Borobodur: The Planet of Doom
Borobodur: The Planet of Doom. One Man's Haven becomes another Man's Hell.. Developed by Soft Eyes Design and published by Thalamus in 1992.
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Screenshot |
Player's Review
"KILL OR BE KILLED!
When Spec Agent Johnson is ordered to remote Borobodur - known as the Planet of Doom - to terminate mad escaped convict Dr Ragnova, he doesn't bank on a disastrous crash landing. Nor does he expect endless living hell - Will he survive the nightmare denizens of the domes, will he negotiate the tortuous routes to confront the ultimate evil? Only quick wits and a cold killer instinct will save him from Borobodur...
Borobodur is one of those games that loop better in screen shots than it actually plays. It is also split up into three game types starting out as a platformer with a basic puzzle element, then a puzzle mini game and finally a driving game. The WHD version is being played to try and avoid any game breaking bugs.
The longplay opens with the optional intro sequence. It drags on a bit and brings down the overall presentation with no background sounds or music but it looks nice enough. I let the title music play out showing the games credits. The game is said to have a high difficulty, but I think it depends on how well you know the levels. In the platforming sections you have multiple routes and closed doors. You need to find the switches to open those doors but the first level in particular has an easy or hard path. The easy route will cost you a life but the hard route has some dangers to navigate which will instantly kill you for say falling into a pit. The difficulty comes not from the constantly respawning enemies, not even the timer but from falling to the bottom of the screen. blind jumps are a big no no as if the platform below is not drawn yet, it isn't there to save you. To unlock the exit there will be a minimum number of collectables to pick up, but thankfully you don't need them all. Interestingly though, they are not always in the same place so each playthrough may be slightly different promoting exploration.
Along the way you will pick up extra ammo, energy and weapon powerups. Unless there is another way to do it, upgrading you weapon requires holding down and fire for a few seconds (spending ammo) and then you can upgrade your fire rate and ammo type (not quite sure what the third slot is doing). The high the ammo type the more it uses when fired but doing more damage in the process.
The second stage is a puzzle room requiring you to reverse a slide puzzle to unlock a machine building room where you need to drop the machine parts in the right places. All this has to be done within a time limit and trying to place in the wrong place will cost you time. Completing this then takes you to the boss stage which just requires you to kill the boss making good use of those weapon upgrades. An annoying part of this is that when the boss explodes, it does a huge amount of damage to you so you health better not be low.
The final stage is a driving/flying level. you have a time limit to get to the end but the main killer here is fuel which is constantly counting down. There are plenty of fuel and boost pickups to collect but that is easier said than done as they are not usually in your flight path and you may not even see them moving at speed. It is not that easy to control either as you are not connected to the track and you can not turn with the tighter bends throwing you out to the sides. You can shoot enemies for score as they get in your way.
Overall, not a great game for 1992 especially for the £25.99 asking price. The graphics are nice enough and it even scrolls nicely but the gameplay will probably leave you frustrated with a death sending you back to the start of the stage (although switches and doors remain how you left them). There is plenty of good Amiga tunes accompanying the game though. At the end of the game I show the game over sequence followed by a quick guide on where to find the built in trainer for invincibility, ammo and lives. This is performed by holding down and space at the point shown in the video.
00:00:00 Intro
00:04:48 Title Music
00:08:32 Level 1
00:12:20 Puzzle / Boss 1
00:15:25 Level 2
00:18:33 Level 3
00:24:12 Puzzle / Boss 2
00:27:15 Level 4
00:30:24 Level 5
00:36:00 Level 6
00:39:05 Final Boss
00:41:10 Ending
00:45:26 Game Over
00:46:30 Where to Enable Trainer
When Spec Agent Johnson is ordered to remote Borobodur - known as the Planet of Doom - to terminate mad escaped convict Dr Ragnova, he doesn't bank on a disastrous crash landing. Nor does he expect endless living hell - Will he survive the nightmare denizens of the domes, will he negotiate the tortuous routes to confront the ultimate evil? Only quick wits and a cold killer instinct will save him from Borobodur...
Borobodur is one of those games that loop better in screen shots than it actually plays. It is also split up into three game types starting out as a platformer with a basic puzzle element, then a puzzle mini game and finally a driving game. The WHD version is being played to try and avoid any game breaking bugs.
The longplay opens with the optional intro sequence. It drags on a bit and brings down the overall presentation with no background sounds or music but it looks nice enough. I let the title music play out showing the games credits. The game is said to have a high difficulty, but I think it depends on how well you know the levels. In the platforming sections you have multiple routes and closed doors. You need to find the switches to open those doors but the first level in particular has an easy or hard path. The easy route will cost you a life but the hard route has some dangers to navigate which will instantly kill you for say falling into a pit. The difficulty comes not from the constantly respawning enemies, not even the timer but from falling to the bottom of the screen. blind jumps are a big no no as if the platform below is not drawn yet, it isn't there to save you. To unlock the exit there will be a minimum number of collectables to pick up, but thankfully you don't need them all. Interestingly though, they are not always in the same place so each playthrough may be slightly different promoting exploration.
Along the way you will pick up extra ammo, energy and weapon powerups. Unless there is another way to do it, upgrading you weapon requires holding down and fire for a few seconds (spending ammo) and then you can upgrade your fire rate and ammo type (not quite sure what the third slot is doing). The high the ammo type the more it uses when fired but doing more damage in the process.
The second stage is a puzzle room requiring you to reverse a slide puzzle to unlock a machine building room where you need to drop the machine parts in the right places. All this has to be done within a time limit and trying to place in the wrong place will cost you time. Completing this then takes you to the boss stage which just requires you to kill the boss making good use of those weapon upgrades. An annoying part of this is that when the boss explodes, it does a huge amount of damage to you so you health better not be low.
The final stage is a driving/flying level. you have a time limit to get to the end but the main killer here is fuel which is constantly counting down. There are plenty of fuel and boost pickups to collect but that is easier said than done as they are not usually in your flight path and you may not even see them moving at speed. It is not that easy to control either as you are not connected to the track and you can not turn with the tighter bends throwing you out to the sides. You can shoot enemies for score as they get in your way.
Overall, not a great game for 1992 especially for the £25.99 asking price. The graphics are nice enough and it even scrolls nicely but the gameplay will probably leave you frustrated with a death sending you back to the start of the stage (although switches and doors remain how you left them). There is plenty of good Amiga tunes accompanying the game though. At the end of the game I show the game over sequence followed by a quick guide on where to find the built in trainer for invincibility, ammo and lives. This is performed by holding down and space at the point shown in the video.
00:00:00 Intro
00:04:48 Title Music
00:08:32 Level 1
00:12:20 Puzzle / Boss 1
00:15:25 Level 2
00:18:33 Level 3
00:24:12 Puzzle / Boss 2
00:27:15 Level 4
00:30:24 Level 5
00:36:00 Level 6
00:39:05 Final Boss
00:41:10 Ending
00:45:26 Game Over
00:46:30 Where to Enable Trainer
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