Beach Head 2000

by Atari

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00004U1PI
• Item Weight: 5 ounces
• Media: CD-ROM
• Release Date: June 18, 2000
• Average Customer Review: 2.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #26,812 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

GameSpot

If you've seen Saving Private Ryan, you might agree that the first scene in the World War II film stands out from the rest. The scene lasts around 25 minutes, and it's an incredibly visceral, visually graphic re-creation of the D-Day invasion of Normandy. The action takes place from the perspective of the American troops who storm Omaha Beach in armored landing crafts, only to meet with a deadly barrage of mines and enemy fire. WizardWorks, the same publisher that brought you Deer Hunter, tries to capture the intensity of a WWII beach attack in BeachHead 2000, a loose remake of an old Commodore 64 shooter. For a short time, it may prove to be a fairly entertaining diversion. However, BeachHead 2000's limited gameplay won't hold your attention for long.

In BeachHead 2000, you're a lone turret gunner defending a stretch of beach that's under siege. You view the beach from a first-person perspective and aim using the mouse. Your turret is equipped with a machine gun, a howitzer cannon, and guided surface-to-air missiles. You also have a handgun to use as a last-ditch defense. At the beginning of each level, you're given a limited amount of ammo for each gun. Much of the strategy of the game comes from deciding when and where to employ this precious supply of ammo. Fortunately, supply aircraft make frequent parachuted drops of ammo and health. But to obtain these, you've got to shoot the drop-package itself. Attempting to nail these drop-offs with anything but a machine gun poses a considerable - and at times frustrating - challenge. Even if you get the extra ammo, you may still come up a few missiles or rounds short, which can make completing the level nearly impossible.

BeachHead 2000's graphics are OK sometimes, but pretty rough in certain respects. The enemy choppers, APCs, landing craft, tanks, and bombers are rendered in 3D with real-time lighting effects - and they actually look decent. The problem is that many of the units pop up out of nowhere, almost as if the game were rendering them late. The infantry troops don't look nearly as good: The foot soldiers look acceptable, but only from far away as they file out of the armored landing crafts. As they draw closer, their choppy animation and 2D photo-scanned faces look silly.

BeachHead 2000's gameplay is fast-paced and straightforward. It plays similarly to old arcade shooters like Operation Wolf and Terminator 2, only the screen doesn't ever scroll in any direction. The levels steadily increase in difficulty until it seems as if they won't get any harder. After that, you just continue on and rack up as many points as you can by gunning down the enemy. You can't actually win. The game grows old quickly, as taking out the stream of enemies in each level becomes repetitive. Even the enemy units themselves soon become predictable, as the ground and air units seem to repeat the same maneuvers over and over again. Also, although your inability to move makes sense in the context of the game, it makes the game much less engaging.

BeachHead 2000 isn't horrible, though it's not ambitious at all. It has moments that can be satisfying, and the gameplay is quick and easy to learn. If you're a casual game player looking to let off a little steam in a WWII environment, you might enjoy BeachHead 2000 for a little while. But the game isn't suitable for anyone else.
--Copyright ©2000 GameSpot Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of GameSpot is prohibited.

Product Description

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Interesting concept, but poorly implemented, June 26, 2000

By 

John O'Brien (Woburn, MA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Beach Head 2000 (CD-ROM)

Beach Head 2000 puts you in the role of defending a beach head against an onslaught of unidentified enemies, both on foot, land and water. It's an interesting concept...I can't think of any other game quite like it. The box is very appealing and even coxed me into buying the product, even though I was well aware of Wizard Work's shaky reputation. The graphics on the back of the box are not the same as on the game. The scenery is very pixelated and dull. In general, the grpahics are very early 90's in style. The gun turrent you operate can be manipulated via keyboard, mouse or joystick. The mouse control is terrible, and there is no real way to control it. One move too quick and the whole turrent spins around. I spent more time trying to line the gun up right than I did shooting. The keyboard commands seem to stiff and non-responsive. The gameplay is very monotonous, with a constant wave of troops lands on the beach. Higher levels include helicopters and jets, but they are equally unimpressive and monotonous. The game does have a save feature, which is handy. I will give them credit for that. I gave the game two stars because it is an interesting concept, but poorly implemented. I bought the game hoping it would be a quick fix for the times I want to just blow up everything. But you'll spend more time trying to master the controls than enjoying the gameplay. With a little more work, this could have been a great game. But like the game itself, that is the most frustrating part.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Limited playability, July 8, 2001

By 

Robert Merivel - See all my reviews

This review is from: Beach Head 2000 (CD-ROM)

For 20 bucks, you don't get much. Limited playablity, poor graphics, seems to cause memory errors on my machine. Bogs down when you have many opponents in play (I have a top of the line Pentium), Pretty much when you get to the higher levels, you've done it all...which you can do in one afternoon if your a shooter/player like me. Hard to fire and aim with mouse controls.......I wouldn't buy this one...wish I'd read the reviews on this one!

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Sloppy, monotonous, frustrating beach head 2k., September 9, 2000

By 

"pookface" (St. Louis, MO United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Beach Head 2000 (CD-ROM)

The game has one background where you're supposed to shell troops, tanks, helicopters and planes. The bullets are terribly rendered balls of yellowness, the graphics are amazingly slipshod, there is no music and the sound effects are very sub par. There is no option for 3d hardware support, nor is there an option for mouse sensitivity. Speaking of the sensitivity, it is way too sensitive for my liking and they have some odd system of mouse aiming. Another nice feature is that whenever you put the disc in to play, it starts installation. When gameplay starts an error message pops up for some reason, and has no effect on the game, its incredibly annoying after the umpteenth time. This game seems to be put together by a game dilettante who happens to love war movies. This apparently was a game prior to 2000 with the title sans 2000. This game is only for those who are nostalgic for the original beach head. But this still lacks features of gameplay that the original beachhead offered. I implore you to go buy other war games, there are many out there much more deserving of your money.