Remake of Tunneler for DOS, but worse:

[Khadgar]

Buyer beware--this game is pretty much garbage. The premise is sound: two (or more) tanks have to dig out from their base through destructible terrain, attempting to destroy the enemy tanks. The execution, however, is not great. Having no real multiplayer support [I'll get to that later], the game naturally lends itself to what appears to be an extensive single player tournament mode. However, the AI control for the enemy tanks is so irreparably broken that it's not even worth playing. The AI tanks have but a single directive: make a beeline to your base and then sit in it forever. As I write this, my game is still running, with the enemy tank just sitting right in the middle of my base, waiting for me to come home. It doesn't go out and hunt for me, or hunt for powerups. It doesn't dig out twisty tunnels, or wait in ambush on the path back to my base, it just sits dead-center hoping that I will come back damaged or something. However, this will never happen, because how could I get damaged when the enemy tank never comes to attack me? I tried all three difficulties, wondering if perhaps it was merely the normal AI that was broken, but it happens on all difficulties.

So, single player is pointless, but what about multiplayer? It claims it supports 2 player split-screen, but without controller or dual mouse support, one is forced to play using the keyboard only if you want it to be fair, because let's face it: one player aiming with the pinpoint accuracy of the mouse versus another with the clunky brickishness of a keyboard is no fair fight. So you're relegated to playing with 2 sets of hands on a single keyboard, which, if you haven't tried it, is not pleasant. Not to mention the fact that many keyboards do not support over a certain number of keys input at once (in my case, 6), which means if one person is circle strafing while firing [4 keys], the keyboard begins to ignore additional keys pressed, meaning one or both players will not be able to control their tanks. You could always hook up a SECOND keyboard to reduce the clutter and alleviate this problem, which is what I did, but it feels unnecessary when 2 mice or controller support would work better.

However, with all that being said, the game IS playable, and I managed to get a bit of fun out of it with a friend of mine after using joy2key to make controllers work somewhat. My suggestion is to not buy this game with the intent of playing singleplayer, and for multiplayer, you should have at least 1 controller and a joypad-keyboard software so that both players aren't forced onto a single keyboard.

[Khadgar]

As an aside observation, the game features a "radar" system, in which along the edge of the gaming screen are various arrows that point to your own base, all the enemy bases, and all the enemy tanks. This single factor removes 50% of the fun of this game, given that you can't ever sneak up on anyone when they know where you are at all times.

[Storm_at_Sea]

Thanks for saving me money :) Sincerely.

[Khadgar]

Anytime.

I definately had fun playing it, but only about $0.99 worth of fun.

[kalirion]

Originally posted by KhadgarsDisciple:

Anytime.

I definately had fun playing it, but only about $0.99 worth of fun.

Ah, so it's worth the current IndieGameStand.com price then, good to know :)