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In late 1992, two trading simulations were competing for the (German / European) market: Der Patrizier (also know as The Patrician abroad) and 1869. The latter came a little later (wow...) and it was generally considered the loser in this direct duel by the press. Only by a small margin, though - a very good second place.
This one's almost notorious… hailed for being super realistic, because three years of programming work by a real-life pilot had gone into it, it having been developed in cooperation with Airbus and Lufthansa… and, as every single contemporary review will point out, a thick manual sporting 150 pages of detailed descriptions of virtually everything, including basic explanations of flight physics, plus an even thicker book of approach routes towards all major western European airports are contained in the package! Wow, right?
Regardless of what kind of game it is and how good or bad it is, this game wins the price for the greatest game name ever hands down: Aaargh! Just imagine going to the games store and demanding Aaargh! Or phoning a game retailer to order it. The possibilities of cool situations are endless.
Simulating a complete fleet is hard. Unless you make the player a fleet commander, but then, your game turns into a tactical one. If you're trying to stay within the simulation genre, you better…
[Mr Creosote] In 1992, the game genres as we still know them today had been pretty much settled already. While in the previous decade, experiments had still been welcomed fairly warmly, professional reviewers, many of whom were employed as 'specialists' for a certain genre, were not as sympathetic anymore when Air Support was released.
The home computer era had a shitload of free games which, as spyware had basically not been invented yet, came with no strings attached. Most of it was rather unspectacular and not particularly worth playing. Case in point: the first Alien Bash, an ok, but unremarkable shooter set on the decks of an alien spaceship. Instead of Alien Breed, Alien Bash II now takes its cues from Chaos Engine.
Two pilots encounter a space station where something's fishy. It has been overrun by aliens. Heroic as they are, they decide to clean the place out. No questions asked. It is the first encounter with a sentient otherworldly lifeform, after all. So what other option is there but to shoot? Right, thought so.
This one's a tough game to review. If you've already seen screenshots somewhere on the Internet, you'll probably be amazed by the huge quality jump from the first part up to this one. And graphics (and, of course, their effect on gameplay) were my main complaint there, weren't they? So everything should be fine this time around, shouldn't it? If only things were so easy.
The '92 Special Edition, being only a budget release, obviously didn't bring much new to the Alien Breed series. The Horror Continues, on the other hand, was announced as the proper sequel and placed in the normal price range, so expectations should be higher. Does it fulfil these expectations? Well, to say it right away, it's a mixed bag.