V the computer game is based on the movie and series V in which aliens visitors came to earth in 50 spaceships offering friendship and technology. Some were not convinced of their intentions and after investigating they found out the aliens were actually lizardlike creatures who wanted to take over earth. You play the leader of the resistance, Mike Donovan, who has infiltrated and is onboard an alien mothership. It’s up to you to destroy the mothership and take care of it’s inhabitants as well before getting out alive yourself.
The game starts at the docking bay where your shuttle is now docked, armed with only a laser gun you have two main objectives: spread the red dust to take out the visitors and set 5 bombs in strategic locations to blow up the mothership. The red dust is a disease to which humans are immune but the visitors are not but you will have to make the dust by collecting five parts of the formula located in labs on several ships. After collecting them you can use it to spread the dust through the environmental system. The second objective is to place bombs at five strategic points in the ship: the reactor, water tanks, air plant, main computer and the docking bay. These have to be placed in order or you will not be able to get out before they explode.
The tasks ahead of you are hard enough but increasing the difficulty is the fact that the game is a complete puzzle. At the start you can only walk left and right and that’s it, you have to figure out how the controls work before you can go anywhere. The main controls are twelve buttons with alien symbols, the left six control your actions like drop a bomb, interact with the computer or open doors. The right six act as numbers and are used to make secondary input and also to open doors. Opening doors requires you to change a 6 digit code into matching codes but each of the buttons you press changes different positions, sounds a bit confusing and it is. Once you figure out the controls you can go on to your tasks at hand and with such a huge ship and so many objectives plus the robots who stand in your way it’s not going to be easy.
At first I was completely stumped at this game and it threw me off because I had no idea what to do. With some persistance though and figuring out the controls the game gets much more interesting. It can be frustrating though as just opening a door can be a chore by breaking the codes and after spreading the red dust you still have to bomb the place and get out before they explode. This game require some real time investment but if you press on the game gets much better and it’s a great challenge. If you’re up for it I suggest you look past the first difficulties and try out the game, you won’t finish this one easily.
Overal rating: 7/10
This game was released for several different systems here are some notes:
| C64 | Released in 1986. This is the only version I have though I am certain it isn’t the only one in existence. |
| Others | This versions are not available. ZX spectrum released in 198?, I know this one exists because of a boxshot I have seen. I have seen screenshots which are not ZX or C64 so there is at least one other but I cannot find any information on it. |
| Date added | Apr-17-2009 13:05 |
| Name | V the game |
| Developer | Westitronix |
| Publisher | Ocean |
| First released | 1986 |
| Genre | Puzzle |
