Wow, despite being an assertion verging on understatement, it seems ironically appropriate to proclaim that Breathless is going to be as significant and as important to the Amiga of the Nineties as the Juggler was to the Amiga of the Eighties.

If you're new to the Amiga or don't know what I'm referring to, here's a brief explanation. The Juggler was a ray-traced animation of a rotund figure juggling some light-sourced balls which reflected the surrounding environment. Nothing like it had ever been seen before on a home computer.

The Juggler single-handedly, so to speak, turned on thousands of adventurously curious types and tuned them in to the arcane lore and heady world of the Amiga. Consequently, the machine sold in droves and went on to become the resounding success that it is today.

Breathless, meanwhile, has the potential locked within its exquisitely crafted code to repeat history. But rather than selling Amigas - which it will as a matter of course - Breathless is more likely to sell accelerator cards by the bucket load. For it is a walking, talking, singing and dancing tribute to the potential and power than lies within the heart of an accelerated AGA chipset Amiga.

In effect, it's probably the most opportune and timely advert for the potential of our underrated vanilla chum ever seen. At a stroke it casts aside the imagined inferiority complex the Amiga's been suffering from for the past year or so concerning the higher profile PC and Mac platforms.

What Doom does on the PC using brute processing power, Breathless does on the Amiga using optimised elegance. Except, Breathless does it better.
Elegance is the keyword here. Elegance and design and Amiga friendliness. The detail and size of the playing screen can be optimised to the processor used and the memory available. You'll always be able to find a detail/window size versus running speed compromise without affecting the gameplay.

The 2 * 2 pixel mode resembles the look of Alien Breed 3D and, just like Breed 3D, Breathless is great to play in this screen mode. But, if you've got an accelerator installed, the difference between the 2 * 2 and 1 * 1 mode resembles the difference between squinting myopia and pin sharp focus.

Making the switch has a profound effect. It's like taking the jump from a cartoon world into temporal, in yer face, reality, And, if you like recreationally tinkering with your perception, you'll be mightily impressed verging on 'Breathless' by the difference the change makes.

Breathless tunes into, tickles, thrills, titillates and teases your brain's inbuilt reality construct; a construct that's been created, shaped and solidified since you first learned to grasp an object in front of you.

When the hand/eye coordination adjustment to Breathless is made, you'll find yourself doing ridiculous things, like trying to peer round corners, squinting to see what's up ahead in a poorly lit room, become illogically pensive when faced with a dark corridor. Such is the power of the game to affect you on a subliminal and direct level.

It's also why the game's so compulsive. Despite following a formulaic game plot of finding keys to open doors, wasting nasties who get in your way, and picking up health, energy and shield icons, the environment and creatures change enough to keep you permanently interested and curious to see what's up ahead.

Furthering the sense that you're treading in a parallel world consisting of its own laws of physics reality and danger is the clever use of lighting.
Flickering lights on some levels add to the spooky unsettling effect of seeing a behemoth shambling toward you; gun fire lights up the immediate surroundings; light floods into dark rooms when you open doors. Terrific stuff.

The use of lighting might sound cosmetic, but internally your brain is registering the light levels on a subliminal level and in creating an immersive parallel cognitive gestalt that not only appeals to the player on a mechanical level, but interfaces directly with their emotional responses. Scary, though not as scary as some of the creatures themselves.

The creatures found within the confines of the Breathless Arenas are assigned varying artificial intelligence levels. Some will stay within a certain zone. Others attack you on sight. Yet others try to shoot you while dodging your return fire.

At first it makes some of them look a bit stupid: all they seem to do is run left and right. But when you think about what you're doing - dodging left and right to avoid incoming fire - it makes perfect sense for them to do likewise. It makes it harder for them to be hit and killed.

As for their look. They look the bit. Some are guaranteed to give kids nightmares. Especially the shambling simian monstrosity and the Aliens. They frightened me as they drained my shields and health at an alarming rate. It made it all the more gratifying when I put them out of their evil misery.

Even the structure of the game makes sense. There are four worlds consisting of five arenas to each world. You take on an arena at a time.
Each arena increases in size and, unlike Breed 3D, there's an automapping display to hand for navigation purposes; if you get lost, the tedium of traveling over old ground kept to a minimum.

The map even highlights the various terminals dotted around the arena. Which, as you might have guessed, is my cue to tell you about the terminals. They're where you spend your hard-earned credits. There are new weapons on sale along with upgrades, keys, energy, health and shields. Judicious use of the terminals can increase the chance of survival. Save your credits and spend them wisely.

Phew. We've almost made it to the exit in one piece. If you haven't sussed by now that Breathless has impressed me more than any Amiga game I've ever played on the Amiga. Throw a book of superlative at it and you'd still run out of praise for the game.

