Producer: Pandora
Retail Price: £8.95
Author: K Parker and R Chapman
High on a mountainside in Central Europe, a castle clings to its rocky foundation. An imposing fortress, the Eagle's Nest is important to the enemy - it's also vital to you. As a saboteur, you have just entered the stronghold, your mission has two aims - to infiltrate and blow up the castle, and to rescue fellow saboteurs held prisoner within it. You decide which is the most important.
The castle is divided into corridors and rooms on two different levels, with a connecting lift. The view is from above, looking down on the saboteur as you move him left and right, up and down, along corridors and through rooms. An increasing number of locked doors are encountered the deeper into the Eagle's Nest you go. But the necessary keys are to be found scattered randomly about the castle's rooms.
Being a temporary barracks, German squaddies swarm about the place, and when encountered, they fire off shots capable of wounding, and eventually killing - the number of shots that drill your on-screen body are displayed on the right. With 50 hits your fighting days are over. There's a plus point though, picking up the first-aid kits found about the castle extends the saboteur's life - in fact, it's quite amazing what a bit of sticking plaster can heal.
You're armed with a rifle which can be used either to kill enemies. or to shoot doors open. To stop soldiers, a single or double shot may be needed depending on the skill level chosen, but one shot is always sufficient to blast open a door. And it's always better to hide behind a wall and shoot around corners. However, ammunition is limited and must be replenished from time to time. Extra bullets are collected from stores found about the castle. Simply touching ammunition collects it, and can restore you to a full complement of 99 rounds. Monitor how much ammunition remains by watching the right-hand display. If stray bullets hit an explosive dump your life is in danger, one hit merely opens an explosive box, but a second destroys - both it... and you.
Much sabotage work has already been carried out by the men you are rescuing: they were captured before completing their task. If the explosive charges which they laid are found, they can be set off, and when a detonator has been activated it needs a quick getaway to escape the blast.
With this accomplished, the prime object of your mission has been achieved. But remember your secondary objective: to rescue and escape with your captured fellow sabs. When you have freed them from their prison cells, you become their leader and they follow you. But to survive they must be protected, thus complicating an already difficult mission.
And then there's your commanding officer - he's an art lover and wants you to recover stolen antiquities and jewels from the castle. Some of these have been left in obvious places by the slovenly Germans, but others are hidden in ammunition boxes.
Blowing up castles, rescuing prisoners and carrying works of art is pretty hard work, even for the best trained of agents. When physical and nervous exhaustion set in, food must be eaten to save you from severe fatigue. Look out for the plates of nosh, and simply touch them to eat. With this all done, you can trudge back to the secret rendezvous pick-up point, happy in the knowledge that you've had another successful day at the office.
COMMENTS
Control keys: definable, four direction and fire
Joystick: Kempston, Interface 2, Cursor
Use of colour: bright and attractive
Graphics: large, detailed and smooth
Sound: good spot FX, title tune
Skill levels: two
Screens: large scrolling play area
What a great game... I'm well impressed, it has every-thing a good game should have, a good plot, marvellous graphics and sound and excellent gameplay. Stomping around the multiple levels, blasting away at 'Jerry' is great fun and I'm sure it will be for weeks to come. The graphics are large and well detailed, this gives the impression that the screen is uncluttered - even when there are loads of characters visible. There are plenty of sound effects, but also a horrible droning alarm noise on the title screen which is annoying. On the whole I feel that into the Eagle's Nest is a touch over-priced, but worth it.
BEN
Yet another Gauntlet game... Yawn!! At least into to Eagle's Nest contains something to do, unlike most of the trudge around type games, and it out-scores Gauntlet on one important point - graphics. Most impulse buying will take place by looking at the screen pictures on the front of the inlay, which is a pity as the game is nowhere near as addictive or playable as Gauntlet. The slow scrolling gets on your nerves after a short while. I loved all the little features like the toilets and dinner tables but these are just scenery of little importance in playing the game. A very attractive game and certainly worth looking at.
PAUL
If Pandora can keep the standard of their releases as high as this, then they surely have a successful future ahead of them. The graphics in into The Eagle's Nest are excellent, although occasional flickers are noticeable on some of the characters. The 'tune' (note the inverted commas!) on the title screen is awful; after more than a couple of minutes, it really begins to grind on the nerves. But it's playable and addictive, with stacks of room to stomp around blasting everyone and everything. Worth getting as it represents good value for money.
MIKE
£1.99
Players
ATTEN... wait for it, wait for it... SHUN! Right, do you know why you have been called to this briefing? Well, you are the brave idio ... er, volunteer who has been assigned to this mission. The Eagle's Nest is a huge fortress manned by lots of German soldiers (well this is World War II, you know). A three man team was sent into blow the place to smithereens, but they never returned. However, they did manage to plant explosives throughout the fortress, and your mission is to find the four hidden detonators and destroy the Eagle's Nest.
Drat, I haven't been able to put the joystick down since I started playing this game. The overhead-view graphics have some really nice touches: the mess tables, toilets, and bunk rooms are all depicted in great detail. One slight moan I do have is about the amount of explosives lying around - when concentrating on shooting the enemy, it's too easy to accidentally hit a crate of dynamite, ending the game. Even so, into The Eagle's Nest is great fun to play and fantastic value at just two quid.
Then: 82% Now: 91%
Issue 39 (April 1987) Page 109
RICKY: For a first release, from Interceptor's offspring Pandora, this was pleasantly surprising. The main attraction is the graphics: large and very stylish, with the emphasis on the way light falls on the characters and their surroundings.
The Eagles Nest itself is a huge fortress - you've been ordered to rescue captives held within its walls and then blow it to smithereens. But the enemy aren't going to let you just walk in and do the job - there are hordes of soldiers, all armed and all to be defeated.
The eponymous castle is divided into four levels and seen from overhead, in the familiar Gauntlet fashion. Each level is a maze of corridors and rooms, littered with ammunition (you can also find treasures to boost your score).
Into The Eagle's Nest is the most graphically pleasing of all the clones, but when you're a bit fed up with looking at it the actual task can become tiresome, especially as you usually die rather quickly.
If you want a Gauntlet game that can be mapped easily, then into The Eagle's Nest offers something, but maybe it's priced a bit high for what it is.
ROBIN: Writing this feature was the first chance I got to see into The Eagles Nest, and I was impressed. The graphics are very good, more spectacular than those in other games of this ilk. And gameplay can be fast and furious.
There's a strategy element involved in determining when you're going to collect supplies which are not replenished, such as a medical kit.
The only real drawback of into The Eagle's Nest is that it grows monotonous. If this were a budget game it would be worth buying - but you can buy a better Gauntlet-type game for this money.
Then: 82%
Now: 70%
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