Desert Thunder
Developer: BrainBox Games
Publisher: Groove Publishing
How It PlaysTank control is accomplished by the standard W-A-S-D control schema, and suffices for this type of game. I did note that it was possible to actually get your tank stuck in a couple of spots, forcing you to abandon the mission you were in and restart. Primary fire controls your main gun turret, and reload time is what I expected. Alt-fire controls your minigun, and is particularly useful in wasting the nagging peashooting enemy infantry. The mouse is used to turn your weapons and aim at the enemy (side to side as well as up and down). You can cycle through your various shells and minigun rounds by using the Q-Z-E-C keys.You are guided through each mission via a series of checkpoint arrows, keeping you from getting lost. The action is pretty much scripted, however, the actual fighting sequences depend on how you decide to actually attack your enemy. The checkpoint arrows are very useful in some levels, where it is not otherwise apparent where you need to go next.Land mines were, to me, annoying, only serving to make the health icons (either 10% or 50% health restoration) more necessary. Even if you totally avoid a land mine, you may very well set it off and cause damage to your tank.I should note that, if you do get destroyed, you can retry the mission from your latest checkpoint. Desert Thunder only saves one game position, as well. So, if things are getting dicey, you'll only have that one save position to fall back on, in addition to actually starting the entire mission over.One fun thing to do in Desert Thunder, beyond accomplishing your mission objectives, is to blow things up. Virtually anything. There are some reasonably good explosion effects for gas cans, vehicles, buildings, etc. This is a highly-recommended activity.
SummaryAfter completing Desert Thunder, I found it to be a pretty boring game overall. There's simply not enough action, diversity, imagination or audio/video fun to hold my interest. Even keeping in mind that this is a bargain title, developed by a very small staff at BrainBox Games, I couldn't help but feel that it was more of an experiment in Unreal-engine vehicle technology than an actual game.The game doesn't ship with the Unreal editor, nor is there an online component. It might have been a more interesting title to me if there was an opportunity to play live opponents online in user-made levels. Alas, this is simply not the case.Desert Thunder left me wanting a lot more than what it delivered. My overall rating: 4/10Related Links