It plays sublimely. IT demands discipline and skillfull procedure from the player to make headway. It looks fantastic. It's exciting. It's scary. It's fun. It's a work of interactive art. It's brilliant.

At last the Amiga has broken through the 3D Doom engine barrier and proved itself capable of matching and beating machines costing multiples of its price. Things can only improve here on in. Its arrival couldn't have been more timely. Imagine you were trapped in a box canyon and surrounded by hostile Indians. You'd just fired your last bullet and the Indians were coming to get you. Just as you were about to throw the gun at the first Indian to appear you heard the bugle of the Seventh cavalry in the distance and the Indians scatted like the wing. Breathless is that bugle call.

There have been some many detractors of the Amiga around. So many people willing to pour scorn and derision on the machine and its market that at times it felt as if we were surrounded by hostile Indians.

If enough people buy Breathless and make the necessary upgrade to drive it at anything like its peak performance, other developers are going to want a piece of the action and make the Indians go away.

So go on. Do yourself a favour. Do your Amiga a favour. Do us a favour. Do the Amiga market a favour. Buy Breathless.
If the Amiga was compared to King Arthur, Breathless would be Galahad - the worthiest and most able champion in the land, It can't be recommended enough.

Tja, die Zeit bleibt halt auch für bzw. in Scroll-Labyrinthen nicht stehen, und was in diesem Genre am Amiga gestern noch top war, ist heute schon fast ein Fall für den Software-Friedhof. Am Ende stellen wir Euch daher zum Vergleich noch mal kurz alle einschlägigen Metzeleien für Eure "Freundin" vor.

Zunächst sollen aber die Schöpfer der aktuellen Gemäuer gewürdigt werden, schon weil die beiden Nationalteams hierzulande nahezu unbekannt sind: Fields of Vision kannte man hisher allenfalls in mediterranen PD-Zirkeln, und die Gentlemen von Power Computing beschäftigten sich früher ausschließlich mit der Verbreitung von Amiga-Hardware auf der britischen Insel.

Gemeinsam waren sie stark - stark genug, um so flüssig scrollende, zoomende und rotierende Kerker voller Monstrositäten auf den Amiga-screen zu hieven, daß beim Anblick vo Breathless selbst den alten Hasen im Gewerbe erst mal die Luft wegbleiben dürfte!

Der Grund dafür liegt erstaunlicherweise im Verzicht, nämlich dem Ver Verzicht auf Programmierkniffe aus der Demo-Szene, wie sie sonst gerne in diesem Genre angewandt werden. So sorgt etwa der Chunky Copper-Screen bei "Fears" oder "Gloom" für eine schnelle 3D-Optik, aber erkauft wird sie eben mit einer verhältnismäßig schlechten Bildqualität.

Die dabei im günstigsten Fall erzielbare Auflösung von rund 130 x 120 Pixeln stellt bei Breathless gerade mal das untere Ende der Fahnenstange dar; bei maximalen Grafikdetail werden dagegen 256 x 200 Bildpunkte berechnet - damit sind dann frei Auge (und bei gleichen Auflösung) tatsächlich keine Unterschiede mehr zur PC-Konkurrenz zu erkennen.

Die Kehrseite der Medaille besteht natürlich in der zwangsläufig erforderlichen Rechenpower: Ein AGA-Amiga ist hier ohnehin Pflicht, dazu gehört aber auch Fast-RAM, besser noch eine Turbokarte, sollen die Prachtdungeons nicht bloß träge vor sich hin ruckeln.

Eine vertretbare Alternative für die Besitzer eines Standard-1200ers besteht im Verkleinern des Sichtfensters, das dann ähnlich wie bei "Alien Breed 3D" von Zahnrädern und anderem grafischen Zierat umrahmt wird.

Die optische Minirevolution ändert freilich nichts daran, daß auch Breathless beim Gameplay grundsätzlich das alte Lied vom guten Söldner, seinen vielen Waffen und den bösen Monstern singt: Als Cyborg schleicht man durch ein verschachteltes Labyrinth, in dem Gegner aller Gewichtsklassen und Rassen auf die blaue Bohne mit ihrem Namen warten.

Die vier jeweils fünffach unterteilten Kohlenkeller sieht man dabei aus der gewohnten Egoperspektive, nur die sonst üblicherweise im Bildvordergrund agierende Waffenhand fehlt - aber zum Zielen genügt ein Fadenkreuz schließlich auch.

Die oft beklagten Blutbäder sind ebenfalls nicht zu befürchten, weil die feindlichen Terminator-Exoskelette, Fantasy-Aliens und Techno-Walker nun mal rein mechanische Eingeweide haben. Der Sammler im Jäger kommt selbstverständlich auch zum Zuge; die aufgeklaubten Munipacks, Energieriegel oder Goldmünzen tauscht er an den überall verteilten Shop-Terminals gegen Power-Ups, Schlüssel, Flammenwerfer, Plasma-Projektile oder alle zerstörende Smartbombs ein.

