Developed and published by Ocean in 1987. Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Al82_Retro Add me on Google+: http://bit.ly/1tPwL1u Ocean developed and released this game to tie in with the release of Oliver Stone's harrowing movie based on the Vietnam conflict. I must confess that I've never seen the film in it's entirety, so I won't comment on how accurately the game follows the plot of the film. Ignoring the fact that it's based on the film, Platoon turns out to be a surprisingly good game; more-often-than-not games based on movies tended to be of dubious quality, but this certainly bucks the trend. Once the title screen is loaded, the player is treated to some excellent music courtesy of Jonathan Dunn; it's definitely worth taking the time to listen to the music in it's entirety before starting the game. The opening level places the player in the midst of the dense Vietnamese jungle, which happens to be crawling with Vietcong guerillas, explosive tripwires and other hazards. The mission is to locate a cache of explosives hidden somewhere in the jungle and to use them to destroy the bridge that gives passage to a nearby village. Once destroyed, the player must travel to the village and gain access to the tunnel system located there. Mapping the jungle is a difficult enough task when every part of the jungle looks the same, but enemy troops regularly appear from the sides of the screen, leap from the undergrowth or take pot-shots from camouflaged trapdoors on the jungle floor. Colliding with the enemy, getting shot or setting off a booby trap will inflict a number of "hits" on the current soldier, sustain too many hits and the soldier is killed, forcing you to switch to another member of the platoon. Each platoon member carries his own stock of ammunition, grenades and hit counter. The player can switch between the solders by pressing F1 - F7 on the keyboard. Although enemies can drop ammo packs (yellow boxes), they are scare so it's a good idea to swap between soldiers when ammo gets low. Once in the tunnels, the game changes to a first-person view. The player must search the tunnels for caches of flares and a compass before finding a suitable exit. Enemy troops frequently appear from out of the gloom, or will burst forth from the water on the tunnel floor and attempt to stab you with a knife (something I found truly terrifying as a child!). In both cases you have a few precious seconds to move the on-screen reticle over the enemy and to gun him down before he can take you out. Before exiting the tunnels, it's a good idea to stock up on ammunition and medical supplies because the next section sees you hunkered down in a fox hole in the dead of night as Vietcong troops assault your position. The objective is to shoot enemies before they can open fire on your position, but the pitch black of night makes spotting them extremely difficult. The flares you collected can be used to illuminate the battlefield temporarily, giving you time to spot enemies and to take them out before being plunged back into darkness. The speed at which enemies appear increases as time goes on, so you have to be quick on the draw if you are to survive. The final section is a race against time though NVA territory to reach the extraction point. This section works a bit like the 3D sections from Gryzor (Contra) and requires you to shoot enemies at the top of the screen whilst avoiding oncoming fire, as well as obstacles littering the ground. Making contact with barbed wire or land mines will inflict a hit whilst rocks and other debris block the way. Once at the top of the screen, the player can choose to go left or right, but there is only one correct path to the rendezvous. The compass collected from the tunnels is meant to help, but I just found it useless. If there is one section that lets the game down, it's this one. Avoiding the enemy bullets and obstacles is far too difficult and is a real shame as the rest of the game is very well balanced. Should you manage to find the correct path, your path to salvation is blocked by Sergeant Barnes who has taken up residence in a bunker. Grabbing a box of grenades, you must take out his position before the time runs out. Final section excluded, Platoon is surprisingly good fun to play. The game mechanics are well implemented, with good collision detection and responsive controls. I particularly liked the decision to limit the amount of ammunition each soldier can carry as this leads to slightly more cautious and tactical gameplay than if you could simply plough through the jungle all guns blazing. The graphics and artwork are extremely good, particularly the opening jungle and tunnel levels. Both the artwork and the stunning music really add to the atmosphere of the game. In a genre packed full of terrible conversions and lame cash-ins, Platoon not only stands out as one of the best games based on a movie, but also as one of the best games released on the C64.

• published: 17 Jan 2015
• views: 53