Game #60: Death’s Dreadnought

Death Dreadnought is the fourth game published by The Programmer’s Guild. I have already played and reviewed Lost Dutchman’s Gold and Spider Mountain Adventure but have yet to play Temple of the Sun. The game was written anonymously by a Biff Mutt and Spud Mutt. Bob Lidddil, head of The Programmer’s Guild and also known as Captain 80 said in an interview that their royalty checks were endorsed the same way.

Death Dreadnought takes place aboard a derelict space ship. The entire crew appears to have been brutally murdered by an alien infestation. When the game begins you are the only survivor and looking for a way off of the ship. You realize however…that you are not alone.

Death Dreadnought is filled with gore and visceral images. While exploring the derelict ship each location contains vivid descriptions of blood soaked corridors, entrails and dismembered body parts. I actually had a hard time initially with this game. I knew that I was going to have to deal with an alien adversary but beyond that I wasn’t sure what to do. Once you begin exploring the ship you realize that the engine core is useless and that the ship is now a floating derelict. It is only then that I realized I might need to find a way off of the ship as well. I must admit that my approach to the game was influenced by my bias and presumption that this game was influenced by the movie Alien. The only similarity is that you’re trapped on a ship with an alien or aliens and that you must escape. This would be and still is a popular game theme as the years wear on.

Once I began to explore and create a map of the ship I realized that there was a shuttle bay which contained a lone shuttle. This was to be my way off of the ship. The ad description for the game above contains the biggest clue as to what you need to find in order to escape the ship. You’re going to need to find food, oxygen, fuel, and batteries in order to leave the ship.

There really are no puzzles to be found in the game. The game is more of a trial and error experience. There are many different levers and knobs throughout the game that you have to experiment with. Most of the levers and knobs result in instant death. I had to start this game over MANY times. There is a bit of a maze to deal with as you have to crawl through an air duct to ultimately find the ship’s batteries but it is a simple enough labyrinth to map out. The only way you can reach the fuel supply is to deal with one of the aliens. This is probably the only puzzle of the game and not a very logical one at that. In all honesty, it was through frustration that I accidentally uncovered the solution.

** SPOILER ALERT ** **SKIP this next paragraph if you want to avoid it**

One of the first things that you find in the game is a weapon. It is a blaster or phaser of some sort. My first reaction is that you can use the weapon to deal with the alien. You will find however that when you shoot the alien all you do is piss it off and it then proceeds to eat your face off and you die. However, and this is just so odd, if you THROW the weapon at the alien, it grabs it out of the air, examines the weapon and plays with the settings, and then accidentally discharges the weapon and kills itself. All righty then. The alien had been blocking a corridor and once the alien is dealt with you eventually find a way to fuel the shuttle.

There is a cruel red herring in the game that I spent a considerable amount of time with. You come upon a door which can only be opened by way of a fingerprint scan. Your own fingerprint does not open the door but you do find a dismembered hand near an air lock that you can use to open the door (this took some time for me to find). Once you open the door you discover that the crew must have trapped another of the aliens inside. Now that you have freed it, it rushes out and once again eats your face off. The gun can only be used one time so this particular puzzle is not integral to the game solution and only serves as yet another way to instantly kill you. I think I had mentioned that I had to start this game over MANY times.

Once you have collected the fuel, batteries, food, and oxygen you also need to make sure that you open the shuttle bay doors. Once you have accomplished all of this you will then be able to successfully use the shuttle to escape the derelict ship.

I enjoyed this game more than I thought I would. My initial bias was that this was just going to be an Alien rip-off however it stands on it’s own. The theme is a popular one and will be used quite often in the years to come. This may be the very first game to implement such a plot device. The location descriptions and plot device were enough to hold my interest and propel me forward. I am not sure if I liked this game more than the Lost Dutchman’s Gold but it was certainly much better than the previous Spider Mountain Adventure. I look forward to seeing where Temple of the Sun ranks among the lot.