When we say that this game is a sort of Battlezone
don't react with shock, be sick and turn the page. NO!
This is a really superb, fast shoot-em-up which has
a Battlezone-type playing area. Everyone must
know of the much copied arcade game -- the vector tank
game which took all day to play because it was so slow;
the one where the battle was fought over an infinitely
large playing area littered with obstacles and where
you tackled the tanks one at a time and as time progresses
the tanks get faster, more intelligent etc -- you do
remember it?
Okay
this game has a similar sort of scenario, with an infinite
playing area and obstacles littered over the plain.
These obstacles can be used to your advantage and you
can use them to hide behind or from which to ricochet
bullets. The main difference is in its speed and in
the graphics. Instead of the original vector graphics
everything is filled in and the program moves about
100 times faster.
There
are no tanks present in Encounter, instead flying
saucers warp in and move about. There are also guided
missiles which home in at horrendous rates and, unless
you're moving backwards rapidly, find their target swiftly
and detonate. On level one most of the saucers just
move about and are cannon fodder, on higher levels they
start to shoot back, not just little bullets but great
big spheres that fill the entire screen! Occasionally
you'll get a bleeper -- saucers that trundle about harmlessly
until they self destruct into a huge wall of spheres
(very difficult to dodge).
Enemies
can be seen on the radar at the bottom of the screen,
which makes it easier to find a tank if it's out of
sight or behind you. There are also other readouts telling
you whether a tank is harmless or whether it's going
to shoot or not.
To
finish a level you must shoot a varying, specified amount
of enemies. When all are destroyed a black, square warp
gate will emerge. Enter this quickly (or else it disappears)
and you begin your journey to the next level. To get
to the next level safely, dodge all the spheres as you
travel through them. The only trouble is that the spheres
are massive and you feel like you're moving at about
1,000,000 mph!!!
As
you progress through levels, the saucers get faster,
more intelligent and fire like crazy. Also travelling
from level to level gets faster and more hazardous.
There
are no lives but you do have shields. Every time you
are hit you lose a shield, but you do get extra ones
for entering a higher level. If you die during transportation
then you'll lose a shield and go back to the previous
level and have to shoot another number of tanks before
being allowed to advance again. As levels increase so
does scoring potential, so the aim of getting to higher
levels is even greater.
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