Airlock

"We all llive in a sinking submarine... a very rapidly sinking one."

With a title like Airlock, you'd think that the concept is something to do with outer space, since that's where you generally encounter airlocks. Of course, not being fully educated on how naval vessels work, especially submarines, you could expect them on submarines too. And it just so happens that's the setting for this game. While the premise is a solid one and the story is fairly interesting, unfortunately subpar graphics and poor controls keep this game from being able to stay afloat very well.


Graphics: 4/10
I'll start off by saying that the general appearance of the levels are so dull that you wouldn't realize you were inside a submarine if it weren't for the submarine on the title screen. While the details on the submarine are nice, the rest of the game isn't as good looking as that. The submarine's decks are just a set of rectangular areas, with a pair of elevator shafts on either side. No real special effects or details here. Not to mention, the sprites could've been a lot better done. Your character is just a small stick figure with no special details to it, and you're dodging... little sailboats? Well, they're supposed to be torpedoes on the loose, but they look like sailboats. Also, don't torpedoes generally explode when they hit something? To top that off, there's no real animation to speak of, as your character just 'slides' from side to side on each level. When he's hit by a sailboat... I mean torpedo, he drops into a split for a moment. When a level floods, it just turns blue with water, unless you're on that level, in which case you're treated to a last view of your character on top of the submarine as it sinks to Davy Jones's locker.

Sounds: 5/10
While Atari games aren't exactly noted for their top-notch sound quality, unfortunately, they generally do have a variety of sound effects to speak of, which is not the case with Airlock. There's no real music to speak of, and most of the sound effects here are very dull, sounding very generic and not really having much quality to them. You won't be hearing much in the sound department here.

Controls: 3/10
Now this is where things really start to get problematic. The controls are very sensitive to the touch, and even if you try to move just a little, your character ends up slipping a little as well. In addition, jumps must be properly timed, or you end up jumping too soon or too late. In order to get the keycards you need to move on to the next level, you have to jump up and touch each one (they're little lines below the ceiling of each level, real nice, huh) just the right way. Miss even by the slightest margin and you must try again. Not to mention, there are little bumps on either side of the level, which are supposed to be some kind of obstacle, which you also have to carefully jump over, and touching one even just a little pushes you back a little. But what's really annoying is being hit by a torpedo and being knocked down, only to be hit again when another torpedo comes back. This usually means that you have to be spot on with your timing in order to make it through each level.

Story: 8/10
OK, so here's the situation here: You're basically the commander of a nuclear submarine, and you've had a major collision with some rocks. As a result, water is now rushing in, and your job is to grab the keycards for each floor to unlock the lift to the next level. Your overall objective is to reach the top level of your submarine, where you'll be safe untill help comes to get you. Fail, and you're going to be 20,000 leagues under the sea. Simple enough, but fairly interesting too. Unfortunately, the overall game's quality isn't as good as the story is, and it's a shame too, since you'd think with a story like this, there'd be some better quality for the game play in itself.

Replay: 5/10
The concept of the game is that you have to grab two card keys on each level and then move to the next floor via the elevator. All while dodging the torpedoes on each floor. There are either one or two screens, depending on the difficulty level. Unfortunately, with the poor controls along with a dull presentation, there's really little worth replaying here. Once you finish the game, you don't restart, the goal is simply to beat the timer. No high scores or unlimited level challenges.

Overall: 6/10
You have to praise Data Age for trying something unique with Airlock. Unfortunately, the programmers didn't take enough time to put a lot of quality into it. Better graphics and controls would've made for a bit more quality, and more variety or the ability to see how high you can score after completely exhausting all your lives would've made the game a lot better. It's games like this that really contributed to the Great Video Game Crash. While it's a unique concept, this Airlock seems to be taking on a bit too much water.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 04/10/01, Updated 11/16/09

Game Release: Airlock (US, 1982)