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You, the Mercenary, have just managed to get it together to blast away from the hostile world of Targ when a message flashes up on your computer terminal. "Distress call from Eris State President, Dialis Planet 5, Gamma system – the comet Damocles is on a collision course with Eris. Assistance required urgently. Large reward".
Those last words are particularly interesting... they involve money! After toying with the idea for a while, you think "Sod it, I want a holiday!" You send a brief reply to the President, then decide to cruise around taking it easy for a while. After a few months, the cash supply is finally beginning to dwindle... looks like it is time to check out the missions available. What about the Eris problem? Could be mucho moolah for that one, you think, so it is off to the Gamma system.
Benson, your computer, takes you in to land at Eris Spaceport, where a VIP limo has been thoughtfully left so that you can make your way to the President’s office. The premier is a little miffed that you have taken this long to arrive and has, in fact, decided it is a good idea to leave the planet along with the other evacuees. Oh well, I suppose you will have to look for the clues yourself...

In Damocles, Novagen’s long awaited follow-up to the highly-succesful Mercenary - you play the hardy soldier of fortune that rose to fame after his antics on the planet Targ. This time, as well as struggling for personal financial gain, the future of a planet is at stake. The comet Damocles is on a collision course with the planet Eris. You must follow the trail of clues in an attempt to find the mega-destructive Novabomb and the necessary triggers in order to destroy the comet.

Unfortunately, since the entire population of Eris has fled to safety, the only clues available by way of documents left lying around various locations on Eris. It is surprising exactly how much information can be gleaned from a discarded fax message.

The trail of clues leads you to the whereabouts of the bomb and riggers, but the post-office being as it is, they seem to have been... er... ‘misplaced’ somewhere along the line. You must use the clues and some pretty hefty lateral thinking to find your way around the Gamma system, picking up and making use of a variety of items along the way.

But do not worry too much about the outcome. After all, it is all for one – and every man for himself!
Maff Evans

Amiga Format, Issue 14, September 1990, p.p.36-37
GRAPHICS AND SOUND
Damocles’ 3D world has been superbly designed, using solid and smoothly animated polygons to build a believable world to explore. One point where solid 3D games often fall down is by the incompetent use of clipping – when sections of buildings and objects often appear and disappear at odd moments to save memory. Damocles manages quite happily to conquer this obstacle, so that everything you see approaches from a speck in the distance to full size in a very realistic way. Unfotunately, the sound does not match up to the quality of the graphics. All the effects are far too thin and synthetic to create any atmosphere, so the volume will usually end up in the ‘off’ position during play.
LASTING INTEREST
The sheer size of Damocles is quite remarkable (to use a famous sports idiom). The big cities lie on huge continents, which sit on massive planets surrounded by a vast solar system. Simply flying from place to place eats up an incredible amount of gametime. All the locations have their own specific atmosphere, depending on the planet and the purpose of the building, and even the trivial locations have objects lying around the rooms.

Leaping straight into the game and zooming from place to place won’t get you very far, though. You really need to have your thinking hat firmly attached to your noggin to link all the clues, and it will still be a rather long time before you manage to get the Novabomb and triggers together, never mind stopping the comet. If you have a lot of things to centend with in life – kie work, eating and sleeping – then think twice before you play Damocles, as these things will almost certainly be ignored!

JUDGEMENT
After the incredibly long wait, the inevitable doubts about how good the game would avtually be began to creep in. The original Mercenary and the Escape from Targ extension were hailed as ground-breaking games and managed to secure their place in the software hall of fame. So how does Damocles compare (doubts not withstanding)? You can all breathe a sigh of relief, since the answer is most definitely ‘very well indeed’. Paul Woakes has included all the aspects that made Mercenary such a hit along more additions than anyone could have hoped for. The solid 3D works brilliantly, the vast playfield is just begging to be explored and the puzzle element is conductive to long hours sat in front of the monitor. Even in this day and age, with a myriad of 3D adventure games vying for the public’s attention, Damocles is a shining island gem in the software sea. If you are not convinced, then try it as soon as possible – here our case rests.

GRAPHICS 8
SOUND 3
INTELLECT 8
ADDICTION 8
OVERALL 92%

I HAVE been late for appointments before, but four years is stretching it a little. Still, this is roughly the time that has expired since the president of Eris sent out a call for help, before you crash landed on Targ. Four years after the events of Mercenary and the Second City, you are back on course to Eris, answering the plea for help from the doomed planet. Of course you probably finished Mercenary a long time ago, and have to spend the rest of the time waiting in hyperspace for Paul Woakes to finish Damocles, the solid 3D polygon successor to Mercenary.
And now he has, but was it worth the wait, and is the game worth all those 90 per cent plus reviews that hordes of other magazines give to an unfinished game? Read on and see.

Travelling to Eris reaveals the same dull control panel used all those years agom, which is fine for continuity’s sake, but scores nil points for style. Sadly, the very same squeaky sound effects have also been lovingly dusted off and represented for your dismay.
Never mind, once you land on Eris things start to look up, and not just at the stars. Landing at the spaceport reveals a solitary structure with a car outside. Your key is inside the building, along with directions to the president’s apartment block.
A nice drive follows as you navigate down, a road towards the apartments and your long-delayed appointment. You can, of course, simply not bother going but head off in any direction you like, admiring the flat and barren landscape.

Obviously there were not any overcrowding problems on Eris because even the cities consist of great empty tracts rather than cosy suburbia or densely-packed and decaying innter city. This rather detracts from the game, giving it a lifeless and empty feeling. Of course there are not any citizens around either because they have all been evacuated or fled.
Why? You find that out when you converse with the president’s voice in her office. The comet Damocles is heading this way, and in only three hours will impact the planet, utterly destroying it – well, what do you expect when you name a planet after the goddess of discord?

A timer counting down adds to the tension, but the fact that the spaceship you are given by the president is capable of interplanetary flight, making escape at any time, possibly tends to reduce it considerably. What you are doing is rescuing an empty planet from destruction. The president offers you a bagful of cash, and sends you off to a professor’s lab, as he was working on a solution before you arrived. Apparantly, he had found one, and then disappeared without trace. One fast flight over pancake land alter, and you can investigate further, as clues are proferred, along with the method of destroying the comet. You want bombs and explosives, and are set on a trail to follow.
This trail will lead you through a mere 20 per cent of the gameworld, so there is plenty more to explore. It is not pointless exploration either, as there are apparently numerous ways in which to rescue Eris if you should chance to find them or think of alternatives. Either way, finding the teleports that allow you to travel from planet to planet without time-consuming spaceflight is essential.

While the flight aspects of the game are undeniably very fast, they are so because of the simplistic nature of the planet. No ther moving objects (save planets), flat and empty landscapes, and buildings which appear half sized rather than growing from a small blur.
Inside the various buildings it is Freescape time, with exactly the same lumbering movement, and exactly the same blank painted walls. This is allied to a message and document reading interface which can only be described as tedious.

So four years on, has it been worth the wait? Does Damocles deserve the rave notices it has attracted? Is it worth shelling out £24.95 for?
Well, if you like Freescape-style games, with an unfolding plot, a chance to try out alternatives that are not signposted but may work, and some very fast flying thrown in just to keep things moving, then yes it is worth buying.
I do not think Damocles is worth the 90 per cent scores though. I am not impressed with a product that has taken nigh on four years to complete, and with its barren and empty atmosphere, not interested enough to play it in my spare time either.
Duncan Evans