Destruction Imminent

By Ken Clayton...

<IMG SRC="/atariphile/images/04/di_1.gif" ALT="[Screenshot]" ALIGN="left"><B>At last, a new game for the ST/STe. From square one Destruction Imminent, the game launched by Mike Goodman at the recent Atari Shows, is simple to run and play, but if you are a fan of gore you won't get it here. This is Doom without the 18 cirtificate. You wouldn't have to worry too much if your kids wanted to play this one. For example when creatures get killed they expand via vertical lines and then evaporate leaving no sign of your progress. The creatures themselves come in the guises of Spiders, Bats, Zombies, and Rock monsters that look like gingerbread men. The weapons to dispatch the afore mentioned rabble include the good old fists, knife, pistol, machine gun, rocket launcher, grenades and plasma weapon. Being sparing with your ammunition has few benefits because you start afresh with a pistol on each level and then find your equipment as you explore. Look out for extra ammunition while you wander around and if you are lucky you'll also find a mapper and radar. The mapper does exactly what it says, it maps where you have been and what you have seen. The radar allows you to get an idea where the enemy is and whether its moving towards you or not.

The plot is simple, kill or be killed, and even when your character does expire, "game over" appears, there are no gratuitous death scene or sound effects. It has a fast load option so you can get into the thick of it even quicker but if your system has a problem with that don't worry you can still do things the slow way.

MicroMagic have made a good job of the graphics. If you have played Doom on a Jaguar then you will obviously find things slow, but considering Destruction Imminent is running on an ST the 3D mapping is excellent. Control is via a joystick and/or the keyboard, with weapons selected simply by function keys