Exile

STORY / GAMEPLAY:
You're on another dangerous mission on an alien planet. As the commander of the space-ship, while you lie back in the commander's seat at the deck peacefully, the relaxed harmonious environment of your ship is suddenly interrupted by a crackling on the speakers! The incoming distress signal message announces "This is Commander Sprake of the Columbus Force Ship Pericles, on a mission to colonize the planet Phoebus. Here's the data... We're in real trouble down here. You must help. Not for our sake- we may be dead by the time anyone picks this up- but you MUST stop Triax! Please read this information..."
Trix is a genetic engineer who was found to be tampering with the brains and bodies of helpless victims, turning them into ruthless terminators He was convicted and sent into space for punishment, destined to drift helpless in the infinite void for the remainder of his life. This is your new mission now. You are heading for Phoebus...
Exile starts finding yourself in your space-ship landed on the planet Phoebus. But you soon realize that Triax teleports into your ship, steals your crew members, including the Destinator, and then teleport away again (the scene is just happening in front of you on startup). So you need to get out and explore, with the ultimate target is to destroy the Maggot Machine, recover your Destinator, and bring it back to your ship, at which point you will blast away from Phoebus. You will get a large bonus for each member of the original launch party that you rescue from captivity in the process. The game offers many problems to overcome and puzzles to solve. There are often several ways to doing something. There's total freedom within the gameworld and the game is designed such that there are many ways to solve and resolve all of the problems and puzzles. You must explore as much as possible, and you may experiment freely with anything in the environment (in which there are several enemy creatures to encounter too). If you find yourself stuck, go back and explore - there maybe something that you missed the first time.
To maneuver, you can use either the directional thrust keys or the eight usual joystick directions. Several useful objects can be found, which will be used of course, to progress your mission. Objects are picked up by pressing the S key. These objects will help you solve puzzles or clear paths (e.g. to extinguish fires you'll need water; but that requires finding and filling a container). Initially you have no weapons, can only find a few grenades scattered and pick up. Use those wisely though (to destroy doors etc) to enter the vast underground caverns. Fortunately, your suit supports a teleport feature. By pressing the R key it will remember your current position, while if by pressing the T key will teleport you back to that spot (to...rethink your strategy). This teleport feature is useful when you're stuck by suppressing enemy gunfire (the scattered turrets that will shoot at you in frenzy). So teleporting to a previous remembered position will save your ass form getting grounded.
Ok, surely Exile is a difficult game, especially due to its complex control system. The logic behind the whole affair is sweet and while the control method is complex it allows such free movement it's worth learning.

GRAPHICS / SOUND:
The graphics detail and color usage are certainly better on the AGA version. Sprites are nicely drawn and animated, while background details are severely enhanced now and superbly animated. The sound is fine too. The introductory soundtrack is pretty cool (ok, far from thrilling musical experience), while the sound effects during gameplay are top notch which are well matched to the game's atmosphere.