Thrust II

C&VG (Computer & Video Games)

Graphics 4/10

Sound 2/10

Value 6/10

Playability 6/10

Lee Braithwaite

MACHINES: Spectrum 48/128 SUPPLIER: Firebird PRICE: £1.99 It's about six months ago that Firebird released Thrust, which became one of the best selling budget games in the past year. Now, Firebird has done the inevitable, and released a sequel, Thrust 2. The game plays in virtually the same way, only the storyline has altered by any great means. For those among you who like a story with your games, here's the one for this game. The Federal Resistance force has captured a small artificially created planet, which they plan to use as a base for the next offensive against the Empire. Unfortunately, the planet is covered with a red dust, which prevents life existing on the surface, and so you get the job of collecting some orbs from underground and bringing them back to the surface, to help purify the atmosphere. To make your life even harder than it already is, the orbs are unstable, and will explode after a short period of time, and android guards inhabit the underground caves. To complete the game, you need to collect 16 orbs in total, and then progress to another planet. The graphics, sound, gameplay, and control methods are all virtually the same as the original, although this is slightly harder. This means that the graphics are uninspiring, almost no sound, dull gameplay, and totally uncontrollable controls! Overall, if you liked the original, you may like this, otherwise steer clear even at two quid.

Crash

Presentation 64%

Graphics 45%

Playability 49%

Addictive Qualities 43%

Value For Money 54%

Overall 48%

Ben Stone

Mike Dunn

Producer: Firebird Retail Price: £1.99 Author: Andrew Rogers The ensuing battle between the Federal Resistance (hooray!) and the imperialistic Galactic Empire (boo, hiss!) is still raging. After the successful mission in Thrust you have once more been deemed fit to take on a new task; one that takes you to P2112, a planet captured by the Resistance sometime earlier in the war. The planet is atmospherically incomplete but the Resistance desperately it as a base, so your mission is to collect valuable orbs imperative for construction of a purification generator to clear the atmosphere. As in the original Thrust the player controls a small triangular ship which can be manoeuvred either clockwise or anti-clockwise and then thrust in the appropriate direction. The screen scrolls in any direction so your ship generally remains in the centre while the landscape moves around it. The first orbs are found on the planet's surface and provide manoeuvring practice before penetrating the underground city below. This is a vast underground network of tunnels and open caverns guarded by Imperial androids - colliding with either the walls or the droids automatically deprives the player of one of ten shields. There's a way in which to dispose of the androids - by using a chemical agent stored in boxes inside the planet. However, experimentation is necessary as not every chemical works with every android. As orbs are removed from their holders and collected they are carried along by a force field, represented by a dotted line suspended from the ship. As the ship thrusts the orb moves with the inertia created. An extra problem is that the orbs all vary in mass so each has a different level of inertia. If the orb is destroyed so is the ship and vice versa. The game finishes when the purification generator has been successfully built. COMMENTS Control keys: Q/W left/right, P to thrust, L to pick up orbs, Space to fire Joystick: none Use of colour: very limited Graphics: small and linear with very jerky scrolling Sound: poor Skill levels: one Screens: scrolling (of a sort) play area

The orbs to be found on the planet's surface are more for practice than anything else.

ZX ComputingZX Computing Globella

Overall Great

Firebird £1.99 Realising that they were onto a good thing with the success of Thrust, Firebird have gone for more of the same with Thrust II. The basic idea behind this game is the same as that of the original version: you are piloting a small spacecraft which has to collect a number of spherical objects and drop them at a certain point. The combined mass and inertia of the two bodies causes you all sorts of navigational problems, and the main challenge of the game is to master the skills required to steer your way through across the planet's landscape. In Thrust II there are one or two spheres on the surface of the planet, and these can be picked up quite easily just to get you started. Where the game differs from its predecessor is that the network of underground passages is larger and much more complex, and this time there are also a number of deadly alien robots patrolling the corridors and picking your way past these requires a great deal of concentration. You can pick up chemicals that will destroy these robots, but I'm having a hard enough time with the spheres so I haven't gotten the hang of that bit yet. Neither of the Thrust games exactly qualifies as a high speed arcade game but there is something about them which is highly addictive and quite challenging despite the simplicity of the basic idea. There's not that many good full-priced titles around at the moment, so if you're looking for something to tide you over the post-Christmas doldrums, Thrust II could be just the thing.

