Top Secret Magazine Spearhead

First there was M1 Tank Platoon, then M1 Tank Platoon II and a score of other tank sims this year.... So will Spearhead be the next standard for Tank Sims? Well, not quite, but its still a good try.

Spearhead takes the classic I-Magic approach to gaming, trying to mix a solid blend of game for both hard core simmers and newbies alike. Only this time, they did a fairly good job on it.

Notice I did say fairly good job.... Meaning its not perfect. Spearhead seems to be lacking in features that are standard in most all other tank sims. Some of these features include the ability to control other tanks in your platoon, or even get them to drive in formation with you. There are only two settings for your fellow tanks, roam, and 'do-as-I-do'. This hardly is enough to be a coordinated fighting force. You either have your tanks roaming all over the place, or following you around in an unorganized fashion. I found that most useful thing they could provide is cover and a distraction for enemies. Also, issuing any kind of command is done in a very strange and untraditional way. Instead of the standard object oriented commands, where you click the unit you want to command, and then give it a command to carry out. Spearhead uses a command oriented set of commands. Where you must select what you want a unit to do, then you select the unit you want to perform that task.

Now that the list of bad things are out of the way, I must say, Spearhead is fun and quite addicting, as long as you can get over the lack of command and other problems. Spearhead includes 20 single player missions and a 23 mission campaign. Settings can be changed for the single player missions only, such as difficulty settings. The campaign is linear, which is another point of complaint for me.

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A linear campaign means you must complete your mission if you are to proceed to the next, and if you fail, you must try again until you pass it. The missions in both single and campaign modes seem to geared toward the action fan, while the sim itself has enough realism to keep the simmers happy. Though in realism, it cant compare to M1 Tank Platoon II, it is certainly still fun. The best analogy I can think of is, M1 Tank Platoon II is to Janes F15, as Spearhead is to Janes ATF. Meaning, M1 Tank Platoon II is for the medium to hardcore crowd, while Spearhead is for the newbie/action sim crowd.

As for the graphics, they're not quite up to snuff to compete with M1 Tank Platoon II, but they are pretty good. The terrain is great, which makes it easy to spot hills and to estimate the distance and elevation of them. Which is important in any tank sim. The vehicle models are about average, though they have good looking textures to cover them up.

The enemy AI seems pretty intelligent. You'll notice that at every opportunity, they'll try and out flank you. And there is almost always that lone BMP taking pot shots at you from afar, which is quite annoying, and can be effective if you don't do something about him. To add to the effect of smart AI, you'll see turrets swiveling back and forth. The special effects in Spearhead are great. There's just something about watching a 20 ton turret fly 50 feet through the air, or watching the ordnance in a tank cook off after being hit in the ammo storage area.

Spearhead is, despite its flaws, is a great action sim, for the semi-serious tank simmer. Overall its a good title, but if your looking for ultra realism, you wont find it here. So if you want action over realism, then I highly suggest this game.

Company:
I-Magic
www.imagicgames.com

Category:
Action/Tank Sim

NOTES:

Interest: 80%
Maniability : 84%
Graphics: 85%
Sound : 83%
Originality : 78%

TOTAL : 82%

Requirements:

Operating System:
Windows 95/98

Processor:
Pentium 166MHz or better

Memory:
24 MB of RAM

Hard Drive:
NOT LISTED

Sound Card:
Windows compatible sound card

Video:
1024x768 resolution video card and monitor with DirectX 5.2

Joshua Westhoven

DEMO