Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!csd4.csd.uwm.edu!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!ames!haven!adm!smoke!gwyn
From: gwyn@smoke.BRL.MIL (Doug Gwyn)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple
Subject: Re: Xenocide
Message-ID: <11001@smoke.BRL.MIL>
Date: 9 Sep 89 01:58:48 GMT
Reply-To: gwyn@brl.arpa (Doug Gwyn)
Organization: Ballistic Research Lab (BRL), APG, MD.
Lines: 40

More Xenocide review:

I finally mastered Cave Level II, which is like an underwater Thexder
with additional hazards growing on the floors and ceilings of the
passages (and sometimes rising or falling from them!).  The background
music is "bubbly" and sets the right mood.  I found an "extra life"
token on this level.  The point of the level is to reach the far end
where a decompression chamber takes you into the Bio Lab level.  In
order to do so, you need to obtain keys to unlock several doors.
The other way it differs from Cave Level I is that if you don't swim,
you sink; in level I you kept hovering.  There is still the need to
replenish (air and ammo) at docking stations, and to regrow your shield
if it is weakened too far.  Collecting the right number of option sphere
that appear randomly will enable you to do so; there are other options
but I found that one most important.  The monsters look like eels,
octopi, stingrays, etc. (plus plants that nibble at your heels).  With
a modest amount of practice, this level is similar in difficulty to the
Cave I level.

The Bio Lab level is like a junior version of Alien Mind.  Its goal is
to emplant the five bombs that you found in Cave Level I into five
nuclear receptacles, then get to the teleporter, initiate a delayed
explosion to destroy the infested lab, and teleport back to your
space ship before the lab blows.  At your space ship, you'll be sent
to the next in the series of three moons, where you again start with
a Hovercraft level and proceed as before.  After three moons have had
all their Bio Labs destroyed, you reach the winner display.

So far, I haven't gotton more than two bombs planted in the Bio Lab.
I've having trouble maneuvering in this top-view mode; usually I find
myself at 45 degrees to an alien who is zapping my shield while I'm
frantically trying to get oriented so that I can shoot him.  Because
I had difficulty maneuvering on each preceding level until I got the
knack, I'm hoping that this is another case where once one figures it
out it becomes feasible.  I did hear from a player who has gotten
through the Bio Lab level, so I know it's possible..

Unless there is something specially interesting that I discover later,
this is the last Xenocide review from me, now that I've been able to
describe all the levels from first-hand experience with them.