Cybercon III

Title		Cybercon III
Game Type	3D Adventure
Players		1
Compatibility	Not AGA but patch available Bert Jahn's WHDLoad page
HD Installable	With patch
Submission	angus@angusm.demon.co.uk

Review
Cybercon III is unusual because long before the likes of Doom came along,
it offered a game where the player found himself moving through a complex
of rooms and corridors, shooting and being fired upon, from a first
person perspective. In truth though, the game has very little else in
common with Doom.
The basic idea is that the central computer of your defence network
(Cybercon III) thought it would have a go at running things itself, and
you`ve been selected to infiltrate the complex, in a powerful armoured
prosthetic suit, (rather like a small Mechwarrior) fight off the hordes of
guardian robots and shut down the main computer itself. Piece of cake.
It`s more complex than this though; your suit has a number of functions,
each of which expends power, so you`ll be spending a certain amount of
time collecting power cells dropped by robots that you`ve destroyed. Your
suit has four power unit modules, and so if you`re exploring, you may just
opt to have two active, leaving two in reserve, ready to kick in should
the need arise to make a lethal response, or indeed a hasty getaway.
Wandering around living off other people`s power cells may not sound a
huge amount of fun, but there is a recharging device near the start of the
game, and better than that, very occasionally you`ll find fusion units
that can generate their own power while they are off-line, and this pretty
much grants you power independence.
A vital piece of equipment is your electronic tool which allows you access
to various areas, but until you`ve collected the symbols that your key
uses, many of these areas will remain off limits.
The game area is huge, and there are a wide variety of locations, ranging
from vast open areas to networks of corridors. Oh yes, and lots of lifts.
It`s cunningly designed as well, sometimes you`re treated to a tantalysing
glimpse of an area that you can`t yet access, and there`s one particular
section where you have to configure your suit for maximum mobility and
leap from one tower to another in order to cross ahuge chasm. If you don`t
succeed, and you do miraculously manage to survive the fall, you won`t
believe what`s waiting for you down there. Hint: You won`t like it.
Your opponents themselves come in a varity of flavours and sizes. There
are the ones which roll around, looking like the cotton reel tanks you
might have made as a child, there are those funny-looking things, that
look rather liked a ground variant of the alien craft, in "War of the
Worlds" and there are the Angels, but they definitely aren`t angelic.
The more I think about the game, the more impressed I am with what it
offered. It can be frustrating initially, but it forces you to think
methodically how best to utilise your equipment and manage your resources.
Like many of my favourite games, it pretty much transcends the usual game
categories, you`ll find adventure, action, resource management and even
platform styles here. The bottom line? A beautifully designed game, that
succeeds in delivering highly absorbing gameplay.

Alphabetical list.