![]() ![]() Sit back for thought, and time will stand still. Open a bottle of Bollinger Champagne, or light a Davidoff cigar. Needless to say, he lives to fight another day, and you can try, try and try again.įeatures (Different in various games) Pause - Select this on your menu, and give yourself a break. How the real James Bond gets out of these situations without your help (some might say interference!) is left to your imagination. Your Performance James Bond doesn't exactly die - but he can fail when you play him! He may irrevocably damage his car in Paris - or become engulfed in flames in City Hall. You're against the clock - and good times are passed on via the code to give you more time in subsequent games. The Real Time Element Each game is played in real time. However, you may wish to improve them each time. Once you've got the codes, you can always use them again - the numbers are not randomly generated each time. You may play any game at any time, but to be totally successful in the final game you must have done as well as James Bond himself would have! This will become apparent as you play each game. This simply tells the program how well you've done in the last game, and passes over helpful pieces of information. The Codes At the end of the first two games you'll be given a code which you must type in at the start of each new game. Even Dominic and Mark (of "Domark" fame) said at the time that taking on 007 had "set them in a downward spiral". Viewed within the era that "A View To A Kill" was released, Domark's first movie tie-in set the bar for all future Bond games - nothing could be worse. Thankfully, you can play chapters out of sequence (see the level codes below) but players will have to work hard to get anything good out of this experience. None of the three game chapters work well and are riddled with so many bugs that play becomes too frustrating too quickly. The developers clearly bit off more than they could chew when taking on 007 for the first time as "A View To A Kill" fails to hit any mark. Put simply, "A View To A Kill" looked dated - in 1985. As usual, the graphics are better on the C64, disappointing on the Amstrad, and dreadful on the Spectrum (the psychedelic colours do nothing for the game's appeal). Graphically the game is lacklustre, even for it's time and the platforms it was designed for. A gruff voice says "Bond, James Bond" at the intro, and "Damn it, you failed Bond!" upon the frequent "game over" screen. Even the the voice-synth quotes (which were quite cutting edge for the mid-80s) grate on the speakers. Sound effects are dreadful too, with the Spectrum making Bond's car sound like a wind-up toy. You only get to enjoy this on the C64 version though, as the Amstrad has no music at all, and the Spectrum only has a short Bond theme at the intro. The music is where "A View To A Kill" offers it's only noteworthy feature, with a fantastic (for the time) rendition of Duran Duran's movie theme for two of the chapters, and a variation on the Bond theme accompanying the other. However dreadful the gameplay may be, the game is not without it's saving graces. This poor menu device also plagues the third chapter, which is the simplest of the lot, consisting of Bond running to find, and defuse, the mineshaft bomb. The second chapter fairs slightly better, but the flawed "duck shoot" menu system ruins the gameplay. Either would be a challenge, but both simultaneously is too much for the poorly developed game engine. The aim is to follow Mayday on the radar whilst avoiding Parisian traffic. Collision detection was something of a young art at the time of the game's release, but this is still no excuse for the head-scratching moments that cause your car to crash for no reason or stick to a wall. On paper this sounds like a great way to cover three of the movie's key sequences ("Paris Chase", "City Hall", and "Silicon Mine" respectively) but the end result can only be described as a rushed, buggy and disjointed mess.īugs are most prevalent, and most annoying, in the opening "driving" chapter. ![]() The first chapter uses a very basic 2D / 3D hybrid driving system, the second is a room-to-room scrolling walk around (much like the popular "Spy Vs Spy" games), and the third chapter is a sideways-scrolling romp around. The game is split into three different sub-games - one of the first titles to usher in the (soon to be common) "multi genre" movie-tie in videogame. 1985's "A View To A Kill" was the first movie tie-in game ever produced for the Bond series and also the first 007 title published by Domark, and without doubt their worst. MI6 Review Domark published a number of James Bond 007 licensed games during the late 1980's ("The Living Daylights" (1987), "Live And Let Die" (1988), "Licence To Kill" (1989)) and into the early 1990's with "The Spy Who Loved Me" (1990), "James Bond: The Duel" (1993)).
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |