Deuteros (Second Review)


Title           Deuteros (Second Review)
Game Type       Management Sim
Players         1
Compatibility   Not AGA
Submission      Andy Thomas (andy@adamantium.demon.co.uk)

Review
The other person that reviewed this game mentioned in his review that he'd
have liked someone else's view point on the game.  As this is, in my
opinion, one of the best game concepts I've come across, certainly for the
old Amiga 500, I'm happy to oblige.

In Deuteros you start at a point where mankind has reached rock bottom.
In order to reach the stars once more, you have to train technicians and
scientists so that you can start the rebuilding process.  Even at this
most basic stage there are great little touches.  For example, in the
training room there's a light switch that works.  It sounds ludicrous, but
it's those little points of detail that show me that a game hasn't been
trotted out just for the sake of it. Anyway, from your humble beginnings
you use a shuttle to piece together an orbital station, and build what I
think was called an IOS - an Interplanetary Operations Ship.  You can then
revive an abandoned moon base.  Somewhere along the line your scientists
come up with an invention which needs a new mineral.  Resources play a
very important part in the game, and we're not talking just "minerals"
here.  We're talking iron, silver, hydrogen, titanium and many others.  So
at this point you're stuck because neither the Earth nor the Moon mines
this mineral you need.  As it turns out, your scientists have invented a
grapple which you can build. So what do you do?  Well, you fit it onto an
IOS, along with a couple of cargo pods (an IOS had 3 equipment bays and
you could swap out payloads like the real Space Shuttle) and go looking
elsewhere until you find the appropriate mineral.

From that point on you can start expanding - at least until you meet the
opposition!  If I remember rightly, there were 2 ways to encounter them -
you either meet them in an aggressive way, or in a friendly way which
allows you to trade with them for resources.  Up until a point, anyway.

I described above how resources were vital, and that cargo pods played a
part in the game.  Well, initially the only way to get materials up to the
orbital factory is to load the pods yourself. Now obviously this would
have gotten incredibly boring.  However, just as you're getting ticked
off, your scientists find a way to automate the whole process.  You simply
set instructions for what mineral you want brought up; you either equalise
amounts between the 2 destinations, or have everything brought up from the
service.  When you build more orbital factories, IOSs with 3 cargo pods
form shuttles with larger capacities for interplanetary mineral transport.
Later still... well, that would be telling!

The sheer scope of the game was very impressive.  I'd assumed that it
would stop once you had the solar system, but that's just the end of part
one!  Part two is where the real fun begins, as you find the plans for a
SCG - Star Class Galleon.  This is also the point at which a mysterious
third party appears, which is the key to a final resolution of the game.

This really was a game that grabbed you and didn't let go.  My family
didn't see a lot of me during the holiday season when I bought the game!
Sadly when I decided it might be nice to play it again I couldn't find it.
Perhaps I sold it, or perhaps some kind soul from my local computer club
stole it.  It was a great pity either way. There was always one piece of
the puzzle I could never quite finish, and that was the pirates issue.  I
had the prison pod, but I could never figure out how to get them into it.
If anyone has the key I'd love to hear what it was; I asked years ago on
the newsgroups but no-one seemed any wiser than me on the subject.  Oh,
and what the hell was that jukebox thing for?!!




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