[{"TitleName":"E-SWAT","Publisher":"U.S. Gold Ltd","Author":"Richard Aplin","YearOfRelease":"1990","ZxDbId":"0001655","Reviews":[{"Issue":{"Name":"Crash Issue 86, Mar 1991","Price":"£1.85","ReleaseDate":"1991-02-21","Editor":"Oliver Frey","TotalPages":60,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"EDITORIAL\r\n[redacted]\r\n\r\nEditor: Oliver Frey\r\nFeatures Editor: Richard Eddy\r\nSub Editor: Warren Lapworth\r\nStaff Writers: Mark Caswell, Nick Roberts, Lloyd Mangram\r\nArt Editor: Mark Kendrick\r\nPhotography: Michael Parkinson\r\nProduction and Circulation Director: Jonathan Rignall\r\nSystems Operator: Paul (Charlie) Chubb\r\nReprographics: Matthew Uffindell (Supervisor), Robert Millichamp, Robb Hamilton, Tim Morris, Jenny Reddard, Lisa McCourt\r\nGroup Advertisement Manager: Judith Bamford\r\nAdvertisement Sales Executive: Justine Pritchard\r\nAdvertisement Production: Jackie Morris (Supervisor), Joanne Lewis\r\nMail Order: Carol Kinsey\r\nSubscriptions: Caroline Edwards [redacted]\r\n\r\nTypesetting Apple Macintosh Computers using Quark Express and Bitstream Fonts.\r\n\r\nSystems Manager: Ian Chubb\r\n\r\nColour origination by Scan Studios [redacted]. Printed in England by BPCC Business Magazines (Carlisle) Ltd, [redacted] - a member of the BPCC Group.\r\n\r\nDistribution by COMAG, [redacted]\r\n\r\nYearly subscription rates: UK £17.20 Europe £24.00, Air Mail overseas £37. US/Canada subscriptions and back issues enquiries Barry Hatcher, British Magazine Distributors Ltd [redacted]. Yearly subscription rates US$47.00, Canada CAN$57.00 Back Issues US$5.20, Canada CAN$6.20 (inclusive of postage). \r\n\r\nCOMPETITION RULES\r\nThe Editor's decision is final in all matters relating to adjudication and while we offer prizes in good faith, believing them to be available; If something untoward happens we reserve the right to substitute prizes of comparable value. We'll do our very best to despatch prizes as soon as possible after the published closing date. Winners names will appear in a later issue of CRASH. No correspondence can be entered into regarding the competitions (unless we've written to you stating that you have won a prize and it doesn't turn up, in which case drop us a line). No person who is related, no matter how remotely, to anyone who works for either Newsfield or any of the companies offering prizes, may enter one of our competitions.\r\n\r\nNo material may be reproduced whole or in part without the written consent of the copyright holders. We cannot undertake to return anything sent into CRASH - including written and photographic material, software and hardware - unless it is accompanied by a suitably stamped addressed envelope. Unsolicited written or photo material on 35mm transparencies is welcome, and if used in the magazine is paid for at our current rates. Copy published in CRASH will be edited as seen fit and payment wlil be calculated according to the current printed word rate. The views expressed in CRASH are not necessarily those of the publishers.\r\n\r\nCopyright CRASH Ltd 1990 A Newsfield Publication. ISSN 0954-8661. Cover Design by Oliver Frey"},"MainText":"US Gold\r\n£9.99/£14.99\r\n\r\nYou've seen them on News At Ten: if there's a hostage crisis or some nutter is running around with a gun, the SWAT teams are sent in. Wearing enough metal armour to build several new cars and carrying enough weaponry to start World War III, they blast that and ask questions of the lead-riddled bodies later. Much like the heroes in US Gold's latest release, ESWAT...\r\n\r\nAlone or with the help of a pal, you play a member of a futuristic police squad whose task is to crack down on the soaring crime rate. The only way to do this effectively is to don the huge E-SWAT (Enhanced Special Weapons And Tactics) battle armour. But to earn this piece of expensive equipment, you first must fight through the first three levels in an ordinary, flimsy cloth uniform (gulp!).\r\n\r\nInitially provided with a mere 9mm automatic pistol and a limited supply of ammo, you must reach the end of each level and kill the resident bad guy. His henchmen aren't going to let some nosey copper just stroll up and blow their boss's brains out, so they fire at you with a range of big, noisy bang-sticks. But ammunition is in short supply so lookout for cases containing ammo clips.