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"Combines strategy with action and succeeds handsomely"

OVERVIEW
This interesting mix of strategy and action puts you in charge of a British tank force in North Africa during the Second World War. Vital objectives are threatened by German forces commanded by the famous general Rommel. Your goal in this game is to visit each of these objective spots (called 'depots' by the game) and rout the aggressors before any of the depots falls into enemy hands.
To accomplish this, you move your tank force over a map on which all objectives are marked. Securing each depot is a simple matter of moving your force over it, but there is a separate time limit for every depot before it is overrun. If even one falls into German hands, you lose the game.
Of course, your enemy is not about to let you secure every depot without a fight. As you move along the map, you may run into one of five different action scenes which you have to fight your way through. This takes time and will inevitably cause damage to your force as well. If you take too much damage along the way and your force is destroyed, you lose the game as well.
To pile on some more pressure, Rommel's elite tank force is also in the area and chases you around the map. If you have the misfortune of running into him, you'll have the fight of your life and will be lucky to escape in one piece.

With a couple of different action scenes as well as five different levels of play (ranging from very easy to almost impossible), Desert Fox has significant replayability and remains one of my favorite Commodore 64 games to this day.

GAMEPLAY
Most of the game is played on the strategic map, where a blue tank icon indicates the position of your force, and flags mark the depots you must secure. The location and quantity of depots depends on the level of play, and ranges from three (easiest) to seven (hardest). The map also indicates the position of Rommel's elite force with a red swastika which always seems to creep closer a little too fast.
While on the strategic map, you have three options: sending a supply plane to help one of the depots hold off its attackers longer, using your radio to contact Intelligence, or move your task force.
Supply planes do nothing but buy you time, and can only be used a limited number of times (again depending on which level you play). Using them in the right place at the right time is vital to make it possible to get to all depots in time.
Your radio is the single most important tool available to you, as Intelligence can tell you what kind of opposition to expect along the way - in other words, which action scenes you are bound to run in if you move in a certain direction. Because of the danger as well as the time involved in fighting action scenes, you want to avoid them whenever you can, particularly the more difficult types. Using your radio frequently before moving out is the right way to do this, although the reliability of the information you get decreases at higher levels of play.

Whatever route you take, however, you are bound to run into at least some action scenes along the way. The five possibilities are:

Stuka attack: German fighters strafe your tanks, and you must shoot them down before they do too much damage. Easy one.
Tiger attack: German ''Tiger'' tanks assault your force. Like the Stukas, they must be dealt with as quickly as possible, but they are harder to get and tend to do more damage in return.
Mine field: This interesting action scene has you drive through a minefield, avoiding the (clearly visible) mines as best as you can, by using your cannon to shoot them or steering left and right to avoid running your tracks over them. If you drive slowly and carefully, most damage can be avoided here, but time is precious.
Ambush: A difficult and lengthy action scene which has your force drive through a small pass, surrounded by enemies. You must shoot them down before you drive past them, or they will do significant damage to the unarmored rear ends of your tanks.
Convoy attack: The nightmare of every Desert Fox player. German bombers will attack your supply trucks. You control two separate cannons to shoot them down here, but without lightning quick reactions and a dose of luck, the bombers will do terrible damage before you get them all.

In addition to these five standard action scenes, a big fight starts if you run into Rommel's task force. It is similar to the Tiger attack event, except that you must hit Rommel's tank eight separate times, and he is *very* hard to get. If you do manage to get him, though, Rommel will surrender, his force disappears from the map, and one of the depots is automatically secured. On higher levels of difficulty, defeating Rommel in combat is almost vital, as you'd be hard pressed to get to all depots in time otherwise.

All the previous is accomplished under severe time pressure, particularly on the harder levels. Whether you are plotting a route on the strategic map or fighting an action scene, the clock will keep ticking, and once time runs out for only one of your depots, the game is lost. It's this constant pressure that makes Desert Fox an exciting and occasionally nerve-wrecking game.

CONTROLS
Both the strategic and action portions of the game are easily controlled with joystick and fire button. Controls vary slightly for each action scene, but are always easy to learn. It has to be noted that in the action scenes, the joystick responds smoothly, but it gets a little sluggish on the strategic map. You'll need to move the joystick firmly and decisively there, or the game may not respond to it.

