Strangeloop

Copyright : Virgin Games | Reviewed by : Ritchardo

The massive, desolate factory that services the Earth orbits silently in the dark wastes of space. Strange things have been observed from Earth, very strange indeed as there are no humans on the factory, it is maintained and controlled by a clever series of robots, programmed only to serve.

How could the robots possibly be sabotaging happenings on Earth unless they are somehow reprogrammed? Intrepid investigation is the only way to find out exactly what is going on? and it must be you!

Programmed by the same team who brought us the classic Sorcery, The Gang of Five return with Strangeloop.

Graphics

Similar in essence to the graphics of Sorcery, Strangeloop adapts the medieval look of the earlier game and gives it a more clinical and futuristic makeover. The basic principles are the same but they are far from identical.

The black backgrounds are a little disappointing and there is a sense of repetition about the layout and contents of the screens so that although there are 250 locations I dare say that more than one of them are direct carbon copies of another - to be expected in any game particularly one of the age of Strangeloop.

The game moves at a fair pace and there are no noticeable slowdowns to adversely affect the action which can often be fatal in a game of this nature.

It?s not as graphically striking as Sorcery and it doesn?t have the same retro charm as something like Doors of Doom, so while they were probably state of the art and really impressive at the time, Strangeloop is not as memorable in terms of graphics as some of its contemporaries.

Sound

A little bit of a disappointment, there?s only a few spot effects to be heard in Strangeloop like the weedy gunshot of your pistol and the odd noise to accompany your death. They could and should have made more of an effort in this department (how many times have I written that I wonder?)

Gameplay

Thanks to the large number of locations, the initial appeal of Strangeloop is in the ability to explore the massive factory. The map is made up of a 25 x 10 grid and from your starting point somewhere in the middle, it?ll take a good couple of days solid playing to see most of what they came has on offer.

Once the novelty of the exploration wears off, you?re left with a complex arcade adventure that will take a long time to fathom and then an even longer time to master. There are a number of different hazards to traverse like crushers, robots and swarf - little pieces of junk that affect your spacesuit. To add to the mix, you have to manipulate other objects to help solve puzzles and provide supplies like fuel, oxygen and gun charges.

Another nice touch is the way that when you lose one of your lives, rather than restart the screen at a predetermined point, the game allows you to teleport your starting position on the screen which means that you wont lose a series of lives trying to get past one obstacle.

The game is strewn with examples of The Gang of Five?s sense of humour and the game doesn?t appear to take itself quite as seriously as Sorcery. Witness the messages that appear on the walls of some of the rooms. I?ll leave them for you to discover for yourself.

Much more difficult to get to grips with than Sorcery and a little daunting at first, perseverance soon pays off and you?ll be making inroads into this mammoth game. The difficulty curve is set pretty high though and you will die a 1,000 deaths before you come anywhere close to finding the heart of the complex.

A really tough challenge and one that will last a long time, Strangeloop is a bit of a forgotten gem and is well worth closer inspection.