Midwinter
Midwinter is a game that is grand in scope and it has you controlling a man called Captain Stark. Your mission is to destroy the headquarters of General Masters who has taken control over midwinter island. You have to get around the snowy country gathering allies for your cause. There are plenty of ways to get around and altough at first you only have you skies later you will find vehicles like snowmobiles and even hangliders.
You start in a remote cabin with only your skis to help you get around but you haven’t got much choice so you better get moving. Travelling from place to place is done from a 3D first person view and along the way you will face many enemies in the form of planes, ground vehicles and troops who try to bring you down. You won’t stand much of a chance alone so the first thing to do is to recruit some friendly forces that can help you in your quest. These people are scattered around the island though so there’s plenty of travelling to be done. When you get hold of a snowmobile things will get much easier but you’ll also be easier to spot for enemy units.
When you recruit more people you can control them as well so you can combat the enemy using guerilla tactics like blowing up power stations and such. Each person has different skills and altough you can try to use someone who isn’t very qualified the chances of succes are a lot lower. Skills include such things as skiing, gliding, sniping and sabotage along with things like morale, energy and endurance. Each person also has a personality and many of them know each other, some won’t want to work with you when you have recruited someone they don’t particularly like.
The graphics are shown in 3D first person view when travelling between settlements but when you are indoor the view is shown with a graphic icondriven menulike structure. The terrain is very mountainous and this has an effect on how fast you can travel. Skiing downhill is obviously much faster but you’ll first have to get up the hill. The same goes for hangliding but once you reach the top of a hill you’ll sail down with minimal effort.
Midwinter is a very engrossing game that has you travelling around the island recruiting people and fighting a guerilla war against a much stronger opponent. The fact that the travelling is done realistic means that travel can be very slow and it might take you 10,15 or even 20 minutes to reach your desination. Unfortunely there is quite an easy and fast way to beat the game but other than that the game is great so give it a go.
Overal rating: 8/10
This game was released for three different systems here are some notes:
| Amiga | Released in 1989. Game has been tested but not completed with winUAE v0.9.91. |
| DOS | Released in 1989. Game has been tested but not completed on a DOS PC. Other than the sound effect this is the same as the amiga one. |
| Others | This version is not available. Atari ST released in 1989. |
| Date added | Jun-16-2005 18:34 |
| Name | Midwinter |
| Developer | Maelstrom games |
| Publisher | Rainbird |
| First released | 1989 |
| Genre | Misc |
