EXCLUSIVES

Words by Chris Rhoadhouse

General William Sherman once said "War is hell." If Beach Head 2002 is any indication, it's also repetitive, poorly designed and a waste of money.

Beach Head 2002 is the sequel to Beach Head 2000. Like the first version the game revolves around you taking the role as a soldier trying to repel advancing armies. You sit in your sandbag bunker and shoot at ground troops, tanks, helicopters and planes. You are given an array of different weapons to fight off the hordes of attackers, an M60 general purpose machine gun, an anti-Aircraft machine gun, an anti-tank cannon, heat seeking missiles and a Vulcan gun.

You must kill them all off before you advance to the next level. Which is pretty much the same as the level before it, and the level before that. Once in a while they throw in a nighttime level where you have to shoot flares up to see the enemy. But otherwise your sitting in the same bunker looking at the same countryside shooting the same soldiers you dispatched 20 levels ago. If you fail to kill the enemy before receiving too much damage the game ends.

It is an arcade style shooter so I wasn't expecting a complex plot. However, it is so repetitive that it quickly becomes boring. You never change environments, and the methods of enemy attack are pretty much the same level to level. The enemy is rather dumb and will happily run right into your weapon fire. One thing I didn't understand is that the enemy attacks from all sides, so what exactly are you defending? In short bursts the game is almost passable but after about ten minutes you begin to wonder why you bothered.

Beach Head 2002 might have been able to rise above its simplistic plot if it had good game play. Sadly, it falls short. The gun is hard to control and has a nasty tendency to get stuck aiming into the sky. The graphics are rudimentary and flawed. Tanks drive through hills, helicopters disappear and reappear and the soldier movements look as if they are comprised of three frames of animation. The sound is lackluster and adds nothing to the gameplay. There is no way to figure out where the enemy fire is coming from and the screams of the dying soldiers drown out the tanks and helicopters. Those chunky little soldiers must have some set of lungs. The bugs and ho hum graphics really kill any enjoyment you might get out of the game.

I wouldn't recommend Beach Head 2002 to anyone looking for an exciting war game. Bottom Line: Save your money for a real war game like Medal of Honor or Return to Castle Wolfenstein.

Hardware requirements: 400MHz G3, Mac OS 8.6 or Mac OS X, ATI Rage 128 video card, 128MB RAM (192MB RAM with OS X), 100MB hard disk space, OpenGL and QuickTime Price $19.99 www.fusiongames.com