Guardian Review

PRODUCT NAME


Guardian A1200


BRIEF DESCRIPTION


3-D polygon-based shoot-'em-up


AUTHOR/COMPANY INFORMATION


Acid Software


COPY PROTECTION


     Partially hard drive installable.

     1 disk copy-protected, 1 disk not protected.



MACHINE USED FOR TESTING



     Amiga 1200 w/WB 3.0 (NTSC w/Degrader v1.30 by Chris Hames)

     2 MB Chip, 4 MB GVP Fast

     Seagate130 MB HD

     Supra 880K external drive


REVIEW



     Guardian has been compared to the classic game Defender.  It certainly
 contains most of the features of Defender: fast, furious action; limitless
 alien threats with different capabilities; lots of buttons... from all the
 hype and comparison, I expected Guardian to be a good game.

     It IS a good game. Guardian is more like Defender's second sequel, 
 Strikeforce.  There are many different planets, each with different
 geographies and hazards.  Your mission is to protect these planets from
 invaders who wish to destroy all the friendly buildings present.  You have
 to defeat the aliens with as much accuracy as possible to avoid destroying
 your own buildings.  To aid your mission, you have homing missiles which
 do not home in on your installations, and smart bombs which also kill
 everything except your buildings.  After every few levels, there is a huge
 'boss' ship which you must defeat in order to advance.

     What keeps Guardian from greatness?  First, there seem to be some 
 rather annoying bugs.  Whole threads have been devoted to them on
 comp.sys.games.amiga.  There are four which I have experienced.  The first

 occurs after completing a level: sometimes the whole screen corrupts and
 the game becomes unplayable.  The second bug, which I believe is present
 in the copy-protected level disk, prevents the levels from loading. The
 disk drive crunches and grinds, but the levels are not loaded and the
 computer must be rebooted.  A third bug prevents the game from even
 loading.  It hangs moments after the Workbench is closed.  And if the
 adjustable viewing angle is not set at the default angle, the fourth bug
 causes buildings and terrain to float in the sky when the fighter is
 climbing.

     Other problems: the game is not multitasking or Workbench-friendly.  I
 expected Guardian to be similar to Acid's other game, Roadkill.  In that
 game, the ESC key would send me to Workbench.  Nope.  Reboot city, baby.
 Also, I found the viewing angle difficult to play in.  My shots were often
 too high or low.  If I adjusted the viewing angle, I'd get confused by the
 floating buildings.

     Lastly, I feel that this game was too expensive (suggested US price 
 $49.95, I bought it for $39.95).  Ever since Team 17 started released some
 new games at budget prices (suggested US price $19.95) I've seen many
 games that I think should be released at similar prices.  Guardian
 contains a lot of action and a variety of enemies, but lacks depth.  By
 lack of depth I mean that there is little to do besides shoot and dodge;
 there is not much else.  I don't like paying a lot of money for a little
 bit of game.  I admit, that what game that exists is very good.



Sound: 7 Graphics: 7 Gameplay: 6 Lastability: 6 Value: 5 Overall: 6



Carl Chavez

foregone@u.washington.edu