Die sechs verfügbaren Waffengattungen lassen sich jederzeit per Tastendruck wechseln, was in der Praxis auch sehr wichtig ist, weil die diversen Vernichterli für den Kampf gegen die verschiedenen Biester unterschiedlich gut geeignet sind.

Von selbst zielt allerdings keine der Wummen, und das hat sich auch bis zur Gegenseite herumgesprochen: Besonders beim Anvisieren von Feinden, die auf einer anderen Ebene herumspazieren als der Held, verstreichen wertvolle Sekundenbruchteile, die das angepeilte Objekt gnadenlos zum Angriff ausnützt.

Zudem ist der Munitionsvorrat begrenzt, so daß durchaus ein paar taktische Überlegungen fällig werden, bevor man hier enge Korridore betritt, weite Säle durchsucht oder sich in unübersichtlichen Treppenaufgängen bzw. Aufzugschlächten verbirgt.

Um so mehr freut sich der Weidmann da über die Unterstützung durch das Auto-mapping, die drei Continues und die Levelcodes, welche die aktuelle (Waffen-) Ausstattung gleich mit abspeichern.

Nachdem wir die Optik vorhin schon so lauthals gelobt haben, können wir uns nun auf ein paar kritische Anmerkungen zur Grafik beschränken. So hätte das mit dem Raytracing-Tool "Imagine" gerenderte Kanonenfutter ruhig ein bißchen vielfältiger sein und zudem etwas mehr Abwechslung in seine Angriffsformationen bringen dürfen.

An Originalität mangelt es auch den einzelnen Schauplätzen, die viele Teleporter, versteckte Räume und noch mehr reizvolle Grafikeffekte (z.B. Nebelbänke, vom Mündungsfeuer erhellte Flur, hübsch animierte Lavabecken etc.) beherbergen - doch gesehen hat man das alles eben irgendwie und irgendwo schon mal.

Der Unterhaltungswert von Breathless stimmt trotzdem, und das keineswegs nur aufgrund von Äußerlichkeiten. Ihren Beitrag dazu liefern auch die dramatische Begleitmusik und die mit der Situation wechselnden Sound-FX.

Und die flexibel an die Bedürfnisse des Spielers anpaßbare Tastatur-steuerung kennt alle im Kellerkampf üblichen Aktionen vom Seitenschleicher bis zur Beschleunigung mittem im Lauf.

Ein angeschlossenes CD32-Pad macht hier allerdings keine ganz so gute Figur, dafür geht die restliche Handhabung wieder voll in Ordnung: Die HD-Installation klappt schnell und einfach, beim Spielen von Floppy wird flott geladen, und lästige Diskwechsel bleben die Ausnahme.

Wer über genügend Arbeitsspeicher und Rechenleistung verfügt, darf Breathless zudem sogar im Multitaskingbetrieb zocken. Wie, das glaubt Ihr nicht? Dann besorgt Euch einfach den aktuellen Multimedia Joker, auf dessen Begleit-CD sich eine spielbare Demoversion findet.

Kurzum, hier haben wir spannendes Gameplay in packender Präsentation, aber dennoch kein Hit. Das mag zwar für die Hersteller betrüblich sein, doch können sie daraus für die Zukunft lernen: Bei aller technischen Innovation darf man eben die Eigenständigkeit des Spielkonzepts nicht ganz so sträflich vernachlässigen! (rl)

Now. You might be looking at these pictures and you might be saying this: "Those idiots at AMIGA POWER - they've accidentally gone and reviewed Fears again. Or perhaps Alien Breed 3D.". But you'd be wrong, so wrong, to think that.

This is Breathless, and it's the fourth (by my counting) serious attempt at doing Doom - but on the Amiga. And sadly for it, it's also a Doom - but on the Amiga to far. And at that you might be saying "But for why, Stuart? It looks smashing", and so here are the things I would say in response:

Picture the scene: you are the fourth attempt at doing Doom - but on the Amiga. You have previously see Gloom be fantastic and bloody, if perhaps a little heavy on the slaughter and a little light on the strategy (which is, in fact, perfectly fine, but that's another story).

You have previously seen Fears look very lovely indeed, but commit a series of idiotic sins and end up being a bit hateful. And you have previously seen Alien Breed 3D be Alien Breed - but in 3D. You're trying to think of an 'angle' with which to distinguish yourself from the competition, which you've had the luxury of checking out in great depth. You think, perhaps of this:

Well, for a start, all previous Doom - but on the Amiga games have been set in pretty much the same kind of scenario, and the corridors and rooms on some-sort-of-moonbase-and-outsdie-bits-with-laval-pits-in-them formula is getting a bit threadbare. Perhaps I could set myself in some new and exciting kind of place - Maybe a spooky mystery mansion (which would, let's face it, have a lot more reason for being stuffed with secret passageways and hidden rooms, for a start), or maybe a Vitorian sewer system populated by the ghosts of drowned construction workers, or even some kind of gigantic science-laboratory maze from which the player, as a much-experimented-on and pissed-off lab rat, is attempting to escape. For example.

