The Hunt for Red October: The Movie

The Cold War may well be long over but when has reality ever been relevant to computer games? In the game of the film of Tom Clancey’s novel, Marko Ramius – commander of Russia’s most powerful nuclear submarine, The Red October – has been tempted by the West’s good life and he’s going in his sub! The Russians are a bit annoyed about this ad decide to sink him. However, Ramius does get some help from CIA operative Jack Ryan who sets up a plan to sneak the sub into the US. Meanwhile, the October’s chef, Loginov, is missing his vodka and caviar and gets angry enough to threaten to explode the sub’s nuclear warheads unless it turns around. At the end, Jack will have a final chance to save the day in a Cabal-style screen, taking pot shots at the chef who dodges between the warheads, returning fire.

Game’s standard movie approach, using a familiar main game-style with a couple of sub-games recreating key scenes has been copied by Grandslam to little effect. Unambitious horizontal sub sections but the 3-D for the helicopter drop and mini-sub scenes is fast and well executed. Sound consists of variety of atmospheric tunes, but weak rendition of movie soundtrack.

The Hunt for Red October: The Movie Amiga game veers towards high difficulty in places, with an amazingly restrictive sub section, and then throws in some attractively done but laughably simple 3-D sequences. If you want a game of the film then buy the game of the book – far better FMV.