[{"TitleName":"Mercenary: The Second City","Publisher":"Novagen Software Ltd","Author":"David Aubrey-Jones, Paul Woakes, Peter Gudynas","YearOfRelease":"1988","ZxDbId":"0003128","Reviews":[{"Issue":{"Name":"Your Sinclair Issue 34, Oct 1988","Price":"£1.5","ReleaseDate":"1988-09-13","Editor":"Teresa Maughan","TotalPages":124,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Teresa Maughan\r\nDeputy Editor: Ciaran Brennan\r\nArt Editor: Darrell King\r\nStaff Writer: Duncan MacDonald\r\nProduction Editor: Jackie Ryan\r\nDesigner: Catherine Higgs\r\nContributors: Guy Bennington, Marcus Berkmann, Richard Blaine, Jonathan Davies, Mike Gerrard, Graeme Kidd, Rachael Smith, Phil South\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Mark Salmon\r\nAdvertisement Executive: Simon Stansfield\r\nAdvertisement Director: Alistair Ramsay\r\nProduction Manager: Judith Middleton\r\nAdvertisement Production: Claire Leggitt\r\nMarketing Manager: Bryan Denyer\r\nPublisher: Kevin Cox\r\nPublishing Director: Roger Munford\r\nFinance Director: Colin Crawford\r\nManaging Director: Stephen England\r\nChairman: Felix Dennis\r\n\r\nPublished by Dennis Publishing Ltd, [redacted] Company registered in England.\r\nTypesetters: Carlinpoint [redacted]\r\nReproduction: Graphic Ideas, London\r\nPrinters: Chase Web Offset [redacted]\r\nDistribution: Seymour Press [redacted]\r\n\r\nAll material in Your Sinclair ©1988 Felden Productions, and may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the written consent of the publishers. Your Sinclair is a monthly publication."},"MainText":"Novagen\r\n£5.95\r\nReviewer: Marcus Berkmann\r\n\r\nIt's probably fair to say that who didn't like Mercenary, or indeed would rather have eaten their own arms than buy a copy, wont be reading this review. So we must be left with the civilised minority - those loopy boils who, like me, spent untold hours mapping the huge underground dungeons of Targ and slowly, gradually, maddeningly solving the problems of what went where and what those enormous geometrical shapes were all about. We are the people who went straight down one of the lifts and started rooting around the hangars, corridors and teleports while all the trigger happy bods were taking potshots at buildings and wondering the action was going to start.\r\n\r\nBut even a game as great Mercenary can't keep you going forever, and there comes a time when the fevered brain demands new excitments. So, step forward Novagen with its latest masterpiece, Mercenary - The Second City.\r\n\r\nMany readers will by now have noticed a certain similarity between the two games.\r\n\r\nAll right, I admit it. The Second City is not the long awaited sequel to Mercenary - that's called Damocles, and there's still no sign of it - but a mere dataset to load in as a saved game. But as 'mere' datasets go, it's highly impressive. What it gives you is not really a second city as such, but more of an alternative Targ - albeit a red-and-yellow one rather than a blue-and-green one. The gameplay is similar, the objects (and object) the same, but it's much much harder.\r\n\r\nYour map for Escape From Targ, therefore, is completely useless. The layout's different here, and the underground network is both harder to find (not quite so many lifts - at least not accessible ones) and far more difficult to get around.\r\n\r\nRemember those first happy times you played Mercenary, when you toddled freely around downstairs all over the place? No longer, I fear. Everyone is barred by locked doors, and finding the keys is a tricky business and no mistake. Triangular doorways are particularly frustrating, as you can't find a key anywhere - until you realise that it's all a hilarious joke of the programmer's and there is no key. My, how we laughed. Ha, ha.\r\n\r\nThen there's the dark hangar, and more of those teleports that reverse everything (except that this time you have to use them), and more traps and ways of being imprisoned and locked doors and everything! Aaaaagh! There are even two dots in the sky when you look up to find the space station. Two? Two.\r\n\r\nIt's not a new game, and it doesn't pretend to be. Just think of it as a harder version of the original Mercenary which'll keep you guessing, thinking and kicking the cat for just as long. I won't give too much away, as the pleasure really lies in finding out for yourself - but of course you know that. If Mercenary was your cup of tea, then think of The Second City as a chocolate chip cookie, and you won't go far wrong.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"Excellent extension to Mercenary which will keep fans going for yonks. Now where's Damocles, eh, Novagen?","Page":"87","Denied":false,"Award":"Your Sinclair Megagame","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Marcus Berkmann","Score":"8","ScoreSuffix":"/10"}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Graphics","Score":"9/10","Text":""},{"Header":"Playability","Score":"9/10","Text":""},{"Header":"Value For Money","Score":"8/10","Text":""},{"Header":"Addictiveness","Score":"8/10","Text":""},{"Header":"Overall","Score":"8/10","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]}]}]