Team Yankee
| Developer: Oxford Digital Entreprises | Graphics: |
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| Publisher: Empire Software | Sound: |
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| Year: 1990 | Difficulty: |
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| Genre: Action-strategy | Lastability: |
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| Number of players: 1 | Rating: |
8/10 | |
A title adapted from the novel of the same name, written by Harold Coyle and published in 1987. You are the (American) commander of a tank battalion stationed in Germany when World War III breaks out against the USSR, naturally. The book also inspired a series of comics and a paper wargame.
Under your command are four units, each composed of four armoured or anti-tank vehicles, adorned with intimidating capital letters and numbers… That makes sixteen vehicles to direct simultaneously (and in real time) using a mouse!
The game presents itself in first-person view, with four personnel, and thus as many windows on screen, meant to represent a small portion of the theatre of operations as perceived from the turret of the four lead vehicles…
Well, I immediately figured out how to shoot—you just click on the landscape—but it took me a good hour to work out how to move my tanks forward. As it happens, this is a “tactical” game; you don’t drive the tank directly, you designate a destination by clicking on the map. And here’s the kicker: you must drag the green slider upwards to increase movement speed. If left at “zero”, the tanks stay put—a revelation that came after an hour of fruitlessly firing at my allies in a desperate attempt to make something move. Apologies to the families, again!
The interface proves clear and relatively straightforward to grasp, but somewhat tedious in practice, given that one must constantly switch between “map mode” and the subjective view. It’s possible to display one unit at a time in full screen—more comfortable, certainly—but the nature of the game (playing hide-and-seek in the woods with enemy tanks that preferably shoot at you first, typically from behind) will quickly teach you the virtues of teamwork and of this cramped, four-way split screen, the only way to coordinate your attacks and cover your partners’ flanks. This requires quick thinking, the ability to react urgently, and to some extent, anticipate. It’s not the sort of game designed for a relaxing evening. However, ten short minutes suffice to read the manual (plus an hour, for the less sharp).
Besides the array of missiles, you’ll occasionally be allowed to order artillery barrages (that’s the “anticipation” part). Also at your disposal: infrared vision paired with smoke grenades, perfect for cringing behind a screen of smoke (that must be the “urgent reaction” part). However, it lacks mountains, even hills—the Soviets must have taken a wrong turn and invaded the Netherlands.
The campaign might feel rather short (25 battles, repeated across five difficulty levels, with no random elements—the enemies always wait in the same spots), but fortunately, sequels arrived a little later. They’re better described as expansions, given the lack of innovation. They’re titled: Pacific Islands (1992) and War In The Gulf (1993).
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