GRAPHICS
The strategic map is a fairly accurate representation of the surroundings of Tobruk, although the design of the map and the icons on it is very simple. Action scenes look pretty good for a Commodore game. If an enemy fighter or tank gets close to your force and you get to see all the little details on their graphics, you'll admire the work that has gone into them. The looks of the action scenes are right up there with the classic war game Beachhead.
One interesting and somewhat surprising touch to the graphics is the casual use of the swastika, the symbol of Nazi Germany. While most games involving Germany during the Second World War avoid using this symbol, Desert Fox uses it to indicate the position of Rommel's forces, and also displays the Nazi flag if a depot falls in enemy hands (accompanied with a rather ominous tune). While I personally have no trouble with the display of this symbol, those who do should hereby consider themselves warned.

SOUND
Desert Fox has only a few short music samples, which have a distinct military sound to them. The sound effects consist mostly of shots and explosions, which sound pretty good. It is even possible to change the pitch of the explosions in the game's main menu, allowing you to vary them between deep rumbles and high shrieks, whatever sounds good on your particular TV. This is an interesting touch.
Another good sound effect worth mentioning is the rumble of a Stuka fighter's engine when it passes over your task force to line up for another attack. It's every bit as ominous as the screech of a TIE Fighter in StarWars.

DIFFICULTY
Desert Fox is normally played in campaign mode, where you use the strategic map to move between depots and fight action scenes along the way. You can, however, select an individual action scene from the main menu and play that, allowing you to practice them.
The campaign mode has five different levels titled ''Beginner'' to ''Grand Master''. As the level names suggest, the first is easy enough to complete, and the last is next to impossible. Action scenes do not get more dangerous on higher levels in any way, but there are more depots, they are wider apart, they tend to have less time before they are overrun, and last but not least, there are far more action scenes on the map. On the first level, you can run a path between the three depots which only includes three action scenes (two Stuka Attacks and one Tiger Attack). On Grand Master, you'll need to take a complicated, twisting route to avoid any dangerous Ambush or Convoy events, and you'll be fighting off Stukas and Tigers all the time, while keeping one eye on the clock and wondering how you are ever going to make it.
The difference between the five levels is significant enough to increase the challenge, but not so big that the step from one level to another is too great once you're ready for something more. All in all, Desert Fox did a good job on the difficulty settings, resulting in good replayability and lasting value.

VICTORY:
Desert Fox positively rocks in the following areas:

- Good range of difficulty settings making the game equally suitable to beginners and experts;
- Good balance between strategy and action keeps the game interesting;
- Excellent use of graphics and sound to add to the game's atmosphere.

DEFEAT:
Some issues with Desert Fox are:

- Sluggish joystick response on the strategic map;
- Use of the swastika symbol which may be a deterrent to some.

CONCLUSION
Among the few war simulator titles the Commodore 64 has, Desert Fox stands its ground with pride. It successfully bridges the gap between strategy and action and provides enthusiasts of either genre with an excellent hybrid. Heartily recommended to any Commodore 64 player!



Reviewer's Score: 9/10 | Originally Posted: 08/09/01, Updated 08/09/01

Desert Fox is one of those 'difficult to categorise' games involving arcade and strategy elements. The game puts you into the heat of World War Two's desert campaign and pits your wits against that most notorious of opponents, Rommel. There are several campaigns selectable from the main menu, but each of these has several constituent parts which may be individually played out in practice sessions, again selectable from the main menu.

Before you get that involved however, there is the option to modify the sound effects used throughout the game. Basically, a joystick is used to toggle envelope settings. After these have been altered to the player's satisfaction, it's best to proceed directly to the first of the practice sequences.

Stuka! Stuka! Lone Wolf's gunner desparately
tries to line up his cross hairs before the plane
can strafe the tank.

The first of these is an attack on Lone Wolf (the code name for your tank -- a fictitious Turbo Sherman) by enemy Stuka dive-bombers. The player is given the tank commander's point of view, as enemy bombers zoom in from the horizon. Guided by a radar display in the bottom left hand corner of the screen and a joystick movable sight, the Stukas have to be eliminated by Lone Wolf's slow firing but powerful gun before too much damage is inflicted by the Luftwaffe. For all the scenarios, damage is shown in a gauge at the bottom of the commander's display.

There is also a tank duel section where an enemy tank (apparently with firepower similar to Lone Wolf's) skirts across the limits of your field of vision, loosing off shots as it goes. Only one direct hit is needed to knock out a tank but apart from the difficulties of finding its range, it seems to be highly manoeuvrable and avoids many shots as a consequence. It does get nearer as the fight progresses but it also tends to achieve more hits, so a balance has to be struck somewhere.

