Game Review: Sweep (Commodore 64, Mastertronic)

Sweep was released late on in the Mastertronic 310 range, and was part of a limited run of the range where for the Commodore 64, the catalogue numbers reverted to 1C instead of IC, this one being 1C 0281. The game was an exclusive for the Commodore 64 too. The plot explains that as the sweep, you will need to sweep all the chimneys, whilst putting out fires, avoiding or shooting the ghosts, rats and sparks that roam around, and all of this set in the dead of night. The game has Invade-a-Load during loading, and does at least preserve what would have been its loading screen, used here for the title screen with a piece of music from Guilio Zicchi to accompany that.

Supermarket Sweep

When the game starts, you will note that you are placed in a maze with a top-down view. You can move around and the screen will scroll as you go, showing quite a large play area. You start armed with rocks which you can use to shoot at the ghosts, rats and the sparks, and clear the way. It is also well worth noting that you can only have one item in your possession at your time, so if you pick up the bucket of water to put out a fire, or a sweeping brush to go and sweep a chimney, you will not have any weaponry, so any collision with an enemy, or walking into a fire without the bucket in your possession is a loss of one of your four lives that you start with. The tactic would be to clear the way if you can, then get the nearest bucket or brush as you need to put out a fire or sweep the chimney accordingly.

You may also find that in several cases you do not have to walk too far with the item you are carrying in order to use it. So, for the bucket of water, walk into the fire with that carried, and the fire is put out. Handily, it also reduces the temperature, shown by a meter on the bottom of the display. If that goes too high you will start to lose any accumulated score until the fire is put out and you have reduced that temperature enough. When carrying the broom, walking into the chimney (shown as all red to resemble the very top of the outside chimney itself in most terraced houses in the UK) then reduces the number that you need to collect. There are seventeen in total to locate though, so it is definitely not an easy challenge.

Sooty and Sweep

Now all of that would be simple initially, you would think, and you will be able to get the first couple of fires out and chimneys swept without too much mishap. However, the moment you start to move for a period of time, you will note that there are two major issues here. First of all, almost all of the enemies move much faster than you do, so if you are not facing the direction of one of the enemies, and you need to fire your rock, you need to turn around quickly so you can fire at them. You cannot out run them either and more often than not, they may appear out of nowhere. This is accentuated by the play area, which is very wide but not very high, so anything coming at you vertically gives you no response time whatsoever.

The other major bug bear here is that when you are walking along, and come to a junction, you would like to go up and down where the paths allow. Sometimes, due to the frames of animation used, the character gets stuck and cannot move down until you shift very slightly left or right, then you can move. More often than not, this is when trying to escape an enemy too, further meaning more frustration as you die through no fault of your own and instead are just set to a loss of life. Now I can appreciate you need to go down the right path to avoid an enemy, but if you cannot do that smoothly, coupled with the lack of speed you have, it does make that an annoyance that will have you hurling the joystick in anger. Quite frankly, it is not acceptable.

Sweeping Changes

The final nail in the playability coffin actually happens without you realising it. If you do manage to kill an enemy by shooting them with your rocks, then sometimes you will just be walking around your business and without any warning, you have lost a life. It seems that the enemy respawn points are set so that they respawn at any time and without warning, not even giving you a chance to respond in most instances. This again can prove to be a source of frustration and more wall denter territory as again you lose a life when it is not your fault. The respawn is also much too quick too, it can happen within a second or two of you managing to shoot them with your rocks. Some indicator of where those points are would have been helpful so you know not to stand still at that point -or even more so, wait until they respawn, shoot and move away with more time between them coming back so you can make your escape.

In the highly unlikely event of you actually managing to sweep all the chimneys, and kudos if you did manage that without cheating, then there is a bonus game to play. Except there isn’t. You enter your name in the high score table, and then after pressing fire on the title screen, the bonus game is launched, which is basically back to the start of the game with your score carried over – and the same maze, the same everything. Well, if that is not a let-down, I do not know what is. It would have been nice to have something different to play at least here, but alas no. Maybe that was why the difficulty level was ramped up, because of the fact that there is only one maze to get through.

Graphics and Sound

The graphics in Sweep vary. The title screen is nicely drawn with a good logo and your character with the sweeping brush attempting to avoid a ghost, so quite apt for the game ahead. The in-game graphics do suffer though, with your main sweep showing a definite case of looking a bit purple, and having a rather silly walk as you move around the maze. The enemies are not that well animated, and the rat just appears to be all purple with some white shading. The maze itself is not that well drawn and reminds me of a number of SEUCK creations with the building block graphics being in similar vein here. The sound effects are okay and the title music from Guilio Zicchi is not too bad. It is certainly a hack into Rob Hubbard’s music routine and a reworking of Guilio’s own tune called Gallery #1 which appeared in a Meanteam demo on Compunet – appearing in the game with a key change and a more filtered lead instrument.

Final Thoughts

Sweep sounded like an original idea, with you collecting the right objects to put out fires, sweep the chimneys and indeed eliminate the enemies, but ultimately, it is let down by poor execution. Having a difficulty level is one thing, but when that becomes a factor in meaning you lose a life through no fault of your own, then it becomes just too frustrating. The constantly getting stuck in the background when attempting to move around the maze is a case of the game not being play tested properly. The enemies moving faster than you may have been more acceptable the more you get into the game, say when collecting more of the chimneys, but at the start means it also leads to frustration. Ultimately, even if you do learn the paths and movement of the enemies, the respawning in the wrong places kills you off without realising it too. All in all, it is a case of the game being a let down and a disappointing one at that. One to avoid, unfortunately.

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