The Final Odyssey |
| Price:£29.99 UK Pounds | Developer/Publisher: Peter Spinaze/ Vulcan Software | Requirements: All, CD-Rom |
  The Final Odyssey a puzzling action platform game is the creation of Peter Spinaze who has now gone on to obtain a job in Industrial Light & Magic.
His game first appeared in a preview on both Amiga Format and CU Amiga on November 1996, and even then it showed potential but little was heard of it until Vulcan Software snapped it up. It then took another eight months of development and by that time it changed to become a CD-Rom title. It's easy enough to load up the game, no one is going to experience problems. Upon loading the Intro to The Final Odsessy is graphically brilliant with it not only telling you the basic story above but representing it with animations of the ships going to Crete and graphics of the poor girls going to their deaths along with sound effects of the ships going through the sea and the screams of the girls. |
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The story is set in a dark place, your name is Thesus and you have left Athens to go to Crete where the annual tribute of six girls are to be given to the Minotaur for food. You have decided to put an end to this evil slaughter of innocence and so vow to destroy Minotaur. The Minotaur is well prepared and you discover on arrival that you will have to make your way through a Labyrinth to get to him. But many have followed the same path and have failed. You must not fail.
You objectives are simple, save the girls from the Minotaur as you travel through the Labyrinth and finally destroy the Minotaur. |
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On your way through the Labyrinth you will come across weapons to help destroy the Minotaur's minions. You start of having the basic weapon, the crossbow which has unlimited ammo and along your way you will find weapons such the Plasma Rifle primary a long distance weapon and not good for a short range attack, the Chain Gun my own favourite weapon for it mowes down anything in it's way, the Fireblade is extremely useful in close contact situations killing any monsters close to you, but the final weapon in your arsenal is the Nuke which wipes out all the enemies on the screen.
Your Health is crucial to your survival so you can get further into other Levels and you should make sure that you watch out for simple things like spikes on the floor for they are a drain on your health. I found it best to try to go slowly into this game, rushing just leads nowhere but your eventual death. Objects like Food and Invisibility must be collected. |
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| To give you a insight into what The Final Odyssey has to offer to any Games player, I'm going to go through the first couple of screens so you can see what kinds of puzzles and action I came across. I have tried not to explain each screen too much or it'll be more like a Solution to the first few screens. Immediately once you start the game you are spurred on by the deafening screams of the girls you are to save. Screen one starts of easy enough with a flying arrow to dodge which comes out of the wall along with spikes on the floor and the Goolyns which have a habit of popping up out of the floor when you least expect it. The pressure pads are very important to clear paths and you have to to use the teleporter. Remember to use the scrolls along your journey through the Labyrinth as they offer advice that should be heeded although the advice isn't very clear, it's in a kind of proverb style. |
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The next screen is where I didn't listen to a scroll and ended up restarting the game from the start. The scroll told me to trust no-one but I was in bit of a rush to see the rest of the game and ended up hitting a switch that opened up a hole in the ground below me. I know now to pay heed to any scroll. In screen 2 watch out for the Bonus level - a switch will open up a stairway that will lead you underground. Even the Bonus level which can lead to you finding Money and Health, can have a drag on your health for they're well guarded by Turrets and Guards. The Gun Turrets are a nightmare, they shoot at you with precision which means you got to time yourself so when you go into their line of fire to take a shot at them, you return back to safety before they hit you. There are more bonus levels however they're not easy to find.
Every screen holds something new - screen 3 is no exception at first you think your at a dead end but by shooting at part of a wall it opens it up. Then after blowing up a chest you get hold a of Nuke. |
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| Screen 4 reminds me of Aliens the movie (I'm sure many of you have seen it) where the monsters come out of the walls and take you completely by surprise. I'm very impressed by this little idea for the monsters called the Orcs. I was just heading along the path when it just came out of the wall and chased right after me firing at me. When you critically wound a monster like the Orc they don't just continue to chase you, instead they'll run off and hide. Killing them is quite a good effect, they scream loudly and then you're left with the blood and gore over the floor. Although further in other Levels you'll find the monsters never run away even if critically wounded. Also watch out for the rolling blounders which will come out of holes in the ground, it's a bit like playing the role of Indiana Jones with a blounder chasing you down. |
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Screen 5 is a prime example of how resources should not be wasted for you to get through pass two walls you have to blow them up with the 2 Nukes got earlier. There's only two Nukes you can get from the previous screens so if you wasted them earlier, it's back to the last save position you go and so you've learn't your lesson. The Final Odyssey is tough and the author hasn't made it easy but he's made it so you'll learn from your mistakes but unfortunately that means restarting from the beginning or from your last saved position.
This insight is only a brief one and really you face much more like Maze Transformations which I found to be peculiarly confusing and not easy when used as a puzzle in level 1. This invloves you hitting a switch which changes the shape of the room but when it's used in a puzzle you have to choose between a number of switches. After you hit it once you'll be confronted with the next set of switches until you have managed to go through the entire maze. But you need to hit the right switches or you'll be stuck in the maze for sometime. It's a matter of trial and error. |
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There's even more ahead proving the author has tried to present more to us to make us hooked. What I found to be a good aspect is that you can talk to other people you find in the Labyrinth. By talking to them you can obtain valuable information or even help you in your quest. You've got quiet a number of Levels to go through each with their own degrees of toughness.
The Final Odyssey is an exciting platform game which offers much to the Games Player with the combination of puzzles and action keeping the game constantly flowing. I like the way the author has designed it to be tough from the very beginning, it presents you with a real challenge which many other games like this lack. Some people may find it a little too tough and some puzzles are little confusing. On the CD you'll also find the Theme Tune of the The Final Odyssey, on first hearing I thought it was a piece of music on the radio. Congratalutions to all involved in this theme tune and to Peter Spinaze for making a great game that desevered to be No. 4 in the Amiga Flame Top 10 Games of 1997. |
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