Your SinclairYour Sinclair Megagame

Graphics 8/10

Playability 8/10

Value For Money 9/10

Addictiveness 8/10

Overall 9/10

Gwyn Hughes 9/10

Firebird £1.99 Reviewer: Gwyn Hughes Life as a space pilot can be such a drag - and I don't mean dressing up in women's clothes! "Thrust!" they said; thrust, you did... only to find you were dragging a heavy pod after you, which did nothing for your craft's handling. Now it's time to Thrust some more, in this sequel to one of last year's most infuriatingly addictive tests of arcade steins. Rachael tied herself in knots - driven to new heights of obscene punning - to describe the excellence of the original... which is why it's me and not the dirty minded tottie doing this review. All is much the same in the furthest reaches of space, except that the Galactic Empire has gone one better than Barretts and is now building planets. P2112 is a des. res. with a difference - it's unfinished and hollow. You're looking for a place for the wife, kids and soldiers of the Federal Resistance, but you're a bit miffed by the cloud of dust which keeps P2112's weather on the cloudy side. Down in the cellar lie the components for an atmosphere purification plant though. If you get them to the right place on the surface before they reach critical mass and explode, you'll have a nice back garden after all. So it's out with the tow rope and back into a space ship which last saw life shooting Asteroids - that's to say it only boasts three controls. You can turn in either direction and thrust. Then there are two other keys, for picking up the orbs, and a fire button. Unluckily P2112's basement has been overrun by android nasties, who can be zapped, but only if you're in possession of the right chemical agent. The stuffs scattered around the planet and it's just up to you to find it. The other main difference from Thrust 1 is that the objects you're dragging are of different masses, so you can never be sure quite how much you'll be swung around until you've got something in tow. With 16 of the things littered on the planet surface and in the caves, there's a fair bit of work to do. All the playability of the original remains, though the corners of the caves are, if anything, even tighter now. The graphics are slightly less abstract too. But the plot variations make this a step forward, so trust Thrust to deliver the goods!

All the androids follow set patterns, giving you a chance to dodge them. But be careful if you've got an orb in two - it could slow you down as you try to glide past. Not the most elaborate space craft, but at least you've brought along a spare can of fuel this time, so the timer at the top only comes into play when you've got an unstable pod attached. It may look like a washing machine, but this agent will wipe out one of the androids. It's up to you to find out who though. And don't dawdle because the pesticides can run out before you use them. What have we here? Is it a gear shift? The handle of a fruit machine? In fact, it's a pod, just waiting for you to pick it up. But try not to swing it too much or it'll carry you into the walls.

Read it at Your Sinclair Rock'n'Roll Years

Sinclair User

Overall 5/5

Andy Moss 5/5

Label: Firebird Price: £1.99 Joystick: various Memory: 48K/128K Reviewer: Andy Moss Thrust II is, we reckon, the sequel to Firebird's megasuccessful budget throwback Thrust i. We're nothing if not on the ball at SU. Thrust II is not only as good as its illustrious predecessor, but I would say doubly difficult. Planet P2112 has finally been captured by the Federal Resistance Force (due no doubt to all our hard work fighting the dreaded Galactic Empire in the first game) and its position is perfect as a base for the next assault on you-know-who. There are problems however (there had to be otherwise there wouldn't be a game to play). As the planet has been artificially created, there is a thick dust cloud covering its surface, which has to be removed. This is done by an air purifier that works using energy orbs. These orbs, scattered all over the planet's surface and in the underground caverns have to be collected and deposited in the atmospheric processor. This, in turn, leads to two further problems. One is that, once the orbs are picked up (you do this via a tractor beam from your ship), they become live, and need to be deposited into the processor before they explode. The other is they are all of varying mass. This changes the business of steering/flying the inertia- affected ship from Thrust I - the reason the first game was so brilliant - from awkward to very awkward indeed. Couple this with the fact that you also have to deal with androids that can only be destroyed by chemicals that are hidden in boxes, and you have a bit of a game on your hands. There is just one more teeny weeny problem, and that is that only certain androids can be killed by certain chemicals, and guess what, you don't know which is which until you try it out. I'm willing to bet my whole software collection that no one, bar cheating, will finish this game inside three months. This is a truly testing game, for next to nothing, and I can't recommend it highly enough, (must be a bit of an exaggeration - Ed).