Total Recall

STORY / GAMEPLAY
The game follows the storyline of the renowned 1990 film very closely, having you control the movie's main hero, Doug Quaid (performed by the great Arnold Schwarzenegger). Doug is out to find out his true identity and what is actually going on, as his life was "haunted" by recurring dreams of an alternative life on Mars. You are forced to recall a unique travel service (founded by an evil man called Cohaagen) that specializes in implanting fantasies into the minds of those who desire to turn their dreams into reality. On the first sector of the game, you run around picking up valuable objects (before travelling to Mars) that include a gun, a suitcase, a ticket and your passport. Out in pursuit are Cohaagen's thugs, with whom you "share" your renegade level of violence. Arnie himself doesn't much resemble the real life thing but he's suitably a fairly nippy sprite! His fighting maneuvers are somewhat limited but there's enough to keep you occupied for quite some time. The second level is the first of the car-chase sequences of the game (pretty much like Batman The Movie). You jump into a nearby taxi and rush through the streets, avoiding the numerous pursuers (some of them shooting at you) who have still not yet given up and desire to block your way towards an abandoned warehouse where you can get rid of your tracking device. Inside the warehouse, the action changes again to an action platform shoot 'em up style, with plenty of enemy reinforcements. By the time you kill all the enemies you finally arrive to Mars! On the Red Planet, you seek out the alien reactor and Cohaaggen himself, again in a platform shooting style. Apart from shooting and smashing incoming foes, the game is also a mix of puzzle and platform elements. Overall, Total Recall is a rather tough game and the enemy guards can easily get the hero so it is almost impossible to turn and shoot them quick enough. With some patience and practice, I guess you gonna love this game.

GRAPHICS / SOUND
I was quite surprised by the game's visuals. The loading and intro screens are nicely done in a comic book style. The sprites look so cool and are smoothly animated while the backgrounds scroll well and carry a variety of details. Although the backgrounds do not change dramatically between levels, they look just fine. Note that the Amiga version uses almost the same number of colors and visual details as the Atari ST with the main difference between these two versions the more smooth and more fast action on the Amiga. The best part of the game is its sound. The intro and in-game music are gorgeous and there are also several, high quality, sampled sound effects during gameplay. Total Recall is a cool game for the Amiga library indeed.