Bismarck

1988 games Atari ST games Atari games Apple games ZX Spectrum games Commodore 64 games Amiga games

Strategy game with elements of arcade built around real World War II events surrounding the hunt for German battleship Bismarck as it was trying to breakthrough to Atlantic.

Bismarck was German battleship, one of the most modern and powerful warships at the beginning of World War 2. As it was ready to enter the active service in 1940 the famous operation took place - Bismarck and heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen were trying to avoid contact with Royal Navy and sneak to Atlantic, where they would start attacking the Allied convoys. For Royal Navy it was vital to stop them - two powerful enemy warships loose on the Atlantic would mean danger to every convoy and a lot of problem to locate them again and sink, so they had to stop them before they can reach Atlantic.

In the game we can control either two German warships trying to escape to Atlantic or British forces gathered to stop them. North Sea and Atlantic is the area of the operation with simple goals - Bismarck tries to reach the bottom of the map with as little damage as possible, while British has to do everything they can to sink the enemy or cause very heavy damage. The steering on the map is simple - we choose destination points for selected units, we can use the air patrols to spot the enemy, we can get the weather reports. Things change once we meet with enemy - we take control of the ship main guns shooting at the target, firing torpedoes (on cruisers), send Swordfish torpedo bombers (on aircraft carrier) or order the fire control (on battleships). If we manage to send the airplanes we also take control of them as they attack the enemy warships.

While graphic side of the game wasn’t that impressive the concept and the gameplay made up for any flaws of the outlook of Bismarck. Cleverly developed arcade elements and interesting strategy elements make it a very good game.

Our rating
★★★★☆

Video
★★★☆☆

Audio
★★☆☆☆

Playability
★★★★☆