C&VG


Nuclear Embargo
By Micropool
Commodore 64

 
Published in Computer & Video Games #64

Nuclear Embargo

The time is the Twenty-First century. After many serious oil crises, energy production on the Earth has been switched to nuclear fusion, and Uranium has become a vital raw material.

Its scarcity on this planet means that new sources have to be located. The moons of Saturn proved a valuable source, and a trade agreement between the Earth and the wise Saturn Dictator, Rayol I, has been drawn up.

Unfortunately, because he is the ruler, he has demanded 1,000 Earthlings as payment upon delivery of the Uranium supply. Obviously, this request has been turned down by the Earthly Committee, and so Rayol has enforced an embargo on deliveries to the Earth.

Nuclear Embargo

Since we need Uranium to survive, a cloak and dagger raid is the only answer. Just don't call on Ronnie to arrange it...

As the pilot of this mission, you have been provided with a space rocket, warp boosters, and nine robots.

That is the basic storyline behind the latest game from a fairly new company, Eurogold, who released Mission Elevator a few months ago.

Nuclear Embargo

You may remember that this was a C&VG Hit!, and we said that if that was a sample of what was to come, we'd be in for a treat. Well, I'm sorry to say that Nuclear Embargo was a great disappointment to me, mainly because it was one of the most boring, monotonous, dull, unplayable (I think you must get the idea by now that I didn't like it!) games I've played for many a month.

There are various different elements to this game. Firstly, travelling from one Planet to another, locating the Uranium supply, transporting your robot to the surface, collecting the Uranium, transporting the robot back to the ship, and secondly, moving to another planet to repeat the process.

The plot is fairly unoriginal, the graphics are fairly run-of-the-mill, planet surface type, the views from out the window of your ship look like a screen shot from Codename Mat, and the robots look like reject Daleks!

Nuclear Embargo

The sound, what there is of it, is well below average for the C64, with better quality explosions coming from the Spectrum.

There is no title, or in-game music. There is a loading screen, but it looks like a four year-old grabbed a joystick and fiddled about with it for five minutes.

This, to put it in layman's terms, is quite simply, one, if not the worst game, I've played this month and even at two pounds, it would be doubtful as to whether it would get a good review.