THE SPECTRUM GAMES DATABASE

KOMPLEX CITY

PUBLISHER
Legend

AUTHOR(S)

YEAR
October 1985

CATALOGUE NUMBER

CATEGORY
Arcade

DESCRIPTION

CONTROLS
Sinclair, Cursor, Kempston, AGF

INSTRUCTIONS

ORIGINAL INLAY CARD TEXT

HINTS/CHEATS

SEQUELS/PREQUELS

REVIEWS

Review of _Komplex City_ from Sinclair User No.43, October 1985

PRETTY CLEVER aliens, the lot in _Komplex_ - they've built a vast
maze of a city to test our resources. Naturally you're unable to
resist the challenge, so it's into the mazes of _Komplex City_
for another bash at convincing the aliens of humanity's
superiority.  Legends's series of shoot'em-ups got off to a shaky
start with _Komplex_, but the sequel more than redeems earlier
disappointments. _Komplex City_ is fast, long, and, as its name
suggests, complicated.  The maze of tunnels has over 65,000
intersections, and there are several trillion possible mazes -
you can change them by typing in a name for the maze at the
beginning. Then, every time you use the same name you will get
the same maze.  To help you there are a number of on-screen
scanners and the like. The long and short range scans show how
far away from the targets you are - there are 11 to collect. 
Another display shows what lies just ahead in the tunnels. At
each intersection you can choose your direction, or whether to
go into hyperdrive. You may also get an opportunity to increase
your score, make a short jump or restore your shields - with the
exception of jump, those involve maximizing the size of bar
graphs or the amount of green on the screen. It is what lies
ahead in terms of shields, score bonuses or jump that is hown on
the display, and yuo will have to plan carefully to make the
best use of those options.  Hyperdrive is great fun. The screen
suddendly bursts into colour and various mushroom-like baddies
come at you. Some are animated, with ports opening and guns
extending to blast you. Hyperdrive is costly on the shields, but
vital for completion of the game in less than a month.  The
tunnels themselves are done in wireframe graphics, with aliens
coming at you at some speed. While there is little new about the
graphics style it is extremely effective, and the flashes and
various stuttering sounds indicating gunfire or damage are not
so obtrusive as to hurt the eyes - a boon to reviewers at the end
of a long week of zapping. You can switch off the sound or the
flashes anyway.  One particularly good feature is the autopilot,
which actually plays the game for you and can be cut in at any
time. It's not a very skilled autopilot, and you will have little
trouble in doing better yourself, but it does provide a good way
of learning how the game is played.  Legend has clearly put a lot
more care into _Komplex City_ than into recent products, and that
attention to detail has paid off. You probably won't want another
shoot-'em-up this side of Christmas.

                                   Chris Bourne

Publisher: Legend
Price: 9.95
Memory: 48K
Joystick: Sinclair, Cursor, Kempston, AGF
Rating: ***** (out of 5, meaning: =9324 carat. Buy it.=94)



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