Mindwalker (Third Review)


Title           Mind Walker (Third Review)
Game Type	General Action
Players		1
Compatibility	All
HD Installable  Yes
Submission	Paul Threatt

Review
I played around with this game when I was in 8th grade on my Dad's Amiga.
I liked moving the guy around and zapping things. Standing under the
pyramid was just a way to change character for me, similar to choosing
"Elf" in the arcade game, Gauntlet. Every once in a while, I'd notice
that my character was leaving a trail of black boxes. It was confusing
but fun, and I really liked the music.

The basic premise is that you're in someone's brain, repairing damage of
some sort. The surreal landscape could be the subconscious realm of the
patient. If you looked at the "map", you would see a field of colors with
a few important areas designated. All I can remember is that the
"morphing pyramids" were indicated on the map, as well as some sort of
"start" and "finish" points. I can't remember what they look like on the
map, but in the 3D realm, they were flashing squares.

When you stood on the starting point, you'd see this grand display with a
cool sound, signaling that you were starting to repair a connection. From
that point on, you would leave a trail of small black squares. One each
for each of the landscape squares. as you left them, tones would sound
your progress. The premise leads me to believe that you were beginning to
repair the connections between neurons in the brain. I can't remember all
the characters that you could pick when under the pyramid, but one was
"Spriggans". I think the others were a wizard, a girl, and some robust
guy or something.

Anyway, the colored areas on the map were assigned to these characters.
When you began making the connections between flashing squares you'd need
to change characters and pick up the trail where you left off. Different
characters could only leave a trail in their respective colored zones.

Once a connection was completed, you'd fall down some sort of tunnel from
a first-person point of view. I don't know what this was, but by
intercepting one of the rectangles falling towards you, you'd end up in a
2D environment. I get the feeling that this is how you exit out of the
body you just fixed. Using an audible "heart beat" as a detector of sorts,
you had to navigate the 2D area and find something that symbolized the
exit. On your way, you had to be careful of "antibodies". If they touch
you, they can kill you. With a slurping sound, they would eat away your
life and make you start the level over. More importantly, you had to make
sure you didn't touch the cell like structures that were the barriers of
the maze. These "neurons" carried a charge and would randomly activate in
waves. If you were touching or going through one when they were charged,
you'd die. Going through one was necessary when you found the exit. The
exit is always surrounded by a bunch of cells and you had to guess when to
go through. As soon as you get to the exit, the level is over, and you're
rewarded by a message from your patient. After the first level, the
"reward message" is intentionally childish and poorly rendered. This
shows the current state of your patients health. As you go on, the
messages become more coherent and meaningful, indicative of a repaired
brain. This is futuristic brain surgery, after all.

Repeat this journey four or five times and you've got a healthy patient
who's back on his feet. Along the way, your enemies become faster and more
aggressive. you'll be dashing across the screen just trying to avoid the
attacking gray shapes.





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