Night Trap

Some mysterious disappearances have been reported in and around the Martin estate. Your assignment is to uncover the shroud of mystery blanketing the Martin household while protecting six girls who were invited to the mansion. View the action via surveillance cameras set up within eight locations around the mansion. Traps are cleverly installed in the house. Activate them whenever vampire-like creatures called augs venture near a trap or threatens a guest. Traps are activated by a colored access code which any of the Martins can change at any time, so it's important to monitor their conversations. The game concludes when 1) a girl dies; 2) the number of uncaptured augs gets out of hand, or 3) most of the augs and all of the Martins have been captured.

The game is a breakthrough into the next level of videogaming, but I see room for improvement. Simultaneous action is occurring in several rooms at any given time, but all of the video is grainy or slightly blurred. There are also various endings to the game and many different death scenes for the augs. During the first few games, listen to the characters to reveal the Martin's intentions. In order to complete your mission, you must know where to be and when.

The audio is about as good as it can be, with clear voices and even a full soundtrack. The game's downfall is the game itself. Just flip camera views around and click open traps. That's all there is to it. If you wan to see the capabilities of the new Sega CD-ROM, check out Night Trap - consider, however, that your mission can be completed in just a half hour. I'm sure more impressive full-motion games are just around the corner.

TIP: The clock counter commences right after the title screen. SKIP THE INTRODUCTION! or you will miss 10 augs right from the start. The first augs appear in hall 1, just 12 seconds into the game.