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Terror T.R.A.X.

Garlic makes lonely and helps against vampires. That is well-known to Lorenz Steinke. So he does not go out of the house any longer without the small grey cloves of garlic.

911 - in America each child knows this telephone number, where one can call assistance, if there is an emergency. Whether a traffic accident, fire or a robbery: The operator at the other end of the line receives the phone call and sends assistance. But what about those cases, when the threat isn't caused by an "ordinary" robber, but a real vampire? If scared callers report about undead, trying to steel your organs or about vampires that are after your blood and life? Then the operator doesn't call the police and emergency car, but rather the super secret team of T.R.A.X., the mobile mission command for paranormal cases.

Hunt for zombies

T.R.A.X. stands for Trace Research Analysis eXterminate, in German: Find, examine, analyze and extinguish. Only really courageous men and women, true "tough guys and girls", work for this two-fisted ghostbuster command. Armed with sanctified water, garlic, crucifix and silver balls they move out to hunt vampires, monsters and zombies.

On their emergency missions the T.R.A.X. fighters always carry a camera and a microphone, sometimes fastened at their sun glasses, sometimes as implant in their heads. Thanks to these electronic eyes and ears you can watch every step of the vampire hunters on your screen at the T.R.A.X. headquarters.

No mistakes

It's up to you to give the correct instructions to the T.R.A.X. hunters in crucial situations. Should your man/woman  examine a site of a paranormal crime more precisely or follow a fleeing suspect? Should he or she shoot at the shadow, lurking behind the next corner, because this could be the wanted murderer, or could it also be a harmless child? You have to make such decisions in fractions of a second for your vampire hunters. A wrong decision, too long hesitating, and humans are dying under the bites of a transsylvanian vampire or by a lost bullet. You get assistance from your computer, which constantly analyses all incoming calls and controls the T.R.A.X. agents together with you. The Computer will always ask you crucial questions when the situation gets ticklish and forwards your responses to the agents. Afterwards the computer evaluates your decision. If you are not fast enough, your people make their own decisions. But also those decisions can be naturally false. If several agents die by your hesitating or your wrong decisions, the machine terminates the game. You are fired. Game Over.

Who is Dr. Hemos?

If you don't lead your agents immediately into death, you will keep track of an extremely weird physician named Dr.Vitus Hemos in the process of this interactive movie. He does not only own a dreadful secret but also sharp teeth. Step for step you will find out, what he is doing in his laboratory with human parts and what bad surprises he keeps in stock for curious vampire hunters.

But the way to him and his undead accomplices is paved with numerous victims. And some of them do not look particularly presentable any longer, if your agents arrive at their homes. For my taste the film goes a little far in some places. Great directors of the thriller genre such as Alfred Hitchcock many years ago already proved that one can also shoot exciting movies, without showing humans with outdone eyes and slashed bellies.

Obviously the people at Grolier have a different opinion about that and published a harsh shocker with Terror T.R.A.X., that quite so carries the predicate "18 years and up". But like so many things in life, also horror is a matter of taste. If you like films, in which humans are mutilated, here you are.

In any case the game is technically well done. The film was shot with much expenditure, ketchup and love for the weird details. The game control is pleasantly easy and works with only two keys - your T.R.A.X. computer completes everything else. Very easy operation thus.

The memory function didn't please me. Normally I am used to be able to store at least a handful of situations. Differently with Terror T.R.A.X.: Believe it or not, only one savegame can be stored onto fixed disk. Simply press the key 5, and the current scene is stored - however without comment or acknowledgement by the program. If storing for any reason did not function, you will only notice that when you like to go on with the game next time. Then you may restart the whole thing again. Very annoying. All in all Terror T.R.A.X. is a really "charming" game for long,  dark winter evenings. However do not complain afterwards, if you have nightmares and wake up sweat bathed. I warned you.

Developer: Grolier/Bomico

Minimal system requirements:
486DX33, 8 MB RAM, VGA, Windows 3.x or 95

Pro
Inventive idea
Weird atmosphere
Fair price

Contra
Only one savegame possible
Very violent scenes

Rating:

• Fun: 38 of 50
• Handling: 5 of 10
• Graphics: 16 of 20
• Sound: 16 of 20
  
• Total: 75
•  

NOVEMBER 1996 PC POWER

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