** 1 page review Highlander Jag game / 807 words **

Highlander: There will be only one!

** HLBOX.GIF here **

Which is a shame really, as Xav finally discovers the delights of one of the better Jaguar games...

It's always good to know that you can trust the person you're buying from - especially in the Jaguar market, where there isn't exactly a lot of choice anyway. Such was the case with The Console Centre's Matt McGee, who actively refused to sell me a game that would have brought in more money, in favour of the cheaper but better "Highlander". In retrospect, I'm very glad he did.

A quick history lesson: in the mid-eighties the film "Highlander" - about a group of immortals living amongst normal humans - became a bit of a surprise hit. Starring Christophe Lambert, and with music by Queen, its well earned success led to a number of spin offs. First was an abysmal sequel, and then a third film which was better, but still failed to live up to the promise of the original. Next came a television series, which can generally be found plugging any free gaps in the late night schedules, and has turned out to be surprisingly good. Finally, there was a cartoon series.

This game takes the cartoon as its basis, and uses the mass storage of the CD format to fit in plenty of clips and animations. These suffer from the usual granularity of Jaguar full motion video, but are perfectly watchable, and are well picked to add to, rather than detract from the game.

Virtua Myst?

So what is the game itself like? When asked this by someone else, the best I could manage was to describe it as "a cross between Myst and Virtua Fighter". This may seem like a strange hybrid, but the character you control, Quentin MacLeod, is made up of 3D polygons overlaid onto some beautifully rendered backgrounds. Although all the characters could do with a little more shading, the overall effect is of a very convincing world.

The plot is taken from the cartoon, and is largely irrelevant - although Quentin's immortality seems to be conveniently ignored, in order for the game to have more of a challenge. Familiarity with the Highlander story helps to understand this apparent contradiction, but the game fails to adequately explain it to novice die-hards.

The game itself is nominally a puzzle, in which you collect objects to help you progress towards your ultimate aim of killing the bad guy. The first step is to get the family sword, so that you stand a more reasonable chance of inflicting some damage on the opposition, but you also have to take care to keep your strength up with plenty of bread, cheese and drink. One of the more realistic things about the game is that eating and drinking actually take some time. In real terms, young Quentin actively wolfs down his bread and cheese, but it takes long enough for you to sustain more damage than healing if you try to have a snack mid-battle.

Eating isn't the only realistic feature of the game. With the exception of tackling stairs, where the animation goes to pot a little, the character's movements are excellent - right down to the weight distribution as he runs. Even the way that your view on Quentin cuts between different "camera" angles smacks more of a cinematic experience than a traditional game. The subtle use of imitated fish-eye lenses and other camera tricks helps to add to the movie feel, although when the game cuts to another viewpoint just as you're about to lay into an opponent, you'll probably find yourself less than impressed with it.

When Atari was still promoting the Jaguar, they spoke of no less than three games in the Highlander series. Unfortunately this is the only one we'll get. I like this game a lot, it looks good, plays well (once you get the hang of the controls) and requires a rare mixture of thought and violence. Like all CD games, you won't want to play it for too long unless you've got a Memory Track cartridge, and a Procontroller is helpful, though not essential.

If you've got a Jag, and you're seriously considering a CD drive, this could be the game to swing it. If you've got a CD drive, but haven't bought this game yet, crack open the cheque book. This, along with the VLM, represents the best advert for the Jag CD that I've seen so far.


** Product Box **
Product Name: Highlander
Publisher: Contact: The Console Centre
Tel/Fax: +44 (0)1484 544926 (weekends and after 5pm)
RRP: £49.99
Requires: Jaguar CD
Pros: Unique gameplay, brilliant graphics, good use of video clips, longevity
Cons: View changes can be distracting, progress can be slow at times
Score: 90%
** End product boxout **

** Images (no captions ) **

** HIGH2.JPG **
** HIGH3.JPG **
** HIGH4.JPG **