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Firepower puts you in the driving seat of a tank traversing a huge desert blowing away anything unfortunate enough to get in your way, with the aim of capturing the enemy’s flag. The desert is spanned by a network of roads which are used to get from location to location. You can drive over the desert but this slows the tank down. It won’t be long, though, before you come across hostile gun emplacements, which are easily identifiable as they are a different colour to your own. Fortunately you have the weaponry to dispose of them and after a few hits from your missiles they explode to the sound of a sampled BOOM leaving just a smouldering pile of rubble. In fact just about every ground feature can be destroyed, one way or another and there is some serious fun to be had as you trundle around laying waste to anything and everything.

It is important to remember that tanks do not run on fresh air and if your limited supply of fuel should hit zero, your tank very thoughtfully explodes to ensure that it does not get taken by the enemy. Enemy fuel depots are rife, and just waiting to be destroyed in order to replenish your tank’s supplies.

By battling through your opponent’s heavily guarded territory and wiping out his home base, you can capture his flag, and by returning to base with it, you can sit back in the smug satisfaction that you have completed the mission. That is about all there is to the one player mode, apart from a few subtasks such as rescuing your fellow soldiers from the battlefield as they run towards you, and depositing them safely at a nearby station.

It is in the two-player mode, however, that the game comes into its own. The packaging blurb makes a big thing out of the player vs player mode, and quite rightly so. The display is split into two independently scrolling screens, one for each player, and there is a real sense of competition as you and a friend attempt to blow away as much of each other’s territory as possible in your quest for the opposition’s flag.

Firepower features some attractively designed and well animated graphics (although the scrolling is a little jerky when you get up to high speed) and plenty of explosions.

The action can prove a little too tedious on your own, but this minor quibble should not put you off indulging in this enjoyable and well executed game. If you were a fan of Jackal or Tank in the arcades and are looking for something of that genre, hang some fluffy dice from your monitor for authenticity and get trundling. .
Gary Whitta

Title Firepower
Game Type Shoot-em-up
Publisher Silent Software Inc.
Players 1 or 2 (two players on one Amiga, or two linked up.)
Compatibility All Amigas
HD Installable No
Submission Nathan Wain Profiled Reviewer

Review
COPY PROTECTION
Amiga-DOS disk, but the game refuses to run if the files are copied to the
Hard Drive. No manual code or word look-up.


MACHINES USED FOR TESTING
UAE virtual A500, 1Meg Chip, 4 Meg Fast, Kick 2.04, 2 floppy drives.

A4000, 2Meg Chip, 112Meg Fast, Kickstart 3.1, 1.2 Gig Quantum HDD, Apollo
4040 daughter board (68040 at 40MHz, with SCSI and 96Meg of local RAM),
PicassoIV Graphics Card, VLab video-digitiser, Toshiba 16x CD-Rom, 2
internal floppy-drives, Supra 14.4k Modem, Viewsonic E70 17" SVGA monitor.

A4000, 2Meg Chip, 16Meg Fast, Kickstart 3.1, 1.2 Gig Quantum HDD, Toshiba
16x CD-Rom, additional floppy-drive, Supra 14.4k Modem, 1942 Multisync
monitor. (Standard 25MHz 68030 CPU without FPU)

A1200, 2Meg Chip, 32Meg Fast, Kickstart 3.0, 340 Meg Seagate 2.5" HDD, GVP
Cobra accellerator-board (68030 and 68882 at 50MHz, without SCSI),
additional floppy-drive, Supra 14.4k Modem, 1942 MultiSync monitor.

A1200, 2Meg Chip, 4Meg Fast, Kickstart 3.0, 120 Meg Quantum 2.5" HDD, GVP
Ram expansion board (2 SIMM slots and 68882 FPU slot only), additional
floppy-drive, Supra 14.4k Modem, Thompson PAL monitor.

A500, 0.5Meg Chip, 0.5Meg Fast, Kickstart 1.2, one external Floppy drive,
Thompson PAL monitor.


