Previous Next

Beach Head, the air and sea warfare game that became the best-selling Commodore 64 program of last year, now has a sequel - Beach Head II.

The game leaves the theme of the previous program - warship and tank battles - and concentrates on an invading army of highly trained paratroopers.

The game begins with the enemy dropping soldiers from a chopper several hundred yards in front of your encampment. You have been taken by surprise and the invading army takes advantage of your defence walls to protect themselves from your gun emplacement. Once the soldiers are in position, they begin to make raids on your emplacement, often dashing out from behind a wall and lobbing a grenade at you with devastating accuracy.

The second level involves you helping injured people across a battlefield by shooting tanks, armoured cars and enemy spies who are trying to kill off your injured men. Trying to make sure you only hit the enemy and not your own troops is difficult. If you do hit one of the injured soldiers, he tells you in no uncertain terms not to shoot him again.

Voice synthesis is used throughout the game and is of the same high quality as that used in the Epyx game Impossible Mission - although the voices haven't been used to as good effect in Beach Head II.

The final screen displays a confrontation between you and the opposing commander throwing daggers across a river at each other. This, though one of the graphically better screens, lacks any real skill or excitement. Winning is a hit and miss exercise - with your usually missing and the opposing commander hitting you with tedious regularity.

Overall, though, the game is a worthy sequel to Beach Head and, if you liked the original or like a realistic shoot-'em-up, then Beach Head II's the game you've been waiting for.