A&B Computing
1st June 1988
Could also be Commando II. This is excellent - Dave Croft and mystery programmer 'Tequila' (I know who but I'm not telling!) have produced one of the most enjoyable games I've played since the last enjoyable game I played - even if it has taken them to years to do it.
As in other "lone soldier against the world" games, you move through a vertical scrolling landscape (no retreat is possible!), shooting the Viet Cong, exploring underground bunkers, getting shot yourself and all for what? If I ever get to the end, I'm sure there'll be a message saying 'Congratulations! Now do it all again.'
Oh well, the graphics are great - lots of detail and the landscape is especially nice with jungle cover and underground trenches, etc. In fact they seem exceptionally close to Commando's graphics. Control of your soldier is easy but the semi-random appearance of the enemy isn't. And the screens provide just enough cover for you to be confident but not enough to be unthinking about your strategy.
As this is an early preview for Arcade readers, I didn't get instructions; but I suspect that there is extra ammo lying around - or are they copies of Mao's little red book? And there must be some purpose to the buildings that you can enter - maybe some of them hold prisoners of war or extra bullets. I hope it's the latter 'cos I need 'em. Pow! Pow! Pow!
Politically I think this is horrendous, but as a game I think it's great.
Other BBC/Electron Game Reviews By Dave Reeder
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