Ludography
Obliterator cover

1988 · David Whittaker · Action-adventure · Arcade

Obliterator

1988 video game

Released
1988
Platforms
AmigaAmstrad CPCAtari STAtari ST/STEMS-DOSMSXZX Spectrum
Genres
Action-adventureArcadePlatformer
Developers
David Whittaker
Publishers
SCE Studio Liverpool
Modes
Single-player
Perspective
Side view
Themes
ActionScience fiction
Country
United Kingdom
Composers
David Whittaker

About

Obliterator is a side-scrolling action-adventure game published by Psygnosis in 1988. It was released for Amiga, Atari ST, ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, and MS-DOS. The game was programmed by David H. Lawson with graphics by Garvan Corbett and Jim Ray Bowers. The soundtrack was composed by David Whittaker, and the cover art is by Roger Dean.

›Story

You are Drak the Last of the Obliterators, a genetically enhaned and awesome fighting machine, bio-engineered for the execution of a incredible task, the ultimate solution ot thme most cataclysmic of predicaments.

In the voids of Federation space an alien cruiser has materialised. It is aship of sinister and foreboding power. Federation defences have been smashed, Earth lies exposed, then is only one hope and you are it!

Summoned by the Federation, your assignment is to use a prototype matter transporter to infiltrate the alien cruiser. Armed with a particle beam disrupter, lasers and whatever the alien habitat can provide, you musst cripple the alien vessel thus enabling its destruction.

What awaits? What technoloigcal perils and strange diabolica adversaries will try to thwart yo in your mission?

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

The gameplay mostly consists of Drak teleporting around the ship while searching for four symbols which are required to destroy the ship. Drak can jump, duck, and make diving rolls to avoid enemies and obstacles. Enemies start firing lasers once he enters their area. Enemies can respawn, and are mostly stationary. Drak has four weapons that are necessary to get past certain regions of the ship (certain powerful enemies require use of Drak's more powerful weapons).

Story

The game begins when the main character Drak, the last of the elite genetically enhanced super soldiers known as "Obliterators", has been sent on a suicide mission to stop an invincible alien spaceship that is approaching the earth. The objective of the game is to destroy the spaceship by finding certain objects from the ship. When the self-destruction is active, Drak has to find an escape shuttle before the spaceship blows up in order to survive.

Reception

Obliterator was reviewed in Computer Gaming World as a fun, well-executed action game, albeit not a challenging one. The game was praised for using score not just as an arbitrary value, but also to determine the time left for the hero to escape.

C-lehti (3/1988) gave five stars for Amiga version and also full ten points for its music, graphics, interest-factor and "atmosphere". The review says that the game shows that the Amiga computer is capable of delivering what users have been awaiting, using computer's capabilities in a way that makes gaming experience a visual enjoyment. The review notes that the game is relatively easy to finish but still leaves a feeling that the game was worthy of its price. A possibility to save a game state on a disk is seen as an improvement to the previous game, Barbarian, from the authors.

Releases by platformdates and regions as published

PlatformReleasedRegions
Atari ST/STE31 December 1988Europe
Amiga31 December 1988North America
Amstrad CPC31 December 1988Europe
ZX Spectrum31 December 1989Europe
MS-DOS31 December 1989North America
MSX31 December 1989Europe

Games like this

Collections3 collections

Platform libraries

Description adapted from its source, CC BY-SA 4.0.