Chase H.Q. is one game that came on a set of four Atari disks. It is a racing/pursuit game which had mixed reviews at the time of its release.
The graphics of the game are drab although the items clearly look like what they represent; the introduction scenes have realistic artwork. The actual driving graphics depend upon the course, sometimes you get a real sense of where you are, yet other times it is as if you are on a strip of road in the middle of nowhere.
The sound effects are quite bad; whilst they seem realistic there are constant squeals and revs that just give you a headache. The music (where it is) is not bad, but it is repetitive. There is also a decent attempt at speech which adds some much needed realism to the game.
The controls are average, although it is confusing when your actual speed does not match your movement, creating an odd sensation that the car is skimming along like a hovercraft.
This is perhaps the worst problem of the game, whilst the concept is reasonable enough the sense of movement is created by moving bars on the road and scenery, the effect is nauseating as they great an effect (particularly in the distance) like a strobe light.
However,
despite all these negative points there is a decent story to the game and although some parts of the game appear drab there are nicely decorated areas with buildings and scenery, which also helps remove the afore-mentioned strobe effect. However, my personal problem with this game is that it lacks a sense of speed that exists in other classic racing games such as Red Racer on the Nes, Lotus 2 on the Amiga and Driving’ Force for the Atari ST. It falls short of a great number of driving games and suffers not from being bad, but from being mediocre.
If you are a massive fan of driving games and have to have played every game, then there is a decent amount of play in this title. If you are merely browsing there are plenty of better racing games out there and it will probably be a good idea to give this one a miss.
One final point of interest, this was one of the first games to introduce the idea of car chases as well as car chases and could be viewed as a precursor to such games as Driver or GTA.
