Paradroid

Programmed by Andrew Braybrook
Software house Hewson

Reviewed by Frank Gasking

This has to be my favourite Braybrook game of all time! You could pass this game off as a 90's game with its great game-play and cool gfx, even though it was released in 1985.

You control a lowly 'Influence Device', which is beamed onto a huge space freighter who has to take out the whole army of other droids on board. You come with a number attached, being 001, which is the lowest powered robot of them all. This is where the transferring bit comes in. By holding down the fire button, you can switch into transfer mode, and then pick a droid you wish to change into temporarily. Once you have selected a droid, you must do battle with the droid by gaining colour domination over 12 rectangles. First of all, you have a small space of time to select which side/colour you will take to battle with, picking one which is to your advantage. To dominate with your colour, you must fire your pulsars (which vary in numbers depending on the power of the droid you possess) through a series of 12 lines to change the colour of the rectangles in the centre. To make life easier/harder, there are a series of obstacles on the circuit. Such as Joiners (which need two pulsars to make one rectangle dominated), Splitters (Which need only one pulsar, and dominate two rectangles) and colour switchers which if you are yellow and you fire a pulse on, it will change to purple and count as a purple domination to your disadvantage :( Anyway. When the countdown is up, whoever gets the most rectangles dominated, wins. If you win, you take control of a nice shiny new ship, for a little while.

The droids all have different powers, and this is represented by the number they carry. So if you find a droid with 999 on it, then get it! The best droids to get are those with large laser cannons, or even duel large laser cannons. Some droids only need one sharp shot from one of these weapons to be destroyed. One droid features a different weapon altogether, which makes the screen flash when fired, and damages all droids which are on the screen at the time. :)

Now you must explore each floor of the ship, hunting down droids, taking over any which are more powerful than you are. Each floor comes in a different colour scheme, and when all the droids on that floor are eliminated, the ships computer shuts down the deck lights and you hear a power drone sound. If you are sure that all the droids are killed on a certain floor, but the floor doesn't dim to indicate it, then there must be another part to that floor, which you must get to later on in the game by navigating the various lifts which are scattered around each level/floor. The Lifts help you to move to other levels of the ship, and are seen as a coloured circle. Some levels of the ship cannot be reached by certain lifts, so you must find a different lift on a level to reach other parts.

If you are shot a few times, or get caught in an enemies explosion, your energy will go down. This is indicated by your rotation speed, and when this is very low, you start to flash with a little warning drone. Energy can be restored on an energiser, which is shown by a series of flashing lights on the deck, but your score goes down if you go onto one. Otherwise you just need to quickly find a droid to take over. If you are too late, and are in a higher droid, then you explode and change back into your lowly 001 model. If you die as a 001 model, then it’s game over. Also on each deck, there are several Control Access panels which let you find out more about the 24 robots in the game, see a plan of the deck you are currently on and a side view of the ship to see which floor you're on.

The graphics are very nice, featuring bas-relief shading, which I think Paradroid was the first game to feature the style. The scrolling is not too bad; it’s fairly fast and smooth, though the Championship edition and Heavy Metal Paradroid are a lot faster and smoother. Also, Heavy Metal Paradroid features improved gfx in the game. For most of the robots, there is a specially brilliantly designed picture of each one, used when transferring with a robot and also scattered around other areas of the game. Presentation is superb too! The title screen is the best I’ve ever seen! It features the story/aim of the game, and the pictures of the robots are used too as part of the title sequence. There is a high score system, displaying the initials of the best and worst player of the day. Plus all the little menus and options in the game all gel together very well.

There is no soundtrack or anything, but there are some very crunchy and effective sfx for the in game, and whirring noises for robots and movement etc. The title screen just features a series of bleeps and burps, simple but well done to emulate the noise of robots etc in the background.

The game is just so playable! The determination to clear the whole ship is very great. And I’m sure while you are getting frustrated at being killed; you will keep pressing that fire button to have another crack at it. Its great roaming around as the biggest and fastest droid on the ship, and blowing the hell out of the others in one swift shot. Though there is not much more than to clear each deck, somehow it still keeps you occupied, more so than most games today.

Overall, this is a very strong contender in my favourite games of all time. If any other games need updating on the PC, then this one should be one of them. So put down Quake and everything else, and dig this up and give it a go. I once spent 5 hours playing this game non stop when I first got it off the Zzap 64 covermount and its been a treat to finally find some spare time to review this game, as its given me the excuse to dig it out again and play it for a few hours! :) (Now my C64 power pack is going to be put to the test!)

OVERALL: 96% I think it comes second to The Sentinel, my fave game. !