Sentinel Rebounds

It's the latest in a long line of updates on games from the 1980s.

Psygnosis has announced that Sentinel Returns, a sequel to Geogg Crammond's strategy game from the 1980s, will be released in August for both PlayStation and PC platforms.

Horror movie maestro John Carpenter will provide the score for Sentinel Returns, which is being developed by UK production studio Hookstone and produced by No Name Games. The game will sport 3D graphics and make use of Q-Sound surround sound audio technology.

The gameplay is "unnervingly abstract," as Psygnosis describes it. "Rather than being an object in the game universe," Psygnosis continues, "the player is a presence that moves through the landscapes by transferring to different bodies. Alternately absorbing and expending energy, the player seeks to gain control of each level by rising to its highest point in an effort to reach to the final, ultimate battle against the nightmare that is the Sentinel. At each level, the player must also avoid the invisible yet deadly, energy-draining beams of the opposition.

"Sentinel Returns also features a unique sense of claustrophobia and panic, which comes from both the unearthly, atmospheric environment, and the player's limited ability to survey the landscape. Scrolling is slow and deliberate, engendering a sense of sweating paranoia as players, feeling their energy being drained, struggle to look around in order to escape the deadly beams."

Sentinel Returns will feature more than 600 levels and a network play option for the PC version of the game, which will let players compete against each other to finish the level.