The sequel to the first Action Force, Action Force II is a game that I knew had reviewed well at the time of its original release (in 1988), so I was expecting good things from it. Having never played the game before, I sat down and gave it a go, but was disappointed with what I found…

Action Force II is an Operation Wolf-style shooter, where you move a cursor around the screen, shooting bad guys, and trying to protect a lone soldier who is making his way through a series of screens, in order to reach the final screen and rescue some hostages. You don’t control the soldier, just the aiming reticule, and must prevent enemies from killing him, by shooting them first. You can choose between a machine gun, a bazooka, or a “Bio Gun” (whatever that is), to do the shooting.

The problem I have with this game is that it is very repetitive, and – frankly – just not very exciting or interesting at all. The concept of the game is interesting, but the levels are very samey. The enemies are either eyes in windows, that drop plant pots on the soldier to try to kill him (how very “military”), or figures that come out of open doorways and try to shoot him. Oh, and there are enemies hiding inside dustbins (trash cans) as well, and these occasionally pop up and fire their gun at the soldier. There are also kneeling enemies who throw grenades at him. And that is about the extent of the hostilities – that I saw, anyway.

When the soldier reaches the door where the hostages are being kept, a short cut scene plays out, where a helicopter lands and rescues everyone. And this plays over and over again, as you complete each level, with little to no variety.

There’s a tank battle every few levels, but even that is ridiculous. Destroying a tank with a puny little gun? Erm, okay…

The level graphics, while nice-looking, are also very similar on each stage, with little variation in colour. One nice touch is that building walls deform when you shoot them, but this doesn’t seem to have any effect on the actual gameplay itself, and appears to be purely cosmetic.

While the levels do get longer, they don’t really change in any significant way, and the game – in my opinion – quickly becomes boring. As I played Action Force II I was constantly thinking about how they could easily have improved it, with some minor changes to increase the variety.

Maybe my expectations were set too high, but I’m struggling to find anything positive to say about Action Force II. I honestly can’t believe that this game was rated as highly as it was by magazines at the time, and think that it is totally overrated.

More: Action Force II on Wikipedia
More: Action Force II on World of Spectrum