Previous Next

Sergeant Red and Major Blue are two hardened commandos with loads of successful operations under their belts. It seems that when a job requiring indiscriminate carnage on a massive scale comes along, these two are the men for the job. Which is just as well really, as "the enemy" have created a new type of machine gun that is worrying a lot of people in high places. Two men are needed to travel behind enemy lines, pinch a couple of these machine guns and head back to friendly shores. Guess who gets the job?

With Line Of Fire, the player and an optional pal actually become Red and Blue just after they've pinched the advanced machine guns, and they have to use them to protect themselves during the dangerous return journey. Eight stages of mass destruction and general target practice await any mercenaries who dare take on the enemy.

Our heroes travel through many different terrains on the road to freedom. They may hop onto the back of a jeep and blast a way through the jungle where they'll be accosted by foot soldiers, phones, helicopters and generally anything that the guerilla menace can throw at you. As your trusty vehicle careers through the jungle it'll have to occasionally change direction (no roads, you see) and the 3D landscape rotates around the player accordingly.

Other stages include braving a treacherous river where the guerillas' marine contingent attempt to wipe you out, and an airborne section as our heroes fly to freedom!

Sometimes the going just gets too tough, so it's a good thing that your new machine guns have a special rocket bomb attachment that destroys everything on screen in a blaze of napalm! They'll need it though, as the guerilla menace have guarded the end of each level with a huge guardian of enormous destructive potential!

I loved Line Of Fire in the arcades, mainly because your trusty machine gun has an infinite supply of bullets at the ready, but I awaited this conversion with some trepidation!

Not many software houses have had much luck converting Sega's technically amazing 3D coin-ops, but I'm glad to say that US Gold have succeeded where the others have failed!

Although the graphics aren't quite up to the coin-op, they're still gobsmacking, with full screen overscan and a really nice turn of speed! US Gold have also included the simultaneous two-player blasting action (though you'll probably find it helps to have an extra mouse), and this makes for a great (and much easier!) game.

If you're into synthesized violence on a grand scale, take a look at Line Of Fire - it's the best game of its type by far.

So much happening on screen and the pace never lets up! Line Of Fire is a ripper conversion that should be checked out immediately!