Commodore User


Operation Swordfish
By British
Commodore 64/128

 
Published in Commodore User #21

Operation Swordfish

It's 1942 and the Allies have sent an invasion fleet towards the Mediterranean coast. It's your job to stop this. Yes, you're not even fighting for your own country. But you are at least a U-Boat commander.

You have two methods of engaging Tommy in battle. You can either shoot down the Fairey Swordfish, or fire torpedoes at the convoy as its sails past. If this sounds at all familiar, one look at the screen with your gun will confirm that this is Beach Head revisited. This would not be so bad if the graphics and gameplay matched up to the original, but they don't. You seem to be firing blocks at the approaching planes, and the exploisions when you shoot them down aren't much reward.

Your main considerations are switching in between the two modes of attack. When the planes are flying you need to be on the surface. When the convoy starts depth-charging you need to be underneath firing torpedoes. Your one means of defence is a hatch which acts like a shield for some strange reason. If you can stay behind that and pop out occasionally, you'll last a lot longer. You'll need to because this game doesn't allow much room for error. You do not have a whole pack of submarines, so the result is that it all tends to be over pretty quickly, which is fine from a patriotic viewpoint, but not much fun if you're trying to have a good game!

If some novelty could have been added, I might have felt better disposed towards it, but this is just a hybrid of Beach Head and Sea Wolf and not worth the high price either.