Label: Ocean
Author: Realtime
Memory: 48K/128K
Price: £ Tape, £14.99 Disk
Reviewer: Steve Keen
No doubt everyone is totally familiar with Battle Command, well those of you who are intelligent enough to be regular readers are, as this fabo metal muncher was previewed and actually given away as a playable demo in the Nov. Ish. And what a demo - but a good demo does not a good game make - or does it?
But just for the deadheads out there who missed out here's the low down again. You are in the driving seat of the Mauler tank, bashing its way through a 3D landscape blasting anything mean, green un-seen. The name of this game is destruction and no battle field veteran has been better equipped. Amongst the tanks devastating arsenal are SAM missiles, IR missiles, Radar air to surface/surface to air missiles, mortar, wire guided missiles, chaff flares to deflect incoming rockets that have locked on to your beast and other war toys either to be found or that come as standard. This is a game that anyone could get into. There are a variety of different missions including Hideout, where you have to search out and destroy a secret weapons base and Satellite, requiring the retrieval of a spy orb that has landed in enemy territory. Tactical play through out is essential and often it's better to run away and fight another day than stand and be bravely mangled. The 3D on the tanks is quite spectacular and hiding behind trees and mountains vital to survival. One final word of warning though don't get too good at Battle Command, you could find yourself drafted!
Label: Ocean
Memory: 48K/128K
Reviewer: Ian Watson
What a length of time this has taken to get to the shops. We reviewed it a few months ago but Ocean said that they have since worked on the game still further so could we "Re-review it in its new, all-signing, all-dancing form?" We gave it to the non-signing, disco disaster IAN WATSON for a first impression.. (which was Tommy Cooper and was crap so we hit him - just like that!)
An arcade/strategy game set in a 'near future alternate reality' (a bit of wasteland featuring such futuristic innovation as roads and rivers!). Battle Command does its utmost to be wild and action packed, combining all the thrills of driving a tank with the military responsibility of having a massively important mission to complete. Sadly though this nowhere nearly as exciting as it sounds as Battle Command simulates reality so well that you soon find that driving tanks involves long periods of doing just that - driving around with nothing more interesting than the horizon to shoot at. Thus you may spend several minutes equipping your tank with rocket launchers and turbo lasers and pouring over your mission briefing and terrain plan (erm, I think that's a map folks), in order to get most of the way to a target before anything happens.
So, it's especially important that the host of options to add some zest to the proceedings. Each separate mission features a new tactical twist (night manoeuvres, hostage rescue, convoy defence etc), and obviously if you're looking for trouble (da da, da da) then you have come to the right place, where the various tanks are more than willing to fire wildly explosive black squares of colour at you.
What makes Battle Command quite so unspecial is that once completed, the missions really pose little problem, and any attempts to relive old glories will see the player just going through the motions. A surprisingly unastounding game. Mission completed. Return to pick up point.
STEVE:
Hey this is pretty heavy stuff mahhn! You can't just get in and get firing...
GARTH:
It's been such a long time in the pipe-line (previewed last year) it's good to see it's finally on the shelves. A game for the patient who want good graphics and depth of play.
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