Lode Runner 2

So it's with great joy that we can greet Lode Runner 2, the Presage-designed remake of the arcade-style, puzzle-solving classic. You're still this strange little fellow intent on stealing gold from a mysterious band of monks (what's up with that anyway?), but that simple, addictive 1983 game mechanic remains intact: You're running through a maze, up ladders, dropping through pits, etc., trying to pick up all the gold on a level before any of the monks can lay a hand on you. To temporarily ice a monk or create an escape route, you can dig a hole to either your right or your left.

But Presage has elegantly expanded on the original by making the mazes 3-D, giving your runner a boost in firepower, and supporting multiplayer play. Surprisingly, the added dimension can actually make getting around a little more challenging (usually a good thing), but the new power-ups more than make up for this bit of confusion. You can also pick up invisibility cloaks, mines--even a beach ball that makes you invincible. LR2's multiplayer option supports up to eight players, in either collaborative or death-match play.

A well-executed remake, wisely faithful to the original, certainly worth picking up, and promising many hours of hair pulling with its 150-plus levels. And when you run out of those, you can even make your own with LR2's level editor. --Paul Hughes

Pros:

• Faithful remake that's as addictive as the original
• Excellent fusion of arcade play and puzzle solving

• 3-D can be a little distracting, adding unnecessary complexity

Pros:

--It has good grpahics

--It has good replay

--It has several different types of bad guys instead of just one

--the levels are expanded, with floors that are capable of falling out underneath you and the like

--It is challenging and fun to watch

--It has a level creator

Cons:

--It is difficult to gain a perspective because the things which are farthur away in the scenario don't appear smaller, so, what look like a floor that you can walk onto, might actually be the floor of the balcony to levels up and you go plummetting to your death as you fall off the edge

--It is difficult to tell what direction you will go when you hit the controls... the scenarios are on the diagonal so their is no true forward

To sum it up, even though it has many a pro, the cons, though few, just spoil the game. It quickly becomes frustrating when you run into wall that look like floors or drop when you should run. Though it is visually attractive, and their are many crazy things that are put into the background of the scenarios, I would not reccommend this game for the simple reason that gameplay is so difficult. The lack of easy gameplayreally detracts from the fun and potential that this game has. If it had only spent another couple of months in the works... END


THIS GAME is cool IF...   January 8, 2002
Xoandre (IL, USA)
7 out of 7 found this review helpful

If you have a gamepad, like the Microsoft Sidewinder or something similar with many buttons, you can have more fun playing this game! Just customize the buttons to perform the actions required to play the game. I have found this of great help as I hold the gamepad at an angle to coordinate with the screen.

THIS GAME IS ALSO FOR WINDOWS PC! I have been running it with NO PROBLEMS under WINDOWS ME for three weeks now and it works fine. Why Amazon.com has it listed strictly as a MAC game, I do not know, because it works on both systems.

The drawback to the game is the lack of ability to JUMP or hit anything. I have yet to figure out how one is supposed to attack any of the "monks" to destroy them...

All in all, I like the game.


3D does not always equal "improvement"   April 20, 2001
David C. Segerstrom (San Diego, CA USA)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful

The original Lode Runner was endearing because it was so simple--left, right, up, down, blaster, holes. In this version, the player has to use direction-specific bombs to open walls, hide in little "invisible" cubes, avoid monks with different agendas. . .It all gets tiresome after several levels.

More maddening is the apparent disconnect between keystroke actions and Lode Runner actions. Several times, I thought I timed my jump, turn, or climb perfectly, only to find that the program did not detect the keyboard interrupt (input) for a second or two--long enough to guarantee level failure. Moreover, it's easy to mis-hit a direction key (instead of the usual four direction keys, you get eight--twice the opportunity for error).

In sum, you might want to investigate other side-scrolling action games. This one is just too fraught with nuisances, keyboard bugs, and needless complications.