FIRST IMPRESSIONS
This is from the early days of the Amiga. Quite possibly none of the Amiga
custom chips are being put to good use at all. It is probably safe to
assume the game was designed for both the Amiga and ST at the same time,
hence the lack of colours, small screen size, simplistic sound, and
software scrolling. (But when I first saw it every Amiga game looked like
this, so I thought it was great way back then.)

Once you get past this, a few clicks through the opening options (tank
type, number of players), get you to the point where the cool gameplay
will take hold. Its a simple but fun game. The objective might not leap
out at you straight away, but there is much enjoyment to be had all the
same.

The initial foray usually involves driving the tank out of your base to be
attacked by enemy helicopters. (It would seem the enemy are early risers.
The fools. They should perish for their evil early rising ways.) A few
quick shots restore peace, and the opportunity to explore.

The envoronment is fun because you can shoot just about everything.
Destroy most buildings or gun emplacements and you will see little men
scatter in panic from the smoking ruins. Being such a maneuverable little
tank the natural urge is to chase them down and run them over, which
leaves a satisfying red splat mark on the ground.

The gratuity and cute red splat marks littering the landscape are one of
those little touches in the game that just make it a whole lot of fun.


GAMEPLAY
After a while you will probably realise that some of the game map is
occupied by buildings and passive gun emplacements with the same colour
theme as your own tank, while the rest have a blue tint to indicate the
colour of the enemy. (At this stage you might also realise that most of
your initial fun has been destroying your own people. But such are the
sacrifices we must make in the name of military training, eh?)

Enemy gun turrets will automatically fire on you as soon as you are within
range. They are relatively easily taken out due to them being able to
shoot in only eight directions, while you can manage around 16 (or maybe
20), allowing you to simply approach them on a vulnerable angle and shoot.
Despite how unchallenging this makes the game sound, guns often have
overlapping attack patterns to complicate things. But you have more to
worry about than just gun turrets.

There is also an enemy tank. It will be controlled by either the computer
or a second player, and it will be trying to infiltrate your base, and
steal your flag. Your mission is to do the same to them. The enemy
fortifications and mobile units are only there to slow you down as you try
to achieve your goal. And they do a good job of that.

You have limited armour (essentially the players 'energy', or shield), and
each enemy hit depletes this precious protection. If I recall correctly,
shields cannot be replenished either. So getting to your objective
relatively unscathed is kinda important. Causing maximum damage on the way
is tempting, but doing so can leave you damaged, and possibly short of
time to boot.


GENERAL OPINION
The good old style of Amiga game. Simple, instantly playable, but hard to
put down. You might be able to beat the game, but the desire to inflict
maximum damage on your enemy on the way provides a natural challenge. The
desire to chase down the soldiers for that 'splat satisfaction' can often
lead you into the path of another gun turret, and maybe a little more
action than you bargained for.

As a result the game always manages to be something of a challenge.


LIKES
Short learning curve, but lots of playability to be had. The option to
play against another human opponent adding another dimension to it all.

Simple menu system that leads you into the game without delay, and with
exactly the options you want. (Unless having to choose between three
things twice in the space of a minute is too much for ya.)

As much destruction and gratuitous violence as your overzealous sense of
adventure can handle. Sometimes this game is more fun to just sit down at
and inflict damage on your foe's base. The game doesn't hold you to
rushing straight for the objective, and this freedom is a major strength.


DISLIKES AND SUGGESTIONS
No hard-drive installer. And more than that, that it's a mere AmigaDOS
disk, so the files can be copied to the hard-drive but the game just
refuses to let you run it from there. (Of course, I can understand the
need for such copy protection. But it's frustrating to be tied to using
slow floppy disks none the less.)

The graphics and sound are a bit simplistic. The Amiga's capabilities
certainly aren't being challenged. But it's all still good enough that
this is easily forgotten.

Full screen in the two player link-up mode would be nice. As it is you
have the same half-screen game window no matter how you play. I would be
happier to be able to have a full-screen view when possible.


BUGS
I haven't found any. I don't recall the game ever crashing on me.


CONCLUSIONS
Great little game. Not an epic game by modern Amiga standards, but back in
its day it was a top commercial release. Instantly playable, and a blast
to learn. This is what the old arcade tank game was always trying to be.
It's nice to see the tank game genre get it so right with something like
this.