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Exodus is very much an old-school game, even by retro game standards.
In short, you control a ship which travels round the outline of a vortex. And, from the middle of the vortex spawns a series of varied objects which you can shoot. Objects include spaceships, rabbits, potted plants, bubbles, televisions. So quite a variety of different objects which you can pump full of lead.
You have three lives and a time limit. If you lose all lives, or run out of time, it's game over. You lose a life if you make contact with any of the objects once they have left the vortex, so you need to be careful not to hit anything.
Each object earns you a different amount of points, and the idea is you rack up as high a score as possible, and at various points during the game, the level will change and you'll be presented with differently shaped and sized vortexes to fly around.
There are a couple of special objects, and these are as follows:-
Clocks - Shoot these to get some extra time added.
Llama - You must shoot these. If a Llama escapes the vortex, you lose a life.
Spud - He's your friend, so you must not shoot him. If you do shoot him, you lose a life.
Well, it sounds like there's a fair bit going on, but you rarely have more than about 3 or 4 objects on the screen at any one time, other than your ship.
The graphics aren't great. Probably about standard for a game released in 1984 in that they're simplistic and functional. Variation is made, in that there are a good variety of objects to shoot, and they can spawn as a range of different colours. But, even so, many of the colours aren't very easy on the eye, and it has to be said this game isn't much to look at.
The sound doesn't come anywhere near making the most of the C64's capabilities. There is a frankly horrible tune which plays on the title screen, and a very small number of sound effects, all of which are standard fare for a game of this type. Very simple shot and explosion sounds, and that's about it really. Again, nothing to write home about.
The gameplay itself. Well, it's a simple pick-up-and-play shooter. There's nothing complex about it really, although the inclusion of things which you have to shoot and have to avoid shooting does make things more interesting than they would otherwise be. Also, the collision detection is well done for when you die as a result of hitting an object which has left the vortex.
It's fun for a very short while, but does get boring very quickly. Whilst far from dreadful, it's hardly a compelling game. I give it 5/10.
Downloads: Music
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| GRAPHICS - 4/10 |
Functional in that you could tell which objects are which, but still not too easy on the eye.
| | SOUND - 2/10 |
Ugh. Awful music on the opening screen and poor sound effects - really didn't make use of the C64's sound capability.
| | PLAYABILITY - 5/10 |
Fun for a very short while, but really no lasting appeal to it at all.
| | OVERALL - 5/10 |
A very simplistic shooting game. Which while fun for a very limited time, does get old incredibly quickly. Add into the mix poor graphics and sound, and you have what is, all in all, not a very appealing game.
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; "Click to zoom!")