Lone Wolf's twin machine guns are the only thing
that stands between the enemy aircraft and their
potential convoy target.

One of the trickier sections to master is the Convoy scenario. This has Lone Wolf protecting an allied Convoy under attack from enemy fighter-bombers. The screen shows a continuous line of moving vehicles in the middle distance and an absolute traffic jam of fighter bombers letting loose their rain of hell. This time Lone Wolf has two heavy machine guns pointing at the enemy. There are also two sights. Which of the two sights is in operation depends on whether the joystick is toggled left or right. Simultaneous operation of the two weapons is impossible. As usual, the score for this section is displayed in a window in the right hand part of the 'dashboard' -- for want of better terminology. This section becomes horrendously complex because as well as the enemy aircraft (shown in red) there are defending (green) Spitfires, which must not he shot down (unless you enjoy throwing away points).

An ambush scenario included in the game is vaguely reminiscent of the Star Wars Death Star Trench sequence as Lone Wolf travels through a canyon, trying to destroy the mortar emplacements attacking him from both sides. There is little else to this sequence but it is one of the fastest moving parts of the game.

Finally there is a minefield to successfully navigate. Mines are just visible and can be destroyed by gunfire, however any that go under the tracks will inevitably do damage to the tank and slow it down by covering the tracks in sand. A blue line appears in the compass window, indicating the course to be followed. The time taken to complete this section also has a direct bearing on the score achieved.

After competence has been gained in each of these sections, you are ready to move up to the campaigns. There are five of these, each harder than the last. To win, it is necessary to relieve any supply depots threatened by Rommel's forces. If a prohibitive amount of damage is done to the 'Super Tank' or if any one of the depots falls to the enemy, the campaign is lost.


At the start of the campaign, a map of North Africa is displayed with several icons and characters on it. A little tank reveals your current position and a swastika, that of Rommel. Grey flags show where the depots are. These turn to blue if the depot has been saved or red if they are lost. To the right of the screen are several icons labelled Move, Airstrike, Radio, and Zoom. Zoom is used to find the status of the depots. If that icon has been selected and the cursor is located over one of the flags, a picture zooms into the centre of the screen to show the number of enemy and allied tanks at the depots and an indication of how many hours it has left before falling to the enemy. Once a depot has been selected to be saved, on the basis of that information, the Radio icon displays a beacon coming from Lone Wolf. The joystick is used to point this in the desired direction and allows the interception of enemy messages indicating the amount and type of opposition likely to be encountered on a given course. Clever use of this feature is used to avoid unnecessary encounters and action. As all the campaigns last at least 24 hours, there are dawn, day, dusk and night sequences. Combat should really be avoided at night and dusk. Incidentally, if there is nothing but static on the radio, it means no opposition will be encountered.

Selecting the Move icon moves Lone Wolf a certain number of units in the direction the Radio beacon was last pointing. Rommel is out to stop you from succeeding in your mission and as a result careful consideration must be given to which route is to be taken. If it begins to seem unlikely that a depot may be reached before it falls to the enemy, then an Airstrike may be called in to buy time. There may only be one Airstrike in the game however, so it's advisable to pick your time with care.

If (or when?) Rommel is finally encountered it's better to have suffered very little damage, as eight direct hits are required to make him surrender. If the Desert Fox does surrender, 8000 bonus points are awarded and one depot is saved. Also, saving a convoy buys a depot more time and reduces the player's damage when he reaches it.

Desert Fox is an unusual, but very competent, blend of strategy and arcade action, although the former attribute is perhaps mote subtle than the latter but it certainty exists. On playing it is evident that a great deal of thought and time has gone into the game, as it is highly polished in appearance. The graphics are, on the whole, excellent and the sound is befitting and complementary, especially the crystal clear speech. Despite being reminiscent of Beach Head, Desert Fox is a great game in its own right and should appeal to a wide variety of 64 owners.

Presentation 90%
Plenty of options and slick in appearance.

Graphics 82%
Simple but effective.

Sound 95%
Superb FX and speech synthesis.

Hookability 86%
Easy to get into but demanding overall game.

Lastability 87%
Five campaigns with increasing difficulty.

Value For Money 85%
Oodles of variety in the gameplay.

Overall 87%
An excellent blend of strategy and arcade action.