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Domark, £10.99 cass
Author: Software Technicians

Placing you in the role of world famous secret serviceman James Bond, A View to a Kill pits your wits against the evil Max Zorin in a battle strung out over three programs. A View to a Kill is a three-games-for-the-price-of-one jobbie. There are three different scenarios leading up to the final battle. The first takes part in a mine beneath silicon valley. Max Zorin, villain of the
Eiece, has planted a nuclear Dmb underneath the San Adr-eas fault. The idea is that when the bomb explodes the whole of silicon valley, containing 90% of the world's chip production, should vanish into the Pacific. Zorin himself owns chip produc-tion complexes across the world
and with Silicon Valley gone the market would be open for Zorin to charge any price he wanted.
For tne mine sequence you control Bond via the joystick in an arcade adventure scenario. Travelling through a vast system of caves flip screen style. Bond has many tasks to accomplish on his way to defusing the bomb. Most useful item to be collected is the grapnel gun. More than likely you'll find your-self tumbling down ravines and cliffs. After brushing yourself down, the only way back is via your grapnel gun. Found on the very first screen, you're lost without it.
A View to a Kill includes real adventure elements Com-mands are made entirely via the joystick without need for text input. The system for command input is called the duckshoot. If you press fire the game freezes and you have control of the duckshoot. There are two levels you can use, similar in a way to most adventure's verb/noun command structure. Move the joystick left or right to select and object, press fire then move the joystick to select the action. If the action doesn't warrant an object, for example the command SEARCH, then press fire when you enter the object duckshoot. As you collect items they are added to the item duckshoot with new objects being placed at the front of the list.
A series of puzzles are set. For starters you need to free May-day. Zorin's ex-girlfriend. Mayday can help you defuse the bomb by winching you down into the bomb pit. The trouble is Mayday has been left to die behind a wall deep in the bowels of the mine. To free her you need to find the lighter and some sticks of dynamite. Once you've found the wall that requires dynamiting, first use the dyna-mite and then the lighter, and the resultant blast is enough to release Mayday.
The second game, Citv Hall, has Bond trapped within the Los Angeles City hall while a fire is burning the place to the ground. Starting at the top floor, you have to work your way down through the seventy five roomed building to reach the bottom right hand corner. Though the pace is not as fast as the mine sequence, mindwork plays a more important rote. The input method is the same as is used in the mine using the duckshoot.
On the final game, the Paris Chase, Bond must capture Mayday who has just para-chuted from the top of the Eifel Tower. Seeing Mayday soar across the Paris skyline. Bond comandeers a taxi. The game shows a plan view and a wind-screen view through Bond's taxi. Mayday lands randomly at one of eight sights around the capital. Using a directional beeper. Bond must reach Mayday s landing point before she does and avoid the local constabulary on the way.

CRITICISM

A View to a Kill on the Amstrad is, admittedly, a lot better than its Commodore and Spectrum cousins though I'm afraid that's not really saying much. Even though you get three games for the price of one the value for money isn't really all that wonderful since many budget titles show a much higher standard of production. After all the hype and build up, this program is a real let down. I'm afraid the only point I could see in its favour was the music on the title screen. This is honestly some of the best music to date on the Amstrsd but you can't really justify the price tag for a nice Duran Duran's album is a four pounds cheaper.

After some of the most impressive music I've heard on the Amstrad Duran Duran's View to a Kill) I loaded the first part of the game in. After what seemed an eter-nity, the game started ... I sat back, stunned, at what seemed like a squidgy mess filling the screen. After making sure that the game hadn't crashed I real-ised that in fact it was a rather gaudy 3D maze. After playing the game for a while boredom set in, after all 3D maze games are a bit passe nowadays. The other two parts were in the same class, with very poor graphics, sound and gameplay. Although it can be argued that this pack-age contains three separate games for the price of one they are all rather sub-standard. Personally I'd prefer one good game to three poor ones and a good bit of music.

The only thing that really struck me about this game was the music, probably the best yet on the Amstrad. Otherwise it's a segu-ence of three fairly mediocre game, the best one being the mine game. The action tends to be slow, the graphics are poor and unimagmiative. The car chase is very silly, there you are roaring through Paris with a '3D' representation of the road ahead which just shows wall after wall. Yet on the aerial map above, you can see little cars which you are supposed to avoid, they never appear on the main display, why? I sometimes think the programmer was too lazy to finish the job. A shame really because a great deal more could have been made of the subject, instead one feels that the subject has been left to make the game.

Presentation 78%
Nice loading screen/music, okay box, but rest disappoints.

Graphics 59%
Lacking in detail and 'believability'.

Sound 83%
Great music, pity about the weak spot FX.

Playability 61%
Apart from the mine sequence, not particularly playable.

Addictive qualities 43%
The game has little to grab you.

Value for money 28%
Three poor games aon't add up to two quid over the odds.

Overall 45%
A generally disappointing game, after hoping for a lot more.