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GRAPHICS AND SOUND
The sound effects are good, as are the graphics. Everything is well drawn and the 3D moves swiftly, although it can be difficult on occasion to judge the landscape when you are skiing or driving. Generally, the audio and visual effects are of a satisfyingly high standard.
LASTING INTEREST
This will take you absolutely ages to play: fortunately there is a game save option. Just trying to get started is tough, so you will really need to concentrate and use your resources to their best advantage to gain a victory. It is compulsive stuff, son ce you start you will enjoy every minute.

JUDGEMENT
Well, it has finally made it. Lords Of Midnight, the greatest ever game by Mike Singleton, author of Midwinter, has arrived on the Amiga, albeit under a different name and with a whole host of improvements and updates. Midwinter is the ‘90s LOM, a sugar coated wargame with the pace set at just the right level for the player not to realise he is playing such a complex strategy game. Midwinter is a superb game to play and a must for anyone who wants to immerse themselves in a thoroughly believable game world. Playing properly, i.e. allowing the enemy to have mortars and bombers, you will find this an excellent game. But not, there is aone way to complete the game extremely quickly. The quick route is a lot like cheating, so bear that in mind, but if you are prepared to play the game properly and win convincingly, you will enjoy it immensely.

GRAPHICS 8
SOUND 6
INTELLECT 7
ADDICTION 9
OVERALL 92%

Midwinter's one of the best presented games I've ever seen. The graphics are superb with a stunning 3-D effect and incredibly detailed static screens. Even the sound has been exploited to the full, with stereo sound providing advanced warning of an oncoming vehicle. But it's the gameplay that's the best bit – it could easily keep you playing for weeks. It may not appeal to the most mindless of arcade fans, but for everyone else this will be irresistible. It may be argues that the endless snowy wastes could get a little repetitive, but that's ignoring the strategic game which is made infinitely more interesting with such recognizably human characters to control. A beautiful game and no mistake.

After the disappointment of Whirligig, Mike Singleton has stormed back onto form with Midwinter. As one of the most imaginative and technically-gifted programmers around, the results are inevitably awesome. Who would've though a mere human could come up with something so visually stunning, yet simultaneously so deep and involving. It makes me wonder if Maelstrom Games aren't some alien brotherhood. Here, they offer you a ticket to a whole new world for a price which is a zillionth of a galactic time-warp. All I can say is, don't miss it!


The idea of having a massive, mysterious landscape to explore in glorious 3-D, together with a very strong strategic challenge, is a wonderful idea that Mike Singleton has executed perfectly. Travelling across the icy wastes is an enchanting experience in itself, without having to tackle buggies and aircraft, or worry about the main objective. The polygons work perfectly with zero perspective or update problems. The graphic effect of skiing up the side of a high hill and pausing to look out over the landscape, viewing distant hills and villages just has to be experienced to be believed. The most atmospheric, utterly magnificent game I've played (and will play) all year.


6 4
No plans for a 64 game, sob!
U P D A T E


PRESENTATION 97%
Massive 200-page manual, A2 island amp, handy pad for notes, training mode, toggle switches for bombers and mortars.
GRAPHICS 96%
Breathtaking 3-D effect, a wealth of detailed polygon objects and a clever horizon haze. Superb static screens.
SOUND 85%
No tunes but extremely good use is made of the Amiga's stereo sound system with a multitude of atmospheric effects.
HOOKABILITY 96%
A daunting task but it's an impossible game to resist.
LASTABILITY 97%
The most compulsive and compelling of challenges since the Lords of Midnight saga.
OVERALL
97%
A superlative, immense program that is every bit as good as you'd expect from Mike Singleton.

Midwinter is a first-person action role-playing game with strategy elements for the Atari ST, Amiga and PC. It was released in 1989 by Microplay/Rainbird, and was designed by Mike Singleton. The game was successful enough to spawn a sequel, Midwinter II: Flames of Freedom.

The game is set on the 160,000-square-mile (410,000 km2) isle of Midwinter, in a post apocalyptic nuclear winter: the entire island is covered in snow and ice. Midwinter island has been formed following massive volcanic activity in the Azores island group, which the game's accompanying manual describes as having occurred several years after a cataclysmic meteorite strike in Burma which caused the nuclear winter.

General Masters is attempting to take over the island by force from his HQ in Shining Hollow, in the extreme south-east of the island.

At the start of the game, the player has control of Captain John Stark, the commander of the Free Villages Police Force (FVPF). The player takes control as Stark is ambushed by one of Masters' units of missile armed snowmobiles. Stark, armed only with a handful of grenades, a sniper rifle and a pair of skis, must initially make his escape and alert the rest of islanders, and resist Masters' invasion. This is done by travelling around Midwinter, recruiting civilians and other members of FVPF available, and mounting a guerrilla warfare campaign to stem the tide of Masters' troops and eventually over throw him by destroying his headquarters, winning the game.

