"War....What is it good for....Absolutely nothing!"
Posted by Super Turrican on Jul 18, 2010 14:25 (Jul 18, 2010 14:25)
Iconic. Not a word to be thrown about lightly, and in the case of Sensible Software’s war based offering it most certainly isn’t falsely labelled. It was a total surprise for the Amiga playing people at the time, as all we’d ever seen from Jon Hare and his band of merry cohorts was SWOS and although we were very happy with that, we didn’t foresee this making its way onto the scene.
It was a simple concept with some nice little strategic twists thrown in for good measure. A top down view of the very lush and nicely drawn battlefields made for easy controls by simply clicking the mouse button. The other was the machine gun usage from Joops and the rest of the men (he’ll always be remembered for his bravery, bless him). The strategy lay in the ability to separate your gang and have them go off on little scouting missions to ensure the coast was clear for the rest to get through.
It was a very simple and easy to use premise, but mastering the game proved a little trickier. Grenades when you least expected them, as well as mines and badly fired rockets were the bane of your life when you only had one guy left and were sneaking rather gingerly to reach the end and save. Sure the vehicle controls were a tad on the fiddly side, but for all the time you used them it didn’t matter really. This was pure unadulterated fun, and as the song said, war had never been more so.
It was ported to the consoles and did ok there, but the PC and 16 bit computers is where its heart lay. Could it work on the iPod? Who knows, but there would be no harm in trying, as finding the chance to play it nowadays the way it was meant to be done is a little bit harder, unless you have the original items or choose to go down the emulation path, but this is one of those titles that genuinely saps time from your life and stares at you with an almighty grin knowing you will thank it for the privilege.
(This is the bit when the fanfare music kicks in and the soldiers jump up and down now…).
Cool review and great game. Loved ranking up Jools and Jops and it was always sad when you eventually lost them in battle, Stoo and Murphy also deserve an honourable mention.
Aug 11, 2010 16:43:33 (
Aug 11, 2010 16:43
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