Gryzor


by David Whittaker, Mark R. Jones, Paul Owens, Bob Wakelin
Ocean Software Ltd
1987
Crash Issue 49, Feb 1988   page(s) 22,23

Producer: Ocean
Retail Price: £7.95
Author: P Owens, M Jones

Those sneaky Durrs from the distant planet Suna have set up a secret base on Earth, where they begin their terrible plan to take control of the world's weather conditions by building a huge atmosphere processing plant.

If the Durrs succeed in initiating a new Ice Age, the resulting chaos would provide the ideal situation for the aliens to overthrow the human race. The Durrs must be stopped at all costs.

Lance Gryzor has been chosen to enter the alien processing plant, and find and destroy its control room and the alien mother ship. To accomplish this he must force his way through two scrolling sections of enemy outposts before blasting a hole in the wall of the processing plant and moving inside.

Once in the complex, a map becomes available which Gryzor can follow to lead him through the labyrinth of tunnels as he makes his way through the plant. However, passage is continually hampered by force fields, automatic weapons systems and alien guards which threaten to remove one of Lance's six lives.

Gryzor protects himself by using his rifle which can be topped up with extra ammunition by collecting weapon capsules. These become available on the destruction of the alien's weapon stores and carriers.

COMMENTS

Joysticks: Cursor, Kempston, Sinclair
Graphics: poorly drawn and animated
Sound: inviting 128K title tune; poor in-game effects


Gryzor is a very poor game graphically, but it's surprisingly addictive. This is due to the amount of action that has been crammed into this shoot-'em-up: jumping off cliffs and bridges into enemy infested waterways, somersaulting over the various alien assassins and then blowing them to bits, infiltrating their base and then destroying it! The speed that your character is capable of is quite surprising: you can perform many different moves very quickly, which makes the action hectic and satisfying. Unfortunately the addictive nature of the game is outweighed by the rubbish graphics and sound, poor presentation and high price.
NATHAN [56%]


Gryzor isn't a bad game overall: it has a fair challenge to work through, is slightly addictive and requires some skill on later screens. Colour is neatly used with only the odd clash occurring during the game, but it doesn't really contain any wonderful graphics that set it apart from the norm. Ocean have made a reasonable attempt at the conversion and with a bit more to get your teeth into they would have had a real winner.
DAVE [56%]


It's not really the month of good conversions, is it? The funky 128k tune on the title screen is bearable but unfortunately the game doesn't come anywhere near in terms of playability. The multiload is strangely annoying: in games like Out Run, I could put up with it, but for some reason Gryzor's system really got on my nerves. The graphics are poor and badly coloured with appalling animation, and the whole game style becomes extremely annoying. Gryzor is poor, bad value, and a game I don't like it at all.
MIKE [35%]

Presentation: 49%
Graphics: 45%
Playability: 53%
Addictive Qualities: 55%
Overall: 49%

Summary: General Rating: Not living up to the arcade original's high standards.

Transcript by Chris Bourne

Crash Issue 91, Aug 1991   page(s) 65

The Hit Squad
£3.99

In the not too distant future, it would seem that a race of aliens calling themselves the Durrs (they sound a bit spoddy to) will land on the Earth and, in a remote spot, build an atmosphere processing plant. With this they plan to bring about another Ice Age and thus destroy the human race. How unpleasant.

A-ha! But not if Lance Gryzor (ie, you) has anything to do with it! Lance (crap hero's name, that) is a member of Federation for Earth's Defence who has to infiltrate the five levels of blasting action and reach the Durr stronghold before they have the chance to switch their machine on.

Aliens are not to be taken lightly, though - they send in plenty of henchmen stop our square-jawed hero. Though his weaponry is limited at the start, there are collectable weapons along the way.

As scrolly blasting games go Gryzor isn't too bad, although the monochrome sprites are almost invisible against some of the garishly coloured backgrounds (very irritating). Be prepared to apply for your Spectrum's pilot's licence: the enemy hordes are pretty vicious and take a lot of practice to get past and will have you chucking your Speccy out the window in frustration. In short, Gryzor is probably for people with milder temperaments than mine.


Presentation: 70%
Graphics: 68%
Sound: 62%
Playability: 63%
Addictivity: 60%
Overall: 65%

Transcript by Chris Bourne

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