There comes a time in a programmer's life when there is no point trying to think up poignant storylines for games any more. Spinning endless yarns which span centuries becomes irrelevant as do your attempts to work your average gamer into a cold sweat before the game begins. Why bother with ecological disasters, space aliens who have travelled for millions of light years looking for a home, and the like?
Instead, why not have three intelligent rats mutated by an explosion on board of a supply ship, named them after famous scientists and let them go round wreaking havoc in outrageously armed vehicles? Why not indeed?
As you have already guessed, the three psychotic, not to mention badly named, rodents are there to do your bidding. They have to hack, grind and splatter their way to the sixth level to shut down the self-
The six levels are maze-
GWR presents nothing new to the seasoned gamer. It's just another angle on the genre of plan-view shoot-'em-ups. You control all three - although not all at once - and it is your job to go around the maze shooting anything and everything which should come your way.
The only new additions which set GWR apart from the run-of-
With the destruction of the suspiciously stupid minions comes money for you to spend on more bolt-on goodies. At the beginning and end of a level you have the opportunity to buy things for your ship. This section is mainly used for buying bigger and better guns for yourself but there are also energy pods and 'orbits' to be had.
Orbits are the things you commonly get in shoot-em ups, they spin round you and shoot or just blow things up when they collide with them.
If you are getting really short of ammo or energy when playing a level three are two things you can do. One, you can go back to the mother ship but this means you have to travel all the way back to where you started from or two, find a computer where you can stock up. The in-game computers aren't as detailed as some of the other games, and there's no sub game - always a nice little touch.
One of the best thing about the power-ups is that you can have a different configuration of weapons on all three of your ships. Of course youc an only buy what you can afford. The bigger the price the bigger the weapon.
There are six levels to the game, each of which is pretty hard to say the least. The vast majority of the alien force are a pushover but as the levels progress they become a lot tougher, shooting more homing missiles. That's one aspect I really did find attractive - the aliens aren't as badly equipped as they usually are. Most of the time they have what might as well be a pop gun compared to your whacking great cannons and homing missiles.
Some of the bigger roving alien ships possess homing missiles which can be a real pain in the backside but your main worry are the gun turrets in the floor of the maze. They can throw all sorts of nasty things at you.
GWR isn't what you'd call a complete stonker of a game, but the excellent gameplay does tend to make up for the weak points in other areas. If you like budget shoot-'em-ups then this would be a good buy. Have a look for yourself is what I say.
