Thrust

Copyright : Firebird | Reviewed by : Ritchardo

The resistance is about to launch a major offensive against the Intergalactic Empire. In preparation for this, they have captured several battlegrade starships, but they lack the essential power sources for these formidable crafts; Klystron Pods.

You have been commissioned by the resistance to steal these pods from the Empire?s storage planets. Each planet is defended by a battery of ?Limpet? guns, powered by a nuclear power plan. By firing shots at the power plant, the guns can be temporarily disabled; the more shots fired at the nuclear reactor, the longer the guns will take to recharge.

Missing out on a Mastergame by a whisker, Thrust was one of Firebird?s biggest selling hits.

Graphics

With a nod to the long forgotten arcade game Gravitar, Thrust doesn?t look particularly special now, looking back. While it?s safe to say that Thrust?s simplistic vector graphics were never going to push the CPC?s processor to the limits but for a budget game which relies so heavily on the gameplay element, they are perfectly functionable and acceptable.

The big advantage of using the vectors though comes in the speed of the game and it?s hard to imagine how the game could?ve looked any differently without affecting the way that it plays.

Sound

A jolly ditty plays when the game loads and while it?s perfectly acceptable it?s not really in keeping with the type of game and the sound effects used in the game are, again, absolutely fine particularly for what was a budget game on release.

Gameplay

A simple concept but one that soon proves frustratingly addictive, Thrust is on paper an extremely dull game. The process of flying around tight caverns shooting turrets and dragging pods away to safety doesn?t sound like my idea of fun but Thrust was a game that I spent many, many nights playing to death back in the day and soon found myself falling back into the same trap!

The hardest thing about the game is coming to terms with the control method. The process of your ship rotating on a clockwise and anti-clockwise basis and then shooting forward by using your thrusters is difficult enough to come to terms with but the real killer crux of the gameplay is the effect that gravity plays on the control of your craft.

And that?s about all there is to the game, there are gun turrets that you have to either avoid, shoot or deflect their bullets using your protective shield but the real challenge comes from getting the right degree of strength and direction in your controls.

The further you get into the game and the more features are thrown at you in an attempt to make you drop the pod and blow the task the most fiendish of which is the reverse gravity effect which really messes with your mind!

It doesn?t look much. And it doesn?t sound much. But once you give it a go, you?ll never look back.