'Many years ago rode a band of men. They came from the
East of the desert and with them they brought terror
and destruction. Nobody was safe from the perils of
a merciless death, no family was complete, no man was
free...'
And
so the scenario is set for Outlaws, the latest
offering from Ultimate. You play Lone Rider, the Commodore
equivalent of John Wayne, who, in truly heroic style,
has to ride into the Outlaw area and eradicate the undesirable
elements.
Outlaws
is an arcade game which takes place over a two-way horizontally
scrolling landscape. Your character sits on his trusty
'hoss' and can trot left or right over the landscape.
Occasionally a fence, rock or broken branch comes into
view. You can make your horse jump the barrier by pushing
up on the joystick; if you don't, then the horse refuses
and you fall off. The player has plenty of control over
Lone Rider -- he can duck in the saddle and fire his
guns in eight directions.
The
game has three different types of screens: the Outlands,
Indian Territory and the Town. The first screen, the
Outlands, puts you in the desert. You have to ride up
lo the baddies' hideout and shoot them all as they lean
out of the window. This is quite tricky, since bullets
fly in all directions as you make repeated rides past
the hideout.
If
you manage to shoot all those critters, then it's a
ride through Indian Territory to the town where more
baddies are massacring the honest townsfolk. The Indian
Territory has loads of obstacles which have to be jumped,
and other hazards besides. Tumbleweeds trundle across
the dusty landscapes and these have to be jumped. Also,
the occasional crow makes a down-swoop at the hero --
if he's touched twice then he loses one of his five
lives. Indians ride along in the distance and fire arrows,
although they're rarely on target.
If
you manage to get through Indian Territory then you
enter the Town scene. Here a specified number of outlaws
(five on the first level, ten on the second, etc) are
running riot through the town, merrily slaughtering
the inhabitants. What you have to do is trot up and
down the main street and kill them all before they successfully
bring the town's population down to zero. This isn't
as easy as it sounds since the baddies tend to mingle
with the crowds walking along the street and it's easy
to shoot the wrong person.
If
you manage to kill the remaining Outlaws, then you are
given a points bonus for the amount of people left in
the town and you start on the first screen again, only
this time it's harder, with more Outlaws and obstacles.
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