It'd be pretty worrying if, whilst munching your way through an early morning bowl of Honey Nut Loops, you received a letter from the future informing you tht you are about to be transported through time and space, on a top-secret mission to rescue the important Mr. Yai and save the planet of Andromeda.
In the real world as we know it this is very unlikely to happen, but in the made-up fantasy world of computer games it could well take place. In fact it just has, and in an icon-driven role-playing adventure sort of way. At first glance you probably won't see much, as everything is extremely small, including your character and objects which are so tiny that they're not even shown. The scrolling really is an embarrassment too. But graphics aren't what's important here - it's gameplay.
And luckily the gameplay is far more complaint-free. The trick, you see, is to build up your powers, use objects and puzzles to negotiate your way through the huge playing area - without (naturally) doing something stupid, such as falling from a bridge or getting yourself attacked by other characters. Partially you want to avoid being attacked because the fight sequences are so crap, and partially because, since you don't have 'lives' as such, a lot of save-gaming has to take place as insurance in case you get hopelessly killed.
However, let's not be too picky. When all is said and done, I rather enjoyed Chaos. There's far more to it than I've got room to mention here. Take the robots, for example, which you move about as separate characters. I haven't got room to mention them. Nor can I squeeze in a word or two about the considerable interaction with other characters. I'd love to go on and on for ages (more money, you see) but I won't. I'll stop there, and think of something to put in the Bottom Line box.
1st August 1991
