Caves Of Doom

Copyright : Mastertronic | Reviewed by : Malc Jennings

You are imprisoned in caves deep within the bowels of Doom. To escape you must find 5 keys, one of which is in three pieces, which are hidden in thirty caves but the Lord of Darnkess is sure to keep you trapped for ever...or is he?

That is how Mastertronic introduced you to this platform adventure, now follows our review.

Graphics

Caves Of Doom is one of those games that shows it?s age the moment it loads, graphics are fairly basic and colours are pretty much restricted. The game itself looks almost like it was written in MODE 0 (for those not in the know this is a seriously chunky screen resolution) and if it wasn?t for some of the in-game objects width I would have been convinced of this.

It does have some very interesting and well designed cave layouts that often have you scratching your head and wondering how the hell do I get out of this one - exactly what the game is supposed to go. There are plenty of enemies to avoid on your travels too and it ranges from a walk in the park to a walk down death row in a matter of seconds, all very well designed and though out.

Sound

Sound is very basic indeed, there is no introduction music or for that matter any music at all to listen to while playing or waiting to play the game. The in-game sounds are fairly quiet though they are in the background somewhere, we had to switch the amplifier up to hear many of them which on a real CPC would be almost impossible to hear at all due to the tiny speaker.

This does work well in some respects though as you turn the volume up expecting silence and then hear a loud thud when you loose one of your lives - certainly gave me a shock!

Gameplay

The idea of the game sounds simple enough but as you should all be aware right now those that seem simple usually end up being the most complicated and annoying games on the market. The main hero in Caves Of Doom gets around the level be either flying in a rocket powered jet pack or walks along the platforms while trying to avoid anything on the level except the floor and walls - very tricky and in the first instance slightly annoying.

It certainly isn?t an awful game as we have seen plenty of those since opening CPC Zone and playing games back in the day our beloved machine was on top form but it?s not that great either and I for one expected much more from a Mastertronic licensed title, the game was developed by Mr Chip so maybe they should be blamed for the games mistakes.

Caves Of Doom is simply a hit and miss game that can afford to either be in your collection or left where it is.