to because along has come a new game that takes the
Zarch idea, bolts on some heavy duty fire-power, kicks out any last shred of
cuteness and comes striding out the door breathing fire and spitting a hail
of lead.........ahem, I seem to have strayed from the point a bit.

	Zeewolf is, in short, a combination of the look and feel of Zarch
with the fire-power and gameplay of Desert Strike.  If you liked either game,
you'll love Zeewolf.

	For the minority (?) who haven't heard of either game, Zeewolf takes
the "externally viewed craft flying over a rolling patchwork landscape"
aspect of Zarch, and adds a well armed helicopter gunship with the ability
to pick up friendly troops and vehicles.  Thus you can either think of
Zeewolf as Desert Strike in polygons, or Zarch with superior firepower. 

	The background story to the game is pretty much irrelevant, like all
good arcade game background stories.  Basically you are given a helicopter
gunship and asked to eradicate the enemy forces over a series of 32
missions, varying from the ridiculously easy to the disturbingly tough.  The
difficulty varies almost at random, since the last four missions were
surprisingly easy, whereas there were a couple of missions earlier on that I
spent a few days on before finally beating them.

	Each mission consists of a wrap-around map of one or more islands,
with a variable number of enemy land, air and sea forces.  There will also
be some friendly forces dotted around, although in most cases this simply
means your resupply vehicle (which may take the form of an assault carrier
or frigate, or may just be a little tracked vehicle based on land).  There
are one or more mission objectives, based on four basic types.

	1: Kill the enemy
	2: Rescue friendly troops
	3: Retrieve damaged vehicles
	4: Escort friendly vehicles home

	Cases 2 and 3 are as simple as they seem, with just the number of
rescues/retrievals varying.  Case 1, however, takes into account a wide range
of objectives, from the destruction of just one or two specific enemy
vehicles, to the complete destruction of the enemy presence on the map.

	In some missions you have help from friendly forces, namely the
Buffalo tank.  These are usually placed on board your carrier, requiring you
to airlift them one at a time to the islands, or are located inside armoured
domes, usually surrounded by enemy forces.  Once located/released the
Buffalo roams around looking for targets until it either destroys all
targets in the vicinity or is itself destroyed.

	Case 4 is also deserving of a mention.  These missions ask you to
provide air support for one or more friendly aircraft (either transport
helicopters or scout aircraft). Since you are the only friendly armed
aircraft, it is usually a good idea to clear the flight path of any enemy
presence before escorting the aircraft to the carrier.

	Note that in a multi-objective mission, the objectives could in
theory be worked on in any order, but certain missions require targets to be
destroyed/friendlies rescued before a certain time limit runs out. In these
cases you must use your judgement as to the order in which you attempt the
overall mission.

	The Zeewolf can only carry a limited amount of ammunition and fuel,
so requires regular resupply.  To do this there is always one or more
resupply points on the map. These are usually Camel class resupply vehicles,
either located on the islands or on the forward deck of the assault carrier.
In some missions the resupply is provided by a frigate, with a resupply
point on the rear landing pad.  The amount of ammunition/fuel carried by
each resupply point is limited, so it is a good idea not to waste any
stores.  Your armour rating cannot be increased by resupply, only through the
rescue of friendly troops.  If the mission has no troops to rescue, then
you'd better be careful with your armour.  If you are killed, then all the
stores carried are destroyed as well, although if you have any lives
remaining, then you continue the mission with slightly reduced stores.  It is
a good idea, if you are low on armour, to off-load ammunition at a resupply
point, as you will be able to pick it up again with your next life.

	Control of the Zeewolf is carried out by either digital joystick or
mouse, with some keyboard controls as well.  For the beginner it may be
easier to use the joystick, although I would recommend using the mouse from
day one.  Even though it makes controlling the Zeewolf a bit harder at
first, you'll be glad of the extra accuracy of mouse control once you are
used to it.  Also, when you've completed all 32 missions, you'll really need
to be good with the controls..........  I say no more on this; you'll just
have to get past level 32 to see what I mean.

	After completing a set of four missions, you are rewarded with a
password that allows you to start the game at the next mission.  No
progress data is stored on disk.  Whilst the inclusion of passwords is
welcomed, I would have preferred passwords for every level, not just every
fourth level.  Of course, there is always an exception to the rule, the
exception being the password for the last four levels, which doesn't
actually exist.......  In other words, you have to battle through eight
levels in order to reach the end of the game, rather than being able to
start with only four to go.  Still, like I say, the last four levels are
really simple.