Or, on the other hand, I could just rip off everybody else and be yet another spacestation potboiler with mutated human soldiers and aliens that look a bit like the ones in Aliens as enemies. Yes, that'll do.

MAGICAL MYSTERIES
That done, you begin to ponder the magical mysteries of making it good.

"Now, the really great thing about Doom, the thing that really made everyone fall for it, was that it had a believable atmosphere. That doesn't just mean that it looked realistic, but also that the enemies you found there behaved in a plausible manner - they were found in the sort of places you'd expect them to be found, they would wander around quite happily going about their own business until they noticed you (so you could sometimes sneak up and shoot them in the back) and then they attacked you in a vicious but convincing way, i.e. They sometimes missed.

Where something like Fears fell down was that the enemies were nearly always found just hanging around doors waiting for you to open them, or invariably all spotted you simultaneously the instant you walked into an area, as if they'd all been simply staring all day at the spot where you would arrive, and immediately slaughtered you in a withering crossfire of infallible pinpoint accuracy. I'd better be careful that, for example, my enemies don't behave in exactly the same way as that.

But wait a minute. That could call for some careful, painstaking design.
Actually, no, on the other hand I can't be bothered. I'll just stick 'em all behind the doors. It'll be harder that way, And to make it even harder, I'll make them attack by charging right up against the player regardless of how many times he shoots them, then shuffling round his body so that he has to slowly turn round, taking hits all the time before he can get them in his sights.

And I'll make sure there's nearly always three of four of them at a time, too, and with no auto rpeat on his guns, so he has to hammer the keyboard like a demented drummer with only one drumstick. And he won't be needing any of those fancy joystick or mouse control options, either."

HELLO GOODBYE
Right, you've got the difficulty sorted out. But there's more than one string to this particular bow - one of the best things about Gloom was its superb pacing How best to ensure that the game keeps rollicking along at a cracking rate, for that constant, exhausting, adrenalin-pumping excitement?

"Hmm, Tricky. It would be terribly easy to fall into the old trap of extending the game's life by forcing the player to constantly trek backwards and forwards over previously-explored and cleared terrain by, for example, putting switches at the opposite end of a level to the doors they open. Yes, that would be terribly easy."

But you can't, of course, just reduce the game to lots of aimless traipsing around occasionally interrupted by frantic bouts of keyboard-shattering gunfights. You'll need other stuff fo the player to do - treasure and weaponry to collect, secret stuff to find, all that malarkey.

"How hard can that be? The only way I could possibly mess it up would be to have, for example, weapons collected by buying them from a computer terminal, like some kind of absurd flamethrower vending machine, which is clearly a stupid idea compared to finding them lying around in the aftermath of a terrible alien invasion, or stealing them from enemies you've just killed. "

"Or by showing the locations of secret passages on the automatic map facility, somewhat defeating the object of their being 'secret' in the first place. Although that would compensate somewhat in the eventuality that, for some reason, you could only open doors and secret passages by standing infuriatingly squarely in front of them, which would otherwise make looking for secret entrances an extremely tedious and time-consuming operation I suppose."

Oh yeah. You have remembered the map facility, haven't you?
"Of course. What do you take me for the kind of idiot who would have a map facility that you couldn't move around in? For example."

Well, I think that's pretty much everything covered. With a bit of luck, there's just time to have a quick check for some of those obvious annoying flaws that sometimes sneak through at the end if you're not paying attention.

HELP
So: stupid, almost illegible copy protection that's actually easier to use after you've photocopied it?
"Check."

Lava pits that you can fall into but there isn't any way out of except dying?
"Check."

Long corridors lined on either side with lots of little vestibules that - shock! - enemies are hiding in?
"Check."

Bit where you have to jump-down a wall that you can't get back-up, but with no sign of whether or not going down might be a good idea?
"Check."

Fantastically irritating teleporters that transport you right back to the start of a level without any kind of warning, when you've just spent 20 minutes fighting your way through to them in the first place?
"Check."

Having no status screen at the end of each stage to let you know whether you've found all the secret rooms, killed all the enemies and so on?
"Check."

Only giving the player three lives, after which he must agonisingly re-do anything up to five previously-completed stages, since the game is constructed as four levels of five stages each, with passwords only available for each full level?
"Check."

Hang on. When you say "Check", you don't mean that you actually have included all these things, do you?
"Yes. Isn't that what you meant?"
Oh no! Your wife's going to kill you!