Mercenary

Favourably reviewed and followed by two sequels: Damocles and Mercenary III: The Dion Crisis.

• Title — Mercenary • Developer — Novagen • Designer — Paul Woakes Bruce Jordan • Artist — Peter Gudynas • Released — 1985 • Genre — Action-adventure • Modes — Single-player • Platforms — Atari 8-bit, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Amiga, Commodore 16 / Plus/4

Having crash-landed on the planet Targ (en route to the Gamma System of Damocles), the player's main objective is to find a means of escape. There are several ways to achieve this end. A civil war between two factions, the Palyars (indigenous "good guys") and the Mechanoids (invading "bad guys"), affords the player an opportunity to earn money to buy their escape from Targ. The player is accompanied and advised by Benson, a "9th generation PC". This interaction is handled via a scrolling news ticker at the bottom of the display. As well as providing assistance to the player, much of the humour within the games comes from the occasional sarcastic remarks made by Benson.

• Illustration — Bosher stadium (Atari ST) The player explores a world rendered in realtime 3D graphics, completing a number of non-linear tasks in order to achieve a single main objective. The title of the series derives from the player's role in carrying out tasks as a "hired gun". The player is able to play the warring factions off against one another to their own advantage. For instance, each faction seeks the destruction of installations belonging to its rival, and the capture of material or other resources to support their cause. There are other routes to escape, and it is possible to combine strategies to both leave Targ and keep the wealth accrued there.

• Illustration — Scenery from The Second City (Atari 8-bit) Mercenary: The Second City, released in 1986, is an expansion pack. Initially its major distinction is the new colour scheme, representing the other side of the planet. The ground is now red rather than the original green, and the sky is no longer blue. Instead, it is pink in the Amiga and Atari (8-bit and ST) versions, dark blue on the Commodore 8-bit platforms (C64 and Plus/4) and yellow on the ZX Spectrum. However, after a similar objective, the substantive differences reveal themselves subtly: there is a different city layout, a more intricate underground complex, a new set of puzzles to overcome and several significant changes with game objects.

Damocles (also advertised as Mercenary II) is the second game in the series. It was released on the Atari ST and Amiga platforms in 1990. Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum versions were in development but cancelled. Damocles represents the game environment using filled polygon graphics. Two mission disks were released.

Mercenary III (also known as Mercenary III: The Dion Crisis or Damocles II) is the third game in the series. It was released on the Atari ST and Amiga in 1992. This time the roads of the various cities are populated by vehicles such as taxis and buses. Observation and attack spacecraft are present in the skies. Interaction with other characters is possible to a limited degree.