Gunboat

Your Sinclair

Life Expectancy 57%

Graphics 55%

Addictiveness 58%

Instant Appeal 65%

Overall 62%

Kati Hamza 62%

Accolade £10.99 cass/£16.99 disk Reviewer: Kati Hamza The lucky ones are born with them. Millions of people never get them at all. If you're a fisherman or a pirate you'll definitely have 'em, if you're like me you probably never will. What am I on about? Sea legs, of course. And by amazing coincidence, everyone in this game has at least two. In fact, they're so good at running around a ship without getting a headache or having to lie down with a couple of aspirin that they've all been recruited to join the US Marines, bunged in a boat and sent off to kill lots of people (or something). Hurrah! Of course, this being a game and everything, it's you personally who's in charge of this little lot, commissioned to pilot a US PBR a it chugs around the Vietnamese waterways, using your RPGs to flush out those dastardly NVA and VC and counter their FSS tanks and their APCs. Erm... In other words you've got to zoom up-river in a boat, shoot at lots of Vietnamese commies on the way (bang), shoot a bit more when you get there (bang, bang) and live long enough to get a medal pinned on your chest when you get back (ouch). Sounds daunting? Never fear. There are optional grenade-hurling and machine-gun-firing training sessions and during the first mission it doesn't matter how may times the natives shoot off your sea legs because you can't actually lose them at all (ie die). Major Military Decision Number One is deciding where to sit. At any time you can switch between four main positions - pilot, bow gunner (at the front), midship gunner (in the middle) and stern gunner (at the back). Whole you're playing one, the others are on auto-pilot, though if you're a gunner you'll have to bellow some briny, sea-salt expression like 'Reverse Course!' or 'Branch Right!' to give the pilot directions at those crucial points. If you're list just consult the map Mom packed in your lunchbox. Playing gunner is a piece of cake. You just sit next to your gun, aim it and watch those commies splatter. Playing pilot is the tough job - he's the one who has to drive the thing. This would be easy if you could see where you were going but Gunboat has a natty visual twist - instead of boring old first-person perspective you get a weird fish-eye-lens view which shows more of the area around you. Now, on the one hand this means you can see more; on the other hand what you see doesn't always make sense. If, for example, you turn to face the shore you can see both up and down the river - a mite bizarre. This isn't just weird, it's very weird and can make getting your bearings rather confusing. The graphics don't help either. Yep, this 3D's about as sophisticated as Genghis Khan and a lot less smooth to boot. The low-level land and the sea are identical, and since all that separates them is a little white line it takes a bit of imagination to tell them apart. That said. a rather spunky lurching boat effect does give a very good impression of actually being on deck. As you go up-river the friendly Viet Cong attack from the bank and in boats and start lobbing bullets at you. If you're feeling generous, press Identify Target to tell the baddies from the peasants - the best way to get rid of them is to fire indiscriminately into the jungle. The next best way is to leg it smartly around the next bend. Now there'd be a lot of potential in all this messing about on the river, shooting and navigating lark if it was well implemented. So, is it well implemented? No, not altogether it's not. There's some tension, but better graphics and sound more elaborate than a constant engine drone would have added a lot to the atmosphere. And there's action, but not enough to keep you from the latest gripping instalment of That's My Dog. Though it's not a game totally devoid of fun, this isn't really much more than an average 3D shoot-'em-up with sea legs. However, if unusual blasters are your thang you should still be able to get a few hours of jerky fun out of this little thing - you just won't be playing it for the rest of your life.

And here's the view from another bit of the boat. There's the jungle, hot, sticky, crawling with nasty insects and full of foreigners throwing bombs. Yikes!

Here we are, a-tootling along the river, all ready to shoot something (except nothing really seems to be happening). Hold on though - what's that!? It seems to be... the Statue of Liberty? What's that doing here? I'm getting very, very confused. (Perhaps the jungle's getting to me.)

Hmm. Very 'ecologically sound, isn't it? Those green lines are the rivers, and all that other green stuff is ground, rocks, trees and so on. Nice, eh?

Crash

Presentation 70%

Graphics 62%

Sound 54%

Playability 65%

Addictivity 64%

Overall 67%

Mark Caswell 75%

Nick Roberts 59%

Accolade £10.99/£16.99 No prizes for guessing what Gunboat's all about - it's a river combat simulation thence the title!). You're the skipper of a PBR (Patrol Boat: River), and your mission is to destroy set targets in different locations. Your rank determines your location, and as you start the game at the bottom of the promotional ladder, your first few hours of duty are based around Vietnam. There are four positions to fill on the boat: the pilot's seat, the bow gunner's seat, the engineer/midship gunner's seat and the stern gunner's seat. How can just one person fill all of these positions? Well, if you're in one of the gunners' shoes the computer contols the pilot. However, its steering isn't as good as yours, so try and spend as much time as possible in the pilot's chair. The target is usually deep in enemy territory - miles up some of the most tortuous rivers ever seen. Continuous use of the map is advised because it's all too easy to lose your way; its also very easy to walk into the enemy. Your gunnery skills are tested as you throw everything you've got at the tanks, boats and enemy troops that patrol the river banks. But a word of warning: make sure you've identified a target correctly because it's all too easy to hit civilians! And make every shot count because the enemy fire back, often hitting one of the crew. There are three ways to end the mission: the successful completion of a task, the death of all the crew or you chickening out and returning to base (guess which one I did most!). Gunboat is a tough game, so make good use of the practice options. I fount the PB:R difficult to control at first, and hitting targets isn't easy because the waters are pretty choppy and the PB:R bounces a lot! Graphically, the game's good, especially the guns and pilot's cabin, though background sprites are unimpressive. Sound is also a bit of a let down with bog standard engine drone and whee, boom gun effects. If you have the patience for simulations Gunboat is for you - paid blasting fans may soon find their interest drifting elsewhere. MARK 75%