Personal Computer News


Harrier Attack
By Durell
Oric 48K

 
Published in Personal Computer News #028

Jump-Jet Flak Dash

Harrier Attack is another from the Falklands War stable. Your mission is to take off from an aircraft carrier in a Harrier fighter, fly inland avoiding enemy ground-fire and missiles from enemy fighters, and destroy various targets on the sea and land as you go. You must fly will you reach the enemy base which you bomb and then fly back to, and land on, the aircraft carrier.

Objectives

The right and left cursor keys increase and decrease your speed, and up and down cursor keys are used to move your plane up and down to avoid enemy flak and missiles. The space bar fires short-range missiles horizontally from the plane, and the next line of keys (z to /) drop bombs.

Scoring is by gaining a certain number of points for each target hit, the number depending on what the target is: 200 for a tank or 750 for a patrol boat, for instance. If you successfully land back on the ship you also get a sound from the ship's hooter and the offer of another sortie.

Harrier Attack

The tape is attractively packaged and the loading instructions couldn't be clearer. It takes about nine minutes to load, being recorded at only 300 baud.

In Play

Once loaded, a simple title page appears detailing the highest score, last score and number of targets hit. At this stage the volume level can be altered by typing zero and using the left and right cursor keys. You can also choose a skill level from 1 to 5.

Up cursor lifts your plane off the ship and right cursor results in a very satisfying noise as your plane increases in speed. All you have to do now is fly fairly close to the ground, avoid enemy missiles where necessary, and bomb what you can.

Landing back on the ship is no problem, since your plane automatically slows to zero speed just before the boat is reached.

Verdict

After a few goes the mission can easily be completed, and all that is left is to score extra points. The next skill level adds more speed and weapons, and gives you a longer distance to enemy base, but nothing new. The graphics and sounds are good, but don't seem to add enough to make you want to play the game again and again.

Bob ChappellJohn Fletcher

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