Previous Next

For those of you wondering how a game with a title like this got to be a new release in 1986, the simple answer is that it wasn't! It was written in 1983 by Roger Keating, now with the Australians of the Strategic Studies Group.

Germany 1985 is a corps-sized action between American and Soviet forces, with no air cover. It is similar in construction to SSG's Battlefront, with many of the same strengths and weaknesses.

First among the weaknesses are the graphics, which are very poor indeed. The battle map is basic black, scrolls with a ripple effect like water in a pond, and the symbols on it are more or less incomprehensible.

If you can cope with this the game is not a bad one. The player has no particular viewpoint, he simple directs individual battalions like chess pieces against the computer, which always takes the Soviet side.

Germany 1985 is a game mechanism in search of a context, and the SSG have moved on a lot since it first appeared.