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I first saw Green Beret in its original arcade version and marvelled at the graphics. Then I saw it on the Spectrum and thought it to be a good conversion. Unfortunately, the C64 version does not come up to my expectations. Having said that, the gameplay is as good as I would hope for, the plot being similar to Rambo.

As a Green Beret you have been set the task of rescuing captives from an enemy Strategic Defence Installation. The prisoners are heavily guarded and initially you are only armed with a knife.

The soldier starts off at the Bridge, where he must climb up and down avoiding the bullets and bayonet attacks of the enemy. The graphics display the scrolling locations in an attractive 2D way but I feel that the animation of the characters could be better executed.

If the Green Beret successfully stabs a commandant he is rewarded with a flame thrower, rocket launcher or grenade. Each can only be fired a limited number of times and is best kept until the end of a stage when the enemy launch an all-out attack on him.

There are four scenarios to work through. Apart from the Bridge, there is the Missile Base, the Harbour and finally the Prison Camp. Each location involves a different strategy and occasionally your weapon must be used to destroy barriers so always try to hold fire as much as possible.

Firing a weapon necessitates the use of the keyboard spacebar. I found this to be a nuisance. Surely it should have been possible to combine pressing the fire button with a joystick movement to give the same effect.

Although the game action lacks great variation, the action is fast and furious which easily makes up for this. You have three lives but these can disappear very quickly. Each time you are killed any weapons you are carrying are taken away from you.

I enjoyed playing this very much. In many ways it compares favourably with the Konami arcade original.