Retron
Reviews
Wolf (DOS)
A superb wolf simulator
The Good
Superb attention to detail - from the musical score, to the information about the life of wolves to the smooth animation of the predators, it's evident a lot of time and care was spent on the game.
Informative - there are plentiful nuggets of information provided during the course of a game, meaning you'll learn whilst playing.
Variety - hunt, eat, sleep. The life of a wolf doesn't sound that varied, yet the game has a great variety of scenarios to play, from finding lost cubs to just staying alive.
The Bad
The game needs 600K of base RAM to play with both sound and music, which can be fiddly for people not used to setting up a DOS configuration.
Some parts of the game seem superfluous, such as scent-marking. Yes, real wolves do it but it doesn't seem to be of any consequence in Wolf.
The CD-ROM version has wonderful audio tracks but the game will only play MIDI versions of them.
The Bottom Line
To this day Wolf remains the only wolf simulator out there. Playing the part of a wolf in a variety of settings, your basic goal is survival. By using your senses and pack members you're able to stalk and hunt prey, as well as ascending the pack hierarchy if you're not already the Alpha. Arguably the hardest part of the game is to successfully raise pups, something which is a real achievement if you manage it. The variety of scenarios ensures the game has a long life and there's a free-form mode which allows you to do as you please.
The real value of Wolf is in its educational features. There's a section with all sorts of hyperlinked information about wolves, along with multimedia such as clips of wolves snarling and animations of tail and body posture. It brings the world of the wolf alive, far more so than a textbook.
It was truly groundbreaking in 1994 and as a result of playing Wolf I'm now involved with the real thing at a wolf centre in England. Indeed, we often get asked if there are any decent games involving wolves and the only one I recommend is Wolf. My copy now resides on a PC in the visitor centre and it's proved popular with children and adults alike - hopefully a glowing compliment of the way the game has stood the test of time!
By Retron on December 12, 2005
Tyrian (DOS)
A superbly varied game with lots of surprises
The Good
The sheer amount of variation - each level seems to have its own graphics and style
* The amount of customisations that can be made - from weapons to game play modes
The Bad
You can get into some very hard hidden levels near the start of the game - near instant death.
The Bottom Line
One of the PC's best shooters. Varied graphics plus a huge range of weapons and other enhancements make this a game to play over and over again.
By Retron on January 10, 2000
Silverball (DOS)
This looks and feels like a less polished version of Epic Pinball
The Good
* The fact you get seven tables; some of which are quite good.
-
The music is up to the high quality set in Epic Pinball
The Bad
* The engine can be a bit sloppy - balls getting stuck on flippers, for example -
Two tables (WarBot and Duel) are similar to tables in Epic Pinball - apart from sounds and graphics, they are so similar as to be the same. The themes of the tables are also dodgy - whereas Epic Pinball has Excalibur, and old-fashioned, wooden table, Silverball uses the layout for Warbot, which, being about robots, feels wrong.
The Bottom Line
An under publicised game - if you like Epic Pinball, you'll love this collection of seven tables - even if two are similar to those in Epic Pinball (another one has the same music!)
By Retron on January 9, 2000