AUTHOR: Scavenger / SEGA RELEASE: 1997 TYP: 3D-Action SPIELER: 2 LEVEL: - SPRACHE: ENG + NL + FR + GER + ES + IT WERT: 17€

Leben Sie Ihre zerstörerischen Tendenzen bis an die Grenzen aus! Vernichten Sie alles, was in Ihrem Weg steht! Manövrieren Sie bei halsbrecherischen Geschwindigkeiten durch ein Scharmützel aus Raketen und Minen! Donnern Sie mit Ihrem High-Tech-U-Boot durch die Tiefen der See. Ihre Feinde sind überall. Atomisieren Sie sie allein oder zwingen Sie sie in zahllosen Missionen mit einem Partner in die Knie - oder zeigen Sie Ihrem Rivalen in einem Duell, wer AMOK besser beherrscht.

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Amok portrays a futuristic storyline on a planet which is identified in the manual as having the same name. There, two gigantic corporations, referred to by the acronyms NONLUN and AZTK, had previously been having an all-out war between them for forty-seven years. The war had involved all possible fronts and theaters, including operations in the air, on the surface of the land and sea, and beneath the water. Very recently, a weak peace accord had only just been reached. In the manual, the peace accord is described as being much like „a blanket covering the fire that smolders in the hearts of the people.“ The agreement is sufficiently unsteady that an influential mercenary company, known only as „the Bureau,“ has now decided to hire a capable battle walker pilot named Gert Staun to restart the war so they can continue to make large amounts of money by taking lucrative contracts from both sides. The player takes the role of Gert Staun. Naturally „the Bureau“ has placed a high priority on this, and they are funding it entirely on their own. Indeed, Gert Staun's battle walker, called the „Slambird“ is explicitly said to be custom-modified. In particular, the Slambird can not only survive either on land or underwater, but it can transition between the two – it can move, fight, and safely control its vertical position in either environment. These abilities are portrayed as costly and not standard to such vehicles in the universe where Amok takes place. The transformation of the Slambird between an underwater vehicle and a land vehicle is automatically scripted, however. The player has no power to control this transformation or alter the time when it happens. Instead, the player must get to the point when Staun will automatically bring the Slambird ashore to continue his attacks. The object of this arcade-type game is to meet a series of objectives, and to do so in such a way that each side will blame the other. The game has a linear structure, based on levels that present tasks of increasing difficulty, and all sorts of hazards and targets are encountered. These include military bases, power generators, land mines, infantry, tanks, submarines – even sharks and huge, aggressive birds. Infantry elements are poorly armored, so they can be killed by being run over. In one mission, the only way that the player will be able to get enough time to escape is to open with a surprise attack, slowing pursuit by destroying a parking facility full of unattended troop transport vehicles. Power-ups are scattered throughout the levels. The Slambird carries a variety of explosive devices and line-of-sight weapons. Some of the explosive weapons can bounce in a parabolic trajectory, and in addition there are two laser cannons that can fire rapidly an unlimited number of times. These cannons are useful in case no other weapons remain, and they can be used to create complex ripple fire, which can be used to cover an area that is surprisingly wide. When underwater, propellers are used, while torpedoes are automatically used instead of missiles. www.Mobygames.com

If you're looking for yet another mech game and don't care if the game is any good or not, Amok might be right up your alley. The only new twist Amok provides is a couple of underwater levels, which play exactly like the walking levels, except that you're forced to shoot sharks. Going down…. The action in Amok is broken up into missions, with multiple objectives in the later ones. In most missions, you walk from one side of the battlefield to the other, find a small building, blow it up, and wander back across the landscape to waste some soldiers. To make all this plodding around interesting, your mech takes flack from all sorts of ground emplacements, mobile units, and weird flying creatures. Been there, done that. Tired-out gameplay aside, Amok is a fairly solid-looking game. The polygon graphics look good, with several jagged mountains lending that claustrophobic, life-in-the-fishbowl feel. The bad guys look good, too - especially the dead shark carcasses that float toward the surface. Amok is also packed with quality gunfire sounds, and the screams of the tiny soldiers (as the player's massive 'bot crushes them) are satisfyingly grisly. Controlling the droid is fairly easy, but targeting enemies can be more difficult than it should: You will find yourself spinning around quite a bit to find the perfect range. Despite its pluses, however, Amok doesn't meet the daily recommended dosage of mechanical fun. Save your money until MechWarrior 2 hits the consoles. by Jeff Gerstmann, www.GameSpot.com