Holocaust - Atari ST (Gameplay & Opinion)
5Holocaust was one of many games that I was first introduced to on the cover of ST Format magazine. If anyone’s wondering that’s ST Format Cover Disk 57 from April 1994. It was made by Dattrax Software and A.C. Porritt in 1993 and as far as I’m aware this is exclusive to the ST. However you will need an ST with at least 1MB of memory.
The game is a vertically scrolling shooter where you simply have to take your spaceship and make it to the end of the level with your life intact before facing off against a boss. As with most shooters weapon power ups drop down from the top of the screen and you can seriously create a death machine spewing dozens of bullets a second, just like all the best ones of the genre.
Holocaust has some colourful visuals and some smooth scrolling sprites which thankfully doesn’t seem to slow down despite the amount of hectic action going on. The only thing that I would probably say is that the backgrounds are a little dull, I wish that there was a little bit more attention there, but overall considering that this seems to have been made by one guy, it’s a great achievement. I also do like the music quite a bit.
Gameplay wise it seems to respond very well with the joystick controls with it working very much the way you’d expect with the movement and the shooting. Simple pick up and play action. Now the biggest problem with this title is something which is common with most schumps, in that they are made intentionally difficult and this one is no exception. You only get one hit and one life and as far as I’m aware, or at least I haven’t discovered it yet, you cannot gain any more. As a result I’m not sure how long this game is as I have only managed to make it to level 2 but for the action that I have played the title is very enjoyable. Although it does take many repetitive deaths, you do slowly get further and further if you preserver.
So ultimately I would probably recommend this game to people who play shoot em ups regularly and enjoy a challenge. It is certainly unrelenting but it is well worth a mention.
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