Ship of Doom - Review

OK let me start of by saying that this was my first ever Spectrum game (I'm discounting anything on the Horizons tape). My Dad, bless his soul, bought it for me (I'm not sure he even realised it was an adventure. You wouldn't guess by the cover!) As a result there is a huge amount of nostalgia attached to this and I may well love it more than I should!
So! What are you trying to do? Well it's a nice departure from collecting stuff. Your spaceship is trapped by a tractor beam and that enticing escape button won't work until you've turned off the beam.
In my first efforts I didn't get very far at all, but mapping is fairly straight forward and there are lots of (mostly) logical puzzles to be solved along the way and some amusingly quirky responses you can get if test things outside of trying to solve it as quickly as possible.
Returning 30 plus years later was even more satisfying as I slowly worked my way through (there are many ways to die, but getting back to where you were doesn't take too long). You can traverse the (enemy?) spaceship and it's not a case of endless rooms for the sake of it, most serve a purpose or help set the scene.
I found my old map of the game (which shows that I never made it to the deeper parts of the ship)and it was pleasing to see how much I had progressed.
Once you've released your ship you have to dash back to that escape button and here the one random element can be slightly irritating because you have to keep shooting a pesky alien. Looking back though it kind of added to the sense of achievement at the end.
This is one of the most simple but effective games I have played and I really enjoyed it. I highly recommend it.
This is a great fun old school adventure, no frills but all that you need is there.

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Parser/Vocabulary (Rating: 7/10)

The vocab is simple but effective. The commands and mostly self explanatory and standard but certain ones are backed up by 'with what?' or other qualifiers.

Atmosphere (Rating: 9/10)

I remember loading it up and thinking "black text on a white background? Where are the pictures?", but your imagination soon fill the gap and I got a genuine feeling of the hard metal walls and emptiness of space.

Cruelty (Rating: Polite)

There are many ways to get stuck or die, but it's quite clear why and how to avoid in future. For example firing the laser without due care!

Puzzles (Rating: 9/10)

Lovely tight but fairly challenging puzzles that will test you but won't depress you.

Overall (Rating: 9/10)

This was the starting point of my Spectrum days AND my return via emulation and it has ensured that I will keep playing. I have since completed 4 more Artic adventures and enjoyed them all. I will complete the rest later.