\r\n\r\nOnce the end-of-level bad guy has been arrested, you move to the next level, until level four is reached, when you're promoted to the ESWAT team and allowed to practice your RoboCop impersonation.\r\n\r\nIn the cassette version of E-SWAT, each level is loaded separately. This would be a pain in the neck with a good game, but as E-SWAT is a pretty dull effort, it's intolerable.\r\n\r\nThe monochrome graphics are as unimpressive as the gameplay - the character sprites looking more like hunchbacks than normal human beings.\r\n\r\nAnd that's only the 128K game, on the A side. The 48K version is worse. The playing area is squashed to about one third of the screen's height, making the characters fat and unclear. ESWAT offers nothing enjoyable; even the blasting is sluggish. Very unimpressive.\r\n\r\nMARK 25%","ReviewerComments":["A game that could have been so much fun has turned out to be very poor; dire, in fact. For a start off, E-SWAT is cursed with one of the worst multi-loads I've come across for a long time. When you eventually get to play the game, it's hardly worth the effort. The most enjoyment you can get is having a good laugh at the blocky characters that jolt about the screen. The big shock is when you load the game in 48K mode. For some strange reason, if you own a 48K Spectrum you have to endure the game with the playing area compressed, making the badly drawn 128K graphics look even worse. The main characters look like Gordon The Gopher with an American footballer's body! E-SWAT is a game I strongly advise you stay away from. US Gold can do a lot better…\r\nNick Roberts\r\n30%"],"OverallSummary":"With its long multi-load and awful 48k version E-SWAT is very poor value for money.","Page":"51","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Mark Caswell","Score":"25","ScoreSuffix":"%"},{"Name":"Nick Roberts","Score":"30","ScoreSuffix":"%"}],"ScreenshotText":[{"Text":"Everything has been squeezed to fit E-SWAT into 48K. Yes, everything..."}],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Presentation","Score":"33%","Text":""},{"Header":"Graphics","Score":"27%","Text":""},{"Header":"Sound","Score":"32%","Text":""},{"Header":"Playability","Score":"32%","Text":""},{"Header":"Addictivity","Score":"35%","Text":""},{"Header":"Overall","Score":"28%","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Your Sinclair Issue 63, Mar 1991","Price":"£1.85","ReleaseDate":"1991-02-07","Editor":"Andy Ide","TotalPages":92,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Andy Ide\r\nArt Editor: Sal Meddings\r\nGames Editor: James Leach\r\nStaff Writer: Linda Barker\r\nDesign Assistant: Andy Ounsted\r\nContributors: Marcus Berkmann, Jonathan Davies, Cathy Fryett, Mike Gerrard, Jon North, Rich Pelley, John Pillar, David Wilson\r\nAdvertising Manager: Simon Moss\r\nPublisher: Jane Richardson\r\nPublishing Assistant: Michele Harris\r\nCirculation Director: Sue Hartley\r\nGroup Publisher: Greg Ingham\r\nManaging Director: Chris Anderson\r\nProduction Manager: Ian Seager\r\nProduction Coordinator: Melissa Parkinson\r\nSubscriptions: Computer Posting [redacted]\r\nMail Order: The Old Barn [redacted]\r\nPrinters: Riverside Press [redacted]\r\nDistributors: MMC [redacted]\r\n\r\nYour Sinclair is published by Future Publishing Ltd [redacted]\r\n\r\n©Future Publishing 1991. No part of this magazine may be reproduced without written permission."},"MainText":"US Gold\r\n£10.99 cass/£15.99 disk\r\nReviewer: James Leach\r\n\r\nIf ever law and order breaks down, do NOT join the police force. It's something I'd never do. Instead, I'd go off down the shops, choose a really expensive hi-fi, then nick it. Then I'd go into a pizza shop, ask for three really big pizzas, eat then and run out without paying. Then I'd get some really flash clothes, a new pair of baseball boots and a video recorder. And you know what? I wouldn't pay for any of it! Ha! And who'd stop me?\r\n\r\nWell, an ESWAT tea might. You'd have to be 'perping' in a dump-hamlet called Cyber City and playing the new US Gold shoot-'em-up, but odds on they'd probably trash you. (Actually, the game's so relatively straightforward they just about trash everybody, but more of that later.)