Beach Head 2002 Review

Beach Head 2002 Review

Review by Alex

Beach Head 2002 is an arcade-style shooter where you use a variety of weapons to repel waves of enemy units as they attempt to destroy your lone bunker. You'll have a pretty awesome arsenal at your fingertips, such as an M60 machine gun, 75mm anti-tank gun, a collection of missiles, and you can even call in air strikes once you reach later levels, and with the hoards of enemy units that will come at you, you'll everything you can throw at them if you have any hope of surviving.

Easy Controls, Basic Gameplay

The controls are very simple to use since you are pretty much stuck in a stationary turret and only aim with the mouse or switch weapons with the keyboard. This simple and casual game style makes this title accessible to pretty much anyone and allows you to get into the game within only a couple minutes of gameplay. Also, the graphics and audio are rather well done in some cases with the explosions from missiles, dust clouds from bombs, and the shaking of your bunker under heavy fire adding to tense atmosphere.

Could Get Old Quickly

Sadly though, the action tends to lose its luster after only a couple of levels as you realize that most of the levels are pretty much exactly the same. There are a few levels where things get a little more interesting, such as night missions where you have to use flares to light up the landscape and see the enemy forces or when the enemy wave consists of only fighter jets and you'll have to shoot supply boxes in order to find enough missiles to take them down.

Lacks Variety

Yet, even with these few exceptions you'll most likely just be facing the same type of tanks, soldiers, helicopters, and jets on every mission with the only difference being the numbers of each type which are thrown at you. Since you are in the same bunker the terrain also doesn't change at all in the levels so you can get a bit of an idea where the enemy spawn points tend to be and prepare accordingly.

Conclusion - Fine As a Diversion, Limited Long Term Enjoyment

Overall Beach Head 2002 adds in a few new features to this game series and presents a good looking if not terribly addicting gaming experience. There are probably a few niche gamers which will find this game a lot of fun, but most will probably lose interest after playing it a few times.

If you are looking for some simple arcade-style shooting then Beach Head 2002 a great game to try out but there isn't a whole lot of re-playability to be found.