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Publisher:- ClickBOOM	Price:- £29.99
Programming:- ClickBOOM	Release Date:- OUT NOW

Napalm, a game that has been eagerly awaited by the Amiga hordes, and whys this you may ask? Well, it has been hyped in quite a big way by clickBOOM and it is the first real Command & Conquer type game thats actually been released on the Amiga, the question is though, is it just another boring Command & Conquer clone and does it live upto the hype?

A few years ago after the Command & Conquer fad started to make its way onto the Amiga there were announcments of new real-time strategy games that were in development all the time, Napalm made a rather late entry to this ever growing list and rather ironically it is the first that has actually been released while the rest seem to have faded into obscurity.

To answer the first question, Napalm isn't just another Command & Conquer clone, things have gone stale on the PC with regards to this type of game, there are just so many of them that there is never anything new. There seems to be a distint lack of any originality with each game that comes along adding no more then a few extra FMV sequences and the odd extra unit here and there. This is where Napalm excels, while there arn't any intros or in-game FMV sequences to get in the way (some people may see this as a bad thing), there has been a lot more thought into what really counts - the game itself.

Not much is said about the plot of the game, basically it is set in the near future where Earth is being attacked by a group of rebellious robots trying to overthrow the Human rule. You get to choose to either fight for the humans (refered to as the UEDF - United Earth Defence Forces) or the robot forces (simple refered to as the urrmm, robots). The difference between these two is fairly minimal with each team just having a different collection of units and a few different buildings. Some of these units are quite excellent, not only do they also look exceptional but some of them are damn right scary, for instance when you get further into the game you get such things as the Bastard tank, the ion launcher and probably the scariest of all (especially if you have to face it) the Thunderbolt. It really is quite fun watching these things in action.

After starting the game and selecting your team (which will probably be the UEDF on your first go) you are greeted with a briefing for your first mission, as with the briefings for each of the missions in the game this is read to you in digitised speech. Once you've listened (or read if your inpatient) to this its straight into the game you go. It is now that'll you appreciate how good this game really does look. In the high-res mode (640x480/512) it looks absolutely stunning, and it is only in this mode where you'll get the most out of this game, however, to run the game in this mode you'll be needing a beasty Amiga. To get the most out of it you'll be needing an 060 with a GFX card (in which everything runs as smooth as can be), I'm told that 060+AGA and also 040+GFX card can also cut this mode, however anything else is just too slow and you'll be condemed to playing in low-res (thats you 020/030 users). This isn't to say that the lower resolution is bad, its just not quite as good :).

The Future..

Well, whats the future for Napalm I hear you ask. Well, there quite a bit for use to look forward to as it goes. Probably the biggest thing is the TCP/IP upgrade to allow Internet play, i'm also told that there will be an add-on for AHI support. On top of this clickBOOM also plan to release a number of extra mission disks for the game. Dates have not been set for any of these yet, however, I will let you know as soon as I hear anything.

The first few missions on the UEDF side arn't really that difficult and are there only to help you into the game, however, things soon change and by the time you reach level 5 you'll be crying out for help. One thing should be made very clear now, this isn't a game your going to realistically finish within a week and even when you do complete it with one side there always the challenge of doing the same with the other side. While most of the missions being of the build up your base and destroy the enemies base variety its not just a steam in with loads of tanks type of game, it really does make you think and you'll have to use some cunning tactics to beat the enemy even on some of the earlier levels.

Something that introduces the use of tactics in quite a big way in the way in which each level is designed, it really does look like a lot of work has been put into the design of the terrain in each level, for example, on one of the earlier levels the level is split virtually in two by a mountain range going across the middle of the map, there is only one route through. Line a few tanks up here and some bazooka men behind and you have a blockage then even the most determined enemy will think twice about trying to break through. This brings on to another part of the game that has obviously received a lot of work, the enemy AI. There not stupid like in a lot of other games of this type, they don't pile into your forces no matter what the situtaion. If they come up to a large collection of your forces they won't sit around and get killed they'll get the hell out of there and return later on with a bit of back-up, you'll also find that the enemy units stratigically place themselves in positions in there base that make all the bit harder to attack. These may sound like small things but they really do add to the gameplay.

The animation in the game is also very nice, nearly all of the buildings in the game are animated in one way or another, many with only small spot effects that are just cosmetic more then anything. Also, other small touches such as smoke coming from the units when there damaged and the smoke trails of missiles when there fired all add to the realism of the game. One thing you can't help to notice is the explosions - they are massive. Seeing a unit blown up is nice enough in itself but just wait till a couple of buildings go at the same time, just make sure none of your units are around when they do (which, while on the subject, can be quite hard at times as for some odd reason after destroying a building they tend to move into the explosion which can be very annoying).

The sound isn't left out in the cold either. There are a number of digitised speech effects for important events such as a unit/building being destroyed, there is also some massive sound effects to accompany the explosions, connect this upto your stereo and your in for one hell of a treat. On top of this there are also over 20 CDDA audio tracks which quietly play in the background.

Its all been praise so far, however, that isn't to say that the game doesn't have it faults. First of all, the first release version had a few bugs which on some machines made it very unstable (although there has now been a update released which fixes most of these) . The manual also isn't the greatest ever, while it does give you a nice list of all the units in the game along with specifications of each one it fails to describe the game in full and even goes as far to miss out some important aspects. Faults in the game itself are difficult to find, theres the obvious annoyance of all units wanting to go to the same space when moving units in a group, however, this is something that you'll find in nearly every other game of this type. There is also the 'units moving into the explosion when they destroy it' thing, however, this is something you can get over.

For those of you out there wondering about the multi-player support that the game boasts, well, its nothing great at the moment as it is limited to serial play. There will be a TCP/IP add-on for the game, however, it wasn't ready for the actual release so it will be released as an update.

All in all, this is another excellent game to add to the ever growing stable of quality titles from ClickBOOM, I'd even go as far to say that is is there best ever game, and yes, that includes Quake. Once the TCP/IP support arrives I can see this game causing some sky-high phonebills, until then you'll just have to make do with playing the best real-time strategy game ever by yourself, lifes a bitch eh? ;). To put it in a nutshell, this games got it all, If you haven't already done so, buy it now, you won't regret it.

Machine:	AGA/GFX Card
Workbench:	1.3+
RAM:	16 Mb
Hard-disk Install	Yes
Disks:	1 CD
Graphics:-	Simply excellent, look great in the High-Res mode although they seem a little big for Low-Res.	94%
Sound:-	Some great speech, CDDA music and spot effects.	92%
Playability:-	Its quality stuff, once you start you'll find it damn difficult to stop.	96%
Lastability:-	15 missions for each team should keep you going for a long time.	93%
OVERALL:-	The best Real-Time strategy game I have ever played, 'nuff said.	95%

Where to get the Demo?

A demo for this game is available from Aminet and all its mirrors, the link below is for the Uk site:-