Review by Dale Wilks

Name:         Soul trap
Publisher:    Microforum
Format:       CD
Available:    out now

Requires:

O/S:          Windows 95
Processor:    Pentium 90+
RAM:          12Mb+
Graphics:     SVGA
CD-Rom:       X2
Soundcard:    All major soundcards supported

Tested on:

O/S:          Windows 95
Processor:    Pentium 120
RAM:          32Mb
Graphics:     SVGA 2Mb (Matrox Millenium)
CD-ROM:       X4
Soundcard:    Soundblaster AWE32 + Yamaha DB50XG
Controls:     Keyboard, Mouse

Soultrap

People often say that I'm mad. When they say that though, they don't mean 'You are inflicted with a psychiatric ailment which necessitates you to be detained in a suitable medical institution', they mean 'You are gifted with a quirky and unconventional sense of humour which is highly amusing and strangely attractive'. Not like Malcolm West; for sadly, he is a few bricks short of a load. Nutso. Bonkers. Stark, raving, round-the-twist, mad.

Malcolm is the star of Soultrap, a game where basically you must seek to free his tortured soul from the wastelands of his own mind; for Malcolm, the line between reality and illusion has blurred into obscurity, and (apparently) being trapped in your mind is the most frightening place that you can be. Personally, I would have thought that the Young Conservatives' AGM is the absolute worst place to be, but I'm prepared to be convinced otherwise.

The depths of Malcolm's insanity are depicted as sprawling levels of 3D platforms, and he must overcome the horrors which he dreams about every night to lay his fears to rest. Once he's done this on every level, that's it! He's a normal bloke again! (Although to be honest I'd question the mental stability of anyone that has rotating platforms in their head.) It is concluded that Malc's nightmares are rooted in the common phobias that plague people everywhere; a fear of heights, drowning, spiders, that bloke with the spiky hair from The Prodigy, that kind of thing.

The action is viewed from above and behind Malcolm, with there being several camera views. Using the mouse it is possible to rotate the 'camera' 360 degrees around and above him; indeed this is often necessary at times, in order to line up with a platform, see an object properly or whatever. Malcolm is quite the acrobat - instead of walking around the levels, he glides around them on a surfboard affair (Look, it's a dream, OK?) which can twist and move in mid-air. Quite handy really, as a lot of the time that's all there is between you and...the infinite chasm of cranial banality. Not only can he navigate the platforms with a dazzling display of aerial manoeuvre`s, he's also a bit tasty when it comes to wielding a .44. There are quite a range of weapons, starting with throwing knives and axes which later become missile launchers, plasma guns and the mysterious glazier. (Weren't they those clear mints?) The weapons are used to dispatch the various mummies, spiders and mechanical abstractions that do their best to make sure Malcolm stays trapped inside himself. Errr...blimey. Also, there are switches and targets that need to be activated before he can access some parts of the levels, and these are often out of reach so a quick blast from a handy gun does the job.

Platform games have been done to death, so does the extra dimension add anything new? Well, yes it does actually. Microforum have designed the levels as such that you often have to scale several of these floating platforms, and when you turn around and look down you realise just how far up you've climbed. If it was real life, you'd probably be suffering from acute vertigo. There is a problem with these huge jumps though; Malcolm doesn't cast any kind of a shadow, which makes life very hard when it comes to judging if you're actually over one or not. It's damn frustrating to find yourself falling to your death when you were sure you had that jump right, and here the perspective works against you. The other slightly odd thing is that when you fall you appear to 'hang' in the air - the backdrop doesn't scroll at all, and the camera follows Malcolm, so the only idea you have that you're dropping like a lead balloon is when Malcolm disappears off the bottom of the screen - it looks very odd. Fortunately everything moves smoothly, which makes gameplay nice and fluid, if not terrifically inspiring. It took me a while to get the hang of the controls, too - I had to use the mouse to jump, fire, and rotate the viewpoint, and the keyboard to move forwards, backwards and sideways. Took a while to co-ordinate that, let me tell you. I can see that some players could have a lot of problems with this.

The CD is an enhanced one, which means that the CD music tracks can be played in an ordinary CD player. Why you should want to beats me - it's not exactly top 40 material. It's sort of atmospheric muzak, which serves as an adequate audio backdrop for the game. Except for the music for level one - the first level is a training ground where you can get to grips with using a weapon, jumping, stuff like that. Apparently it reminds Malcolm of a military training ground, so the 'music' is typically shouting, chanting and stomping. Like wot they do at military training grounds. Anyway, the 'music' loops after quite a short time, so it soon gets repetitive. After a very short time it got right on my nerves, so off it went. I made do with the sounds of gunfire and assorted other audio cues, which, whilst adequate, won't set the world alight.

After a few levels though, I started thinking 'So...it's a platform game. In 3D. Erm...wow' ,and although there is variance in the enemies, weapons and graphical style, I soon got a bit bored really. Then there's the fact that the jumps are flippin' hard to judge, and combined with the awkward controls leaves you with a game that's not going to leave the shelf too often.

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Rating: 6/10 (fair effort!)
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