	The map screen deserves mention because whilst you look at the map,
you can still play the game using the (approximately) quarter scale window
provided on screen.  Of course, since the game is now only drawing into a
quarter of the area it draws into with the full screen dispay, the frame
rate suddenly shoots up.  On an accelerated machine, this increase can
result in the game's running just a bit too fast to be really controllable.
Nevertheless, it is a nice touch, as you are never left flying blind whilst
you consult the map.

DOCUMENTATION

	A 76-page, A5 manual with English, French and German instructions.
For a game of this type, beyond a description of the controls and game
objective, you don't really need any other documentation.  Aside from a bit
of background preamble and a list of pictures showing all the friendly/enemy
vehicles in the game, there is nothing else in the manual.  If it wasn't for
the manual based protection, you wouldn't need the manual at all.

LIKES

	In an age of technically superb games, the arrival of Zeewolf with
its nice (but nothing special) graphics and audio would seem at first to be
rather pointless....... until you play the game.  Only then does the sheer
playability and addictiveness make itself known.  Given the choice of
playing Zeewolf or the latest texture mapped, CD quality multi-channel
audio, more-processing-power-than-a-Cray type game, I'd probably go for the
technically impressive game just to see what it was like, but then I'd
return to Zeewolf, and I'd keep returning to it until I'd squeezed every last
drop of playability out of it.  Don't rely on the looks of Zeewolf to make a
buying decision. Either get hold of one of the demo levels floating around
on magazine coverdisks (and possibly the networks), or just buy the game.
Unless you are someone who totally hates playability, you'll love Zeewolf.

DISLIKES AND SUGGESTIONS

	Copy protection, Copy Protection and Copy Protection.
	
	Oh, and I don't like the copy protection either......

	There is a flaw which is annoying and may well result in harm coming
to your monitor (as you put your fist through it in anger).  To access the
in-game map, you hit the Return key.  No problem there.  To return to the
game you hit the Return key again.  No problem there............except that
most of the time you have to hit the key several times before the game
registers it.  For some reason this only happens when leaving the map
screen; you can always enter the map screen with just a single keypress.  At
times, when you are about to encounter the enemy, this random delay in
returning to the full screen display can be very very annoying, and may
result in the loss of a life.

	Another, less life threatening, flaw is that any enemy forces
destroyed are still plotted on the map, so you have to rely on your memory
to know whether that red dot just ahead is a smoking pile of twisted metal,
or a fully armed SAM launcher.  In short, it's always best to be cautious
when approaching a target that you can't remember killing before. 

	Finally, on a PAL Amiga, the game screen is opened as a PAL refresh
rate screen, but the graphics are all drawn to NTSC resolution (i.e. 200
lines).  This would not be a problem if you could use the Early Startup
option to run in NTSC mode, but you can't.  Zeewolf forces the graphics
hardware into its native mode, so you'll only get a full screen display if
you have an NTSC Amiga.

	Note that Binary Asylum have probably been deluged with e-mail
telling them about these problems, and I suspect that they'll take all the
criticisms into account when they work on their next release.  Don't be put
off Zeewolf though, it really is worth playing.

COMPARISON TO OTHER SIMILAR PRODUCTS

	Well, it feels like the offspring of a mating between Zarch and
Desert Strike.  It has the graphical look and control fun of Zarch, with the
shooting and rescues of Desert Strike.  If you like either or both games,
you'll just drool when you play Zeewolf.

BUGS

	There has been reported a problem with the disk format, in that the
initial format was incompatible with some floppy drives.  This has now been
fixed, but there may still be early versions floating around.  If you do
have an early version and are encountering loading problems, return the disk
to either of the addresses given above, putting "Zeewolf Returns" at the top
of the address.

VENDOR SUPPORT

	Unknown.

WARRANTY

	Unknown.

CONCLUSIONS

	First off, I'm not related to, involved in or otherwise linked to
Binary Asylum.  The fact that I like the game so much is due entirely to its
excellence.

	This is the first game from Binary Asylum, and it's absolutely
brilliant!  It throws out the notion that rendered graphics and CD audio are
required to make a good game, and relies on good old playability to give the
game appeal.  The only reason you might have for not buying this game is if
you are one of those people who refuse to buy non-installable software, but
you'd be missing out on a great little game if you are.

	I can't wait to see their next release.......

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

Written by and property of:

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Chris Coulson			| A4000/EC030/882 - 6MB RAM/530MB HD
Robotics Postgraduate		| A500/000 - 1MB RAM
				| Sinclair Spectrum - 48KB RAM
E-Mail:				| Sinclair ZX81 - 1 KB RAM
[email-masked]		| (how times have changed...)

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Use the review in any way you like provided you acknowledge the 
author in some way (68060 cards, RTG boards etc.............;-)

---

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