Game Review: Action Force (Commodore 64, Mastertronic / MAD / Virgin Games)

Many of you in the UK may remember playing with the likes of Action Man figures as a child. These were based on the American G.I. Joe, created in the mid 1960s and launched in the UK later on. Fast forward to 1982 and G.I. Joe becomes its own series of G.I. Joe: An All-American Hero, with various men being part of the G.I. Joe Team, up against the evil Cobra terrorist organisation. From that team, the UK version followed on the action theme, naming it Action Force. Epyx in the US had then released its own G.I. Joe game, based on the 1982 version with the team and the All-American Hero series, before Virgin Games had the rights to do a game based on the UK version, Action Force, which they released in late 1987 and the game had a budget release via Mastertronic’s MAD label (just purely indicating a more expensive price point by this time) in mid-1989.

Not So Super Cobra

The instructions explain the plot in lengthy detail. Effectively, you are the characters Wild Bill as pilot and Flint as weapons man, and you need to pilot the Dragonfly helicopter against the forces of the evil organisation Cobra. The island of Botsneda is the location, where a ruthless attack by Cobra forced civilians off the island. The Eastern section of the island was not fully destroyed on retreat, allowing Cobra to take that over. It also contained a spy base with information on a hard disk, which needs to be retrieved before Cobra locate it. This is where Action Force comes in, and the AWE Striker has all the sensitive equipment it needs to read the necessary data and ensure it does not fall into the wrong hands. However, it needs to be protected at all costs and that is where the Dragonfly comes in, shooting any spiked barricades that will be lethal to the AWE Striker, and also building the necessary bridge parts to be winched into place so that the path is clear.

It would have been easier to basically explain the plot in less time, or a simpler version: in effect, you need to make sure you protect the AWE Striker at all costs, and make sure it gets across the level from left to right in order to complete it. If the Striker is destroyed, then it is effectively game over and only any form of high score to aim at, because you cannot complete the game from that point.  Although the instructions do tell you the directions, fire, and bomb, what they do not tell you is how to get the bridge parts and relocate them. What they should tell you is that hovering over a part and pressing fire picks is up, and getting to the gap and pressing fire drops the part down to ensure that the suitable gap is filled – and the fact you can carry multiple bridge parts at once too. It is poor that it is not mentioned correctly and does mean that it is trial and error to work out that part and what you have to do.

Fuel For Thought

The first level starts off with your Dragonfly quite close to the centre of the level, where the fuel and ammo can be collected – provided of course you or the enemy have not destroyed the landing bays where you land the Dragonfly in order to boost the firepower, bombs, and fuel. This can be too easy to do by mistake and if you do that with fuel it would become a race against time to try and get the level completed quickly.  Also, the grey planes shoot some lethal air to ground missiles that can hit the Dragonfly and be killed in one hit, and colliding with the left or right hand sections of the level at each end also results in an explosion and an instant game over. Yes, you have one life, and one life only.

Soon enough you will find the bridge parts, and one is near the centre, the other to the right. For the first level, getting the one from the right and carrying it over to the left means that the AWE Striker can pass safely, and then once past, you will need to get both bridge parts and and get them back over the two gaps further right in the level – remembering of course you can pick up the two at once – which of course the instructions do not tell you. You do need to do this quickly or else the AWE Striker falls into the hole, meaning it cannot get to the far end, and you may as well restart because you will go no further – the screen going dark into almost night mode as a result of that incident happening. Surely having two or three chances to get across would have made the game less frustrating and more playable?

It’s a Small World, After All

The status display at the bottom of the screen means that the actual play area for the game to take place in is much too small. This gives you a very limited time to react to the enemy fire or those grey planes, and means also you need to be really careful to ensure you do not blow up the landing pads for the fuel or the ammo, the fuel especially being one that seems to be hit too easily. In addition, whilst on a landing pad, the Dragonfly is most vulnerable, meaning that you effectively have to time the collection of fuel or ammo carefully and then move on. Tweaks to the playability would have helped here.

Similar to the ZX Spectrum version, one bug bear is the turning around in the Dragonfly. You need to slow down and then turn at times, and that can be a little frustrating and does not really help when in a tight spot. The dropping of bombs when using down and fire seems haphazard at best. Sometimes it works, but not always, and maybe a hold the fire button down for a second would have released the bomb, meaning you may not have done so by accident, destroying part of the landscape which your AWE Striker vehicle needs to cross to get to the end. The relevant spiked barricades are often not that clearly marked either, and it is initial trial and error to see that you actually needed to shoot or bomb those areas so that the AWE Striker can pass. It is a case of having those features detailed and explained properly would have made a much better difference to the overall gameplay and the look and feel.

Levelling Up

If you do manage to get the AWE Striker across, a radio message with typed characters like the old football vidiprinter appear on screen to show the level is complete and off to the next one. Level two incidentally does require you to shoot two barricades pretty quickly or the AWE Striker explodes and it is an effective game over even before you get started on that. Again, this is where playability tweaks may have made sense so that the sort of difficulty and need to respond very quickly is on a much later level than this one. The plot and gameplay remains the same with a limited amount of time and fuel – more so as the fuel does not top up between levels either. Oh, and one final insult to injury – if you do not pick up the four bridge parts close to the end of level two, as you can carry these forwards between levels, then you will not do level three. Again, where is the explanation for this?

Although the play area is not the largest, the score display and the appropriate symbols for weapons and bombs left, and the number of bridge parts available, plus the score work well. It is also not made clear how the numbers above the Dragonfly or AWE Striker icons work – through some research I did, it is how many hits they have taken, and there is a maximum of 200 for the Dragonfly and 100 for the AWE Striker before they are destroyed. A larger play area could potentially have been made too had they not had to whack in the Action Force logo as part of the score display.

Graphics and Sound

The graphics in Action Force vary. The loading screen in high resolution is reasonable, and the score display and layout does look at least presentable. The main play area, although a little small, does scroll smoothly and the large size of the helicopter and the enemies does mean that reaction time at times can be limited. The background graphics are reasonably drawn as are the enemies, but it is another game that relies on too much brown for its own liking on the backdrops. The sound has some okay sound effects and a short title theme which is sufficient but not that special whatsoever, and claiming it is pushing the Commodore to its limits is an outright lie on this part especially. No in-game soundtrack option or even some sampled sound effects to enhance the action either.

Final Thoughts

The bold claim that Action Force has, in that your Commodore 64’s capabilities are pushed to the limit, is just not the case. The small screen playing area is proof of that, along with the relatively weak sound across the game too. Whilst it may look nice, more concentration was needed to ensure the game was not just playable but also had a difficulty level that gradually got you into the game rather than one mistake and it may as well be instant game over. Better instructions or even a demo tutorial, showing you the objectives, the enemies et al, would have been helpful, and the random elements sometimes of how the enemies appear does mean that through no fault of your own you can have a very quick game over message when you feel it is not your fault. Even managing to complete the first two or three levels, the gameplay is effectively more of the same, with no redeeming features, and gets boring quickly. More could and should have been done with the licence and it smacks of a cheap cash in.

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