Previous Next

It's a mean old world out there, that's for sure. Every day someone's popping off a gun, shell or bomb and more often than not there's tanks galore rampaging around, ruining the landscape, and generally making a lot of noise. In Steel Thunder you can trade in your jeans and T-shirt for fatigues, combat gear, and a US Army main battle tank.

For any budding tankers out there, the General has a number of missions lined up around the world in such delightful places as Cuba, Syria, and West Germany (presumably to help knock down the Berlin wall!). Take a pick of any one of four types of tank (M-1 Abrams, M60, M3 Bradley or M48 Patton), select a mission, arms payload, and men to crew the tank - then off to battle!

But tanks aren't like your average car: they're harder to get going than a Fiat Panda (although you don't need a push start). You've got to switch on this, select that, turn dials on, and perform other tasks to get the 60-ton beast up and running. At any time you can swap between the driver's seat, the commander's position, and the gunner's place to take command of their jobs.

Use the map to locate targets - trundle over to them scanning around for enemy vehicles all the while - and keep your trigger finger free; you may well need to use those TOW missiles or gun shells (Sabot, high explosive, or armour piercing). And if all else fails, you've got smoke defences to confuse the enemy, reactive armour to absorb hits, and fire extinguishers to cool you down when damage is taken.

Using such high-tech equipment as laser range finders, night vision, and ballistic computers your task is to take on and destroy tanks, infantry, convoys, enemy HQ's, even blow up Nuclear Missiles - preferably from long distance! The mission dictates the target but if you take on other targets as well it all helps towards getting a medal or two; just make sure you don't get them post-humorously.

Survive enough conflicts in one region and the General may well be 'kind' enough to send you off to even hotter hot spots. That's not very nice of him.

I must confess that I'm a stickler for the MicroProse games, so anything else vaguely simulation-ish I tend to view with scepticism. Even so, I find Steel Thunder, like Blue Angels, to be a well presented, fun little game.

While not too ambitious, it certainly succeeds in appealing to the general gamesplayer. But one thing I'm not too sure about is its long-term appeal: the three global warzones are very much the same graphically which can lead to repetitive play, and unfortunately the gameplay doesn't get any more sophisticated with each new mission.

After a squadron of flight sims, from Falcon to Hawk, the Next Big Thing seems to be tanks sims with Realtime's Battle Command the mot eagerly awaited.

Steel Thunder is Accolade's early entry in the ield, and once you've actually turned on all the tan's systems it's fairly simple to play. The introductory graphics are nice, showing side-on views of all the tanks, and once actually into a combat zone the way the ground comes toward you is very well done.

But the countryside is pretty barren, and while it's all quite nice to play, I never really got hooked.

Presentation 67%
For: Helpful instructions, attractive tank selection/armament screens. Against: long-winded multi-load for tape owners.

Graphics 72%
Detailed, authentic-looking tank controls, good movement effect but little detail in the enemy tank graphics.

Sound 65%
Other than the atmospheric thunder of distant explosions and main gun firing there's not much.

Hookability 72%
With no massive manual to wade through, it doesn't take very long at all to get going, which is good for services but bad for simulation fanatics.

Lastability 65%
The 21 missions don't change their graphic style much, leading to repetitive play. But four types of tank offer depth while success in combat is rewarded with medals.

Overall 70%
Atmospheric tank action but not one for the fanatical simulation crowd.