Sherman M 4 logo

LORICIELS £19.99 * Joystick and Mouse

The American Sherman tank and all its variants did sterling service for the allies during World War II, so for all those of you who have dreamt of getting to grips with one of the ugle brutes, here is your chance.

It is a one-player game containing three scenarios based on actual battles and campaigns in which Shermans played an important part. The first is The Normandy Landings, in which the Sherman is in an aggressive role: five single scenarios can be played individually in any order or all five can be played one after the other to form a sort of campaign game. The other scenarios are The Ardennes, where Hitler launched a massive tank offensive, so your role is far more defensive; and North Africa, where things are much more strategic.

Once you have decided which to play, you can alter the game's parameters to suit; that is, alter the enemy's difficulty levels and so on. Do all that and you then get your instructions from the Sarge before setting off.

Playing the game involves managing four tanks and achieveing the specified objective. The first Normany mission requires you to knock out a couple of enemy bunkers and then take control of an enemy camp. A map of the location is provided - giving orders to the tanks is simplicity itself. Simply select the destination and the tank goes trundling towards it - once all four are away you can jump into the command seat of any of them simply by pressing a key. Then you can take control if you wish and fight the enemy yourself or just sit and watch. The autopilot can be switched back on just as easily.

Remember when playing the campaign game that you only have four tanks with which to complete the game and once one tank is out of action, it is out of action for good. That is not a problem if you play the scenarios one after another however, because you are given four at the start of each regardless of how well you did in the last scenario.

GRAPHICS AND SOUND

The graphics really are very good - very fast filled 3D with options for other views as well as the usual driver's eye view. The sound is not too hot, but it is adequate. Fast and well animated - a good looker.

LASTING INTEREST

With fifteen missions and the ability to 'limit set' yourself by bumping up the enemy's difficulty ratings, prepare yourself for some long playing sessions. You do not have to play for hours on end, though, because some of the scenarios can be played quickly.

JUDGEMENT

It is not going to have seasoned strategists running out to the shops because it is too limited in the strategy department and is a bit too close to a 3D Battlezone. Arcade fans who like to think occasionally will be pleased with it. Good fun.


Sherman M 4 logo

Die wenigen Panzer-Spiele, dies es für den Amiga gibt, sind entweder reine Action-games, wie das indizierte "...Power" (Firepower), oder sehr abstrakt, wie "Omega". Jetzt hat Loriciel eine reinrassige Simulation beigesteuert - über den Lieblingspanzer der Alliierten während des zweiten Weltkriegs.

Nach dem Laden, während dessen man nicht nur mit einem hübschen Bild unterhalten, sondern sogar darauf hingewiesen wird, alle zusätzlichen Laufwerke abzuklemmen (bei 512K), erwarten einen schon die ersten Entscheidungen: Drei Kampfgebiete stehen zur Auswahl - Normandie, Ardennen und die afrikanische Wüste. Der Sherman kann besichtigt werden, inklusive technischer Daten und Erklärung der Instrumente, ebenso die feindlichen (deutschen) Panzer.

Der Schwierigkeitsgrad läßt sich in weitem Umfang variieren; durch unendlich Munition/Sprit und schnellere Nachladezeiten (der Kanone, nicht der Disk!) kann man sich das Spiel einfacher machen. Andererseits braucht man bloß die Moral der feindlichen Truppen erhöhen oder ihnen einen besseren General spendieren, und die Sache wird erheblich kniffliger. Die Missionen reichen von der Zerstörung diverser Stützpunkte, Bunker, Lager etc. bis hin zur Verteidigung von Städten und ganzen Kriegen.

Die Vektorgrafik ist schnell, weist aber nur wenige Details auf: der Sound besteht aus ordentlichen passenden Effekten. Die Panzer sind gut zu handhaben, nur hatte der "Simulationsgrad" ruhig etwas höher ausfallen dürfen. Summa summarum sorgt Sherman M 4 für genügend Kurzweil, auch wenn es nicht die Feinheiten vergleichbarer (PC-) Simulationen bieten kann. (mm)



Sherman M 4 logo CU Amiga Screen Star

US Gold
Price: £24.99

Falling somewhere along the lines of an arcade player's Tank Platoon, Sherman M4. gives you the opportunity to sleep between the metal sheets of a Sherman M4 tank and take command of an attack platoon.

I must admit, I was a bit dubious about the arrival of 'yet another tank game', however, all fears of the word 'average' were disintegrated in a blaze of cannonfire. Sherman M4 is very cool indeed.

A standard platoon consists of four Sherman tanks and a couple of jeeps if you are lucky. You'd better look after them, because they are the only vehicles you have through the campaigns, which can have anything between five and eight missions. The jeeps are unarmed, and therefore are only really useful for spying on enemy operations. They are not particularly resilient, so you have to take extra care with them.

The tanks are great fun. Each one can take quite a lot of knocking out, so long as you do not drive them over mines. The graphics are not the most complex filled vectors I have seen, but they are some of the fastest. The use of a sprite horizon makes the landscape quite impressive, despite the small offering of landscape features. A few trees, a couple of enemy bunkers and a river here and there seem to be all there is on offer. That said, if I get caught in a clump of trees again, I will scream.

M4 Sherman is very atmospheric. The relative ease of play means that you can get stuck in immediately, and once you have had your trundle around, blowing up trees and churches with gay abandon, and you begin planning strategies properly, wild horses could not drag you away.

This is an extremely good game. A clear winner for US Gold, and a game worth buying if you are after a fun strategy game, or a fast 3D blast along the lines of Battlezone.