Each of the 32 recruits has a history of their own, which decides their allegiances and skills. This history provides clues on whether or not a given recruit will be able to recruit any other given recruit. For example, Stark can recruit Nurse Maddocks, as they are engaged. However, Stark cannot recruit Grazzini, as his is jealous of Stark's relationship with Maddocks. Some of the more useful recruits are only recruitable by a couple of other characters, and a successful strategy involves recruiting these people as swiftly as possible. For example, Prof Kristiansen (an excellent saboteur and the only person who can work the radio!) can only be recruited by his grandson, Davy Hart, or Adams, Hart's girlfriend, who in turn, are only recruitable by a handful of other characters.


[edit] Attributes
Character attributes are graded Abysmal > Poor > Average > Fairly Good > Good > Excellent and can be classified into three categories:

Skills. These determine how good a character is at Skiing, Driving, Gliding, Shooting and Sabotage. An excellent Saboteur will use less dynamite and take less time to blow up an enemy-held building than a poor one; an excellent Driver with have a higher top speed and be less likely to lose control of his vehicle than an average one. In addition to this, certain characters have other skills which are not immediately obvious: e.g. Prof Kristiansen using the Radio, Nurse Maddocks' first aid skill.
Status. Morale, energy, alertness, endurance, are effected by what is happening in the game, both in terms of the campaign and the progress of an individual recruit.
Attributes such as sturdiness, strength, stamina, optimism & sharpness. Determine how quickly a character injures, tires and heals.

Injury
During the game, recruits can pick up injuries (but not be killed). Injuries can be either slight or severe, and can be sustained on different body areas: head, torso, either arm or either leg. Injuries heal over time (accelerated by first aid and sleep), but different injuries affect a character in different ways; for example, an injured arm reduces sniping accuracy, whereas an injured leg reduces skiing top speed, stamina and increases the likelihood of a crash. Head and torso injuries affect all activities.

The environment
Midwinter is covered in snow, and has some nigh-impassable mountainous regions as well as some flat rolling plains. Getting around Midwinter is a very important part of the game, but can be tedious as the occasionally long journeys have no speed-up option.


The enemy
Enemy units consist of a variety of missile-armed snowbuggies and unarmed transports. The average unit consists of around 50 vehicles, and four units make up one squadron. Individual vehicles can be destroyed by rifle fire, grenades or missiles. Units can be eliminated by killing the unit/squadron commander, or by destroying a certain proportion of the unit's vehicles, effectively routing the unit. Due to computing limitations at the time of development, only one enemy vehicle is faced at a time.

The difficulty level of the game is modified by enabling the enemy to use mortars and/or bombers If mortars are enabled, enemy spotter planes are visible which then call in mortar salvoes on the player's position. Spotter planes can be downed by surface-to-air missile fire from snowmobiles. Bombers, when enabled, can also be destroyed this way.


Critical reception
The game was well received at the time of release, although the learning curve was quite steep, and keeping track of agents and mastering the tricky controls put off all but the most determined of gamers. There were many different variables to take into account (character skill level, terrain, etc.) when even deciding how to move around - and having to then factor in combat made the game quite tough. The entire island was rendered with shaded 3D polygons, and a such a large gameplay area was unheard of in 1989. This gave the player large scope for trying different approaches and strategies.

Title Midwinter
Game Type 3D Combat Sim
Players 1
HD Installable With WHDLoad patch
Compatibility OCS and ECS versions (AGA patch now available.)
Submission Angus Manwaring Profiled Reviewer

Review
The first of a trilogy by Mike Singleton and his team, Midwinter finds you
on a frozen island after the next war. Life would be great, but the island
is being invaded by a military force that wishes you no good at all. The
3D snowscapes are pretty good, and making your way across the island,
recruiting allies and obtaining new vehicles and kit, is highly
atmospheric. When you're cold, exhausted and wounded, finally catching
sight of a friendly building, half hidden between the peaks comes as a
genuine relief. There are also some rather tasty fractal routines used in
the map facility. Mr Singleton has spent much of his career creating games
in this particular theme. The innovative "Lords of Midnight" is perhaps the
best known example. In Midwinter the technology may have changed, but the
objective of defeating a numerically superior enemy, either by making
alliances and recruiting, or like Frodo in "The Lord of the Rings" or
Sheridan in Babylon 5's "Z'ha-dum", making your perilous way to the enemy's
base and bringing it down around his ears.
Somebody please patch this to run on my 1200!

UPDATE!
Thanks to the indefatigable Sven Schreiber, this game now does it's funky
thing on AGA machines, making use of faster processors and, of course, the
hard drive. Thanks Sven!