Quadralien
| Developer: Astral | Graphics: |
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| Publisher: Logotron | Sound: |
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| Year: 1988 | Difficulty: |
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| Genre: Puzzle | Lastability: |
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| Number of players: 1 | Rating: |
5/10 | |
You’re tasked with decontaminating an abandoned futuristic base before the nuclear reactor overheats and explodes. To accomplish this dangerous task, you take turns controlling two remote-controlled drones (chosen from a total of six, each with complementary characteristics). At the same time, you’re asked to stop an alien infestation (the quadraliens) using a laser cannon.
Your robot can store radioactive material and then release it, if I may say, by connecting to terminals (the white squares marked with an “i”). These terminals also allow you to recharge your device and display some information about your environment.
The concept has the merit of originality (the Chernobyl disaster was probably on their minds), but I find the execution rather uninspired. The “puzzles” involve pushing objects (barrels, energy cells) into holes, clicking on or shooting at green radioactive gizmos, and occasionally playing with explosives and magnets, but without always understanding or controlling what you’re doing. It’s common to get stuck and have to restart. The choppy animation and imprecise controls don’t help matters.
On top of that, the convoluted interface makes no effort to be intelligible. The ugly graphics, unbearable music, and repetitive mechanics don’t exactly make the player eager to take the first step.
Some commands:
- “F1”: default mode to control the drone (press this if you can’t move anymore)
- “F2”: fix the drone in place, allowing it to only rotate on its own axis
- “F3”: move the camera
- “F4”: use the Geiger counter (to see contaminated areas)
- “F5”: take control of the second drone
- “F6”: mute the music (a crucial function)
- “F7”: turn the music back on (I don’t see the point of this one!)
- “F8”: pause the game
- “F9”: resume the game
- Space bar: interact with objects
Note that a level doesn’t end on its own. When you think you’re done, connect to a console and click “quit”. You’ll then choose the next destination and send off the two drones.
As a spiritual successor, I didn’t have to look far: Viscera Cleanup Detail (2015).
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