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Interesting twist on the thrust style game

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When I originally saw preview screenshots for this game I really wanted to get hold of it and looked forward to its release.

It is kind of an evolution of the thrust style games, where you control a ship that is affected by gravity constantly pulling you downwards, and a fuel supply that is being used up all of the time you are in the air, meaning you are constantly trying to reach the next refuelling platform in time, before you run out and crash. But unlike the original thrust games where your ship was like a version of the old asteroids ship, in Zzzep you are in control of an airship, or Zeppelin. This means that gravity has less immediate affect on your ship and you slowly float downwards if you don't put upwards.

The level design is also very thrust like, with you needing to navigate a series of cave like caverns and tunnels, shooting any obstacles that are in your way and avoiding enemy guns and other moving objects out to get you.

The game's graphics are also very nice; colourful and full of interesting little touches and things to see. The sound isn't so great. The intro theme tune which plays during the title screen is very nice and jolly, but the actual in game sound effects and audio is very minimal. Your ship makes a low drowning noise and the in game objects have sound effects such as the light barriers switching on and off, or guns firing, but the sound of your ship exploding is the main sound effect you will be hearing the most! The reason for this I will now explain...

So far the graphics are good and the idea of the game is good, so why haven't I given the game a much higher rating? It is just too damn hard! The collision detection is pixel perfect, making it near to impossible to get anywhere in the game, and the timing needed to negotiate obstacles is ridiculous!

For example, at the very beginning of the game you have to leave the landing pad, move to the right, shoot some obstacles blocking your route, and then you come to a light gate, with it flicking on and off. You have to time you movement through this gate to get past before it flicks back on. However the time the gate flicks off is exactly how long it takes to get through it, so you have to be moving through the gate exactly as it switches off to make it before it comes back on. Go through and it flicks on with just one pixel of your ship close to it and you explode and are returned to the start of the level. This is the very beginning of the very first level and it is so hard already just because of the unforgiving collision detection and pixel perfect accuracy required. It is mad!

When playing I did manage to get a bit further though the first level, but not without a lot of swearing and disbelief as to why the collision detection is quite this harsh. If it had been made just slightly more forgiving it would be a joy to play and great fun too. Sadly due purely to this one problem the game is rendered nearly impossible to play. For this reason I had to give it a very low lifespan and quite a low gameplay score.

This could have been so good if it were not for the really unforgiving collision detection. Don't bother playing it.

Overall rating:		3.8
Graphics:		6.0
Sound:		4.0
Gameplay:		3.0
Lifespan:		2.0

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Zzzep

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Interesting twist on the thrust style game

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