\r\n\r\nHEAVY METAL MUTHA!\r\n\r\nAs the game kicks off you're just a normal bobby. Your ambition is to be accepted into the crap, er, crack ESWAT cop team (a sort of street-level paramilitary set-up) and then work your way up through the ranks. And, lordy-lor, are these boys into their power-dressing! if you manage to get through the first three levels (and thus into the team) then on goes a full metal jacket uniform thingie (with matching trousers) and they strap a mean-mutha lethal weapon onto the end of your arm (a 'handgun' no less, hem hem). Sounds a hit 'Robocopic' to you? Spook! Me too. And the weird thing is the similarities don't even stop there, because next you're sent back onto the streets to...\r\n\r\nShoot more people! (Hurrah!)\r\n\r\nAnd thats ESWAT's biggest problem really - it's just blam-blam-blam at everyone you see. The first lawbreaking bods you meet are just kids on skateboards. Never mind. Shoot them dead. Then shoot anyone looking out of their windows to see what the noise was about. Then shoot anybody who comes out of their house to ask what you meant by blasting their entire family. (And so on.)\r\n\r\nBUT SURELY THAT'S WHAT A SHOOT-'EM-UP'S MEANT TO BE LIKE?\r\n\r\nWell, er, yes. But not when it's as repetitive and straightforward to master as this. Okay, so there's a few new 'twists' (you've only got a restricted amount of bullets and you can fire backwards and up and down) but in the variety stakes it's a bit of a no-hoper. End-of-level baddies throw bin liners and croissants at you (and molest girlie hostages who are thoroughly ungrateful when you save them). The hardware gets nicer as you move up (as I mentioned). You even get a warehouse or two with lots of boxes everywhere to jump up and down on (probably all the stuff people have nicked from Dixons!). But there's nothing here that really bites your botty and refuses to let go.\r\n\r\nTo be fair, it's a problem that shoot-'em-ups in general have (so ESWAT isn't really alone). If a game's just about shooting people then you've got to get the difficulty level spot on or the player's going to get very bored very quickly. (Failing the quality of something like Op Wolf, a good way of reducing the risk is to put a puzzle element in, like in Total Recall.)\r\n\r\nESWAT is certainly a competent arcade conversion (the mono graphics are blocky and clear) and it's by no means dire, but at the end of the day, well, you might have moved onto funkier things.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"So-so shoot-'em-up. A bit too easy and repetitive for its own good.","Page":"68","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"James Leach","Score":"68","ScoreSuffix":"%"}],"ScreenshotText":[{"Text":"Gosh, I can't wait to get that shiny metal uniform on! (Better kill some baddies quick!)"},{"Text":"Oh, didn't I mention it? Well, yes, it's a horizontal scroller. And take a look at the way all the figures are drawn. Spooky, eh? (Come in, Mr Pinhead, are you reading me?)"},{"Text":"The nightclub's called Romeo - but there's no love lost on the streets of Cyber City!"}],"BlurbText":[{"Text":"JOINING THE CYBERPOLICE\r\n\r\nTo enforce the law in an anarchic society takes a special kind of dude. It's no good joining the Cyberpolice if you aren't the right type. You should ideally have a name like Tron or Mandraxx (Colin and Peter don't sound quite as good.)\r\n\r\nYou need to be unshaven and sweaty all the time. If you're neat and tidy the crims will just laugh. You need shades. Very dark ones. You need an attitude. This is the most important thing. You must think things like \"let's get onto the streets and blow the scum-filth away\". Not things like \"let's get out there and persuade people to take their litter home with them\".\r\n\r\nHave you got what it takes? (Er, no, actually. Ed)"}],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Life Expectancy","Score":"64%","Text":""},{"Header":"Instant Appeal","Score":"71%","Text":""},{"Header":"Graphics","Score":"71%","Text":""},{"Header":"Addictiveness","Score":"68%","Text":""},{"Header":"Overall","Score":"68%","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]}]}]