A look back at an Amiga classicA couple of weeks ago now I took a look at Splat on the ZX Spectrum. At the time I wrote it wasn't a game I particularly liked as a child, but did find some respect for it's simplicity in the end. So I thought I would pick one of my favourites, something I hadn't played for a while and see what the rose-tinted glasses could do for me.
So I looked back to 1993, and a game on the Amiga which I really raved about at the time – Walker by DMA Design and published by Psygnosis. Probably one of their least recognised games, it holds a place in my teenage Amiga fanboy heart. I still have a boxed original upstairs in storage, I may never let it go.
I also had a few other reason for choosing Walker:
Reason 1: Psygnosis, were Liverpool based, and since Liverpool is now my home town I felt I had to represent.
Reason 2: Walker was developed by DMA Design, creators of Lemmings who are now known as the politician-baiting, GTA making group Rockstar North. Psygnosis later became the now disbanded Sony Studio Liverpool.
Reason 3: BIG STOMPY ROBOTS!
First off, a little of the background story. Only a little mind you as this plot is paper thin. The AG-9 Walker is being sent through time to destroy important military targets… And that’s it, there’s your story. There are 4 war zones, Berlin 1944, San Francisco 2019, Middle East - tonight, and The Great War 2420. Of course, being smack dab in the middle of a war means there’s a lot of fighting to do before reaching the target.
Rather unusually for 2D games, Walker moves right to left. If I remember correctly there was no technical reason for this, certainly I haven’t been able to find anything during a good Google search. This isn’t the most outstanding point about the game, that may fall to the control scheme. The controls were something unusual to me back in 1993, but on revisiting the game this week I’ve found them much more natural. The reason being is Walker uses the PC FPS standard control – arrow keys and mouse. The arrow keys move left and right (with a satisfying STOMP), the mouse aims your guns, right mouse button locks on, left button fires. It feels good, and gives the player a level of control not often seen in shoot-em-ups of the day.
The best part for me though is the impressive level of detail in Walker. Although designed to run OK on 1MB memory (although the 1/2MB A500 was right out), once you used a Amiga with 2MB you got the benefit of some great radio chatter between Walker command and the Walker itself. Not that the sound was lacking in the 1MB version though, vehicles explode with a great boom and a scream. The Walker thuds along, with hydraulic sound effects sounding out as you come to a hold. Planes zoom over head, explosions are gritty and bass-filled. The alarm that sounds when your guns overheat is straight from Aliens as well. Played loud it feels fantastic. The animation is worth a shout too, human enemies are Lemming sized, but filled with character much like the green-haired pests were. The Walker itself swivels it’s head around to target enemies, it’s two guns flashing as it rains death on tanks, helicopters, spaceships, Zeppelins and so on. There's a nice touch in that you can walk over and squish any humans stupid enough to stand in front of you. It all comes together to make a very satisfying gaming experience.
Not that Walker was perfect of course. It falls into the same trap as many, many games did. It was a bit too hard. That’s not to say I like easy games, but balance certainly was an issue. The Walker feels invincible in Berlin, many enemies run away instead of fighting, tanks and planes fall easily and you’ll walk through it pretty easily, but as soon as you reach the second area – San Francisco it’s a different story. Your twin guns take longer to destroy vehicles, seemingly overheating far too quickly; infantry grapples onto the back of the Walker to lay damaging bombs, mines restrict your movement. You change from a bringer of death to a creature fighting for survival. I never did get any further than the beginning of Middle East. DMA Design obviously recognised how hard the game was and added an Easy mode which doesn’t give anywhere near as much of a challenge. Sadly the trade off is only Berlin and San Francisco can be played in this mode, after that it tells you to start again on hard. A bit harsh on us mortals don’t you think?
There’s a still lot of fun to be had with Walker, especially if your violent side wants a bit of a run. A bit of gleeful destruction and gore does a person good – isn’t that what they say? Oh and just one quick thing before I finish – you can also find a Walker in Lemmings 2 (another Psygnosis/DMA design game), just don’t let the poor little things anywhere near it unless you fancy Lemming soup.
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#1 - kentmonkey - on 27/07/2010 at 20:12 wrote:
#2 - DDevil - on 28/07/2010 at 17:21 wrote:
#3 - kentmonkey - on 28/07/2010 at 19:27 wrote:
#4 - DDevil - on 28/07/2010 at 21:29 wrote:
#5 - kentmonkey - on 29/07/2010 at 16:29 wrote: