3-D LEMMINGS

PSYGNOSIS

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In the computer and video games's world, there are things known by everyone, from the newbies to the veteran players: the Lemmings. These small greenish creatures that always place themselves in trouble are anything else than anonymous! The Psygnosis most successfull title has made its way from PC's to consoles for the millions of fans throughout the world to enjoy. Since the original release, several other titles have been released by the british company based in Liverpool, like the Christmas Lemmings and other sequels but nothing, really nothing could ever prepare you to what you will experience in 3-D Lemmings. After Doom, Descent and other immersive 3D games, it was time for Lemmings to turn into 3D. But beware, it might make you insane for the rest of your life!

Well, after this little introduction only written I'm afraid, to tease you, I must confess the truth, the only one! First, 3-D Lemmings is not a joke and the game will be available in September for the PC/CD and the Sony PlayStation. A floppy version will arrive later this year while other platforms (possibly the Sega Saturn, the 3DO and the Mac) will have to wait until 1996 to get their own versions. Second, playing with 3-D Lemmings will not, in any case, send you to a mental institute and Psygnosis should not be held responsible for any brain damage you might suffer when trying the game. Now that responsabilities are clearly established, it is time to explain what you can expect in this mind-blowing game.

As mentioned above, the game takes place in a 3D environment where lemmings are no longer flat sprites on the screen but rather green guys with rounded forms and blue hair. Here again, these lemmings have to be saved from their doomed destiny and with the new possibilities offered by this version, it is even more challenging. In the beginning, you will have to get used to the 3D view before you can rescue your first lemming. As you can go up and down, and move in every direction, it will take you some time to learn how to master the controls, but once it is done, you will feel like you have always played with the interface. The way you choose a particular skill for a lemming during the game did not change at all. You will still have to select with the mouse which action you want the lemming to do and then click on it. One new skill has been added, the Turner, used to direct lemmings to the left or to the right. Other new features include the trampolines, springs, mud terrain where lemmings will slowly sink, deflector blocks, etc... But the funniest thing in 3D lemmings is the virtual lemming mode where you will see the surrounding world through the eyes of one of these mindless creatures.

The other thing that caught my attention is the way the lemmings can interact with the environment. When they dig tunnels or build stairs, for example, you see how the terrain changes in real time and using the virtual lemming mode, you can even see how the tunnel looks from the inside!

There are several options you can use during the game: you still have the 'Nuke them all' option symbolized by a black bomb that you activate by double-clicking, a fast forward mode, different pre-set camera views, etc...

The CD version of the game features something rather new for the PC games's industry which consists of over 20 soundtracks presented in Dolby Surround to rock your ears while your eyes will be dazzled by the animation's quality. If you have 8 megabytes of memory or more, you will enjoy the high quality graphics and if your system is too slow, you can change graphic options such as textures, window size, etc... to boost up the performances.

The game requires a 486 DX2-66 to run smoothly with all options turned on, but once more, it is possible to customise the game so that it runs fine with your configuration.