Lost Patrol

Title           Lost Patrol
Game Type       Combat simulation
Publisher       Ocean
Players         1
Compatibility   ?
HD Installable  ?
Submission      Richard Hoffmann

Review
Despite the above category, Lost Patrol is also an action/adventure/RPG
cocktail.

After a helicopter crashes in the middle of Vietnam, the player has to
lead the 7 surviving soldiers into freedom, across 58 miles packed with
Vietcong soldiers, camps, and the most feared booby traps. Some soldiers
are wounded from the crash; ammo, food & other supplies are limited as
well.

The area is divided into squares, and the player can move the soldiers
along them into 8 directions. The terrain consists of woods, mountains,
lakes and fields. The maps also show the position of small villages and
some of the larger groups of Vietcong troops which should be avoided of
course.

While the player moves the soldiers, or sends scouts, a lot of things can
happen. Sometimes single Vietcong soldiers needs to be fought in
hand-to-hand combat, sometimes larger groups with the help of grenades
(somewhat like in the action game P.O.W.) or the player just walks across
booby traps which is most annoying.

Most important are the villages, one can talk to the citizens here. If the
player is lucky, he gets medical supplies, ammo or information about
nearby Vietcong troops. The player can beat up or kill one or more of the
citizens to frighten the others, and thus sometimes increase the chances
of getting anything.

The graphics in the game contain a lot of digitized pictures and movies
which makes it very special for the time it was released. The gameplay is
interesting since there's a virtually unlimited number of ways the player
can direct the soldiers through the Vietcong. The game is very tough to
solve unless one is really lucky and doesn't encounter too many enemies or
booby traps.

The only negative thing about the game is that it's somewhat too realistic
- a lot of things happening are purely random, and killing innocents who
can't defend themselves in order to get some food or ammo ain't really fun
either (although you don't actually see that).

Sound & Music are good, but the game's soundtrack gets somewhat annoying
after playing awhile.

Overall the game is definitely a classic & worth a try.

Alphabetical list.