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 FLOOD

 FLOOD is an arcade game written by Bullfrog Productions and published by
Electronic Arts. It offers fine graphics and animation, excellent sound
effects, 42 levels, password feature, joystick control, and copy
protection. The Atari ST version is the basis of this review, and you'll
need 512K, a color monitor, and a 720K disk drive. The double-sided game
disk can be read by a single-sided drive but the title sequence and opening
music will be missing.

 Bullfrog's first effort, the incredible POPULOUS, won lots of awards and
landed on many Top Ten lists. Unfortunately, Bullfrog has either exhausted
its supply of brainpower or wasted too much time listening to Jeff Healey
and Metallica jams: Little more than a game of ladders and platforms, FLOOD
tags the Bullfrog team with the sophomore jinx. The best part of FLOOD is
the digitized sound, which is most excellent. FLOOD looks and plays okay,
even though level changes occasionally caused the game to bomb out.

 The main character is Quiffy, the lone survivor of a race called
Blobbies, and his sojourn into upward mobility begins when he learns that
the caverns in which he lives are flooding. The object of the game is to
guide Quiffy through the 42 levels and reach the surface. On each level you
have to collect trash, deal with various creatures, and find the end of
level teleporter, which will transport Quiffy to the next level.

 The ST screen display consists of the cavern for the current level, which
scrolls in the cardinal directions based on Quiffy's movements. Below the
action display are oxygen and life force bars, and score and trash
counters. When Quiffy goes underwater, he loses oxygen, causing the bar to
shrink. When oxygen is gone, the life force bar starts to shrink, and when
it is gone, Quiffy will lose one of his three lives.

 The trash counter counts down as Quiffy collects trash, and when he's
collected all that he must for that level, he must locate and enter the end
of level teleporter, which is not to be confused with the in-level
teleporters that zap Quiffy to another part of the current level.

 Weapons include grenades, flamethrowers, delayed-action dynamite, and
boomerangs. Items include barrels, cocktails, orange cans, and parachutes.
Creatures include the ghost of Quiffy's aunt (no kidding!), psychotic teddy
bears, sparkling fungi, bulbous-headed Vongs, and vacuous gombos. Most of
these creatures aren't particularly clear when they are onscreen.

 FLOOD is controlled with the joystick. The stick moves Quiffy
directionally, but in an oddball way: He kind of falls on his face then
stands upright and walks. He also sticks to and walks on walls and
ceilings, and swims. The button fires the current weapon, which is not
carried over to a new level. Keystroke "P" invokes the pause feature; "R"
restarts the current level, knocking off a Quiffy-life in the process.

 The FLOOD package comes with one 720K disk that's copy-protected and
readable by 360K drives, and a poster-size instruction sheet. There will be
a documentation check. Technically there is no save option; some levels
have a question mark which, when you guide Quiffy over it, provides a
password for that level. Enter this password when you reboot and you can
begin play at that level.

 FLOOD looks as good as any ladders and platforms game and it plays easily
enough with the joystick. The digitized sound effects are most notable: The
clinks and clanks, exaggerated drips and flowing water, occasional voices,
and explosions are all clear and distinct. Repetitious sounds or a series
of different sounds jam up the speaker, cutting them off early and letting
you "hear the loop." This "looping" effect isn't necessarily Bullfrog's
fault: the speaker in the ST's monitor is the problem, and not inefficient
coding. Quiffy's ability to walk on walls and ceilings is most helpful,
especially with the flood thing happening.

 Bullfrog knows how to program an ST, and I'm not at all knocking the
group's individual or collective talents. I do have a question, though: At
what audience is FLOOD aimed? Five-year olds, unless they're exceptionally
quick with a joystick -- playing Nintendo 18 hours a day doesn't mean
anything -- will promptly become neurotic and have to live out the
remainder of their lives in quiet desperation; fifteen-year olds are more
interested in VIGIJERK or RENEGEEK; and adults, well, only Satan knows what
they want and in any case it can't possibly be FLOOD.

 FLOOD reminds me most of SKATE OR DIE, not because of any similarity
between the two but because the intended audience for each game puzzles me
greatly. No skateboard thrasher would be caught dead playing SKATE OR DIE,
so I could never figure out who the game was written for. FLOOD seems too
difficult for youngsters and anyone older than that is going to sneer at a
character named Quiffy who comes from a race of Blobbies. However, based on
the great success of POPULOUS and the obvious talent of the Bullfrog group,
FLOOD deserves a playtest.

 FLOOD is published and distributed by Electronic Arts.