Beach Head 2002

Download Beach Head 2002 and defend your position against relentless enemy forces! Utilize powerful weapons, strategize your defenses, and hold the line in this addictive and action-packed arcade shooter. Lock and load and play now!
a game by Infogrames
Platforms: PC, Arcade
Editor Rating: 6.2/10, based on 3 reviews, 2 reviews are shown
User Rating: 7.4/10 - 34 votes
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See also: First Person Shooter Games, Military Games, WW2 Games, Games Like Call Of Duty, Games like Counter-Strike Global Offensive, Games Like CS
Beach Head 2002
Beach Head 2002
Beach Head 2002

Beach Head 2002 is the sequel to the arcade/PC game, Beach Head 2000 and it offers more of the same. So, if you enjoyed what the first game offered, you will probably enjoy this. On the flip side of that, if that first game did not do anything for you, I cannot see its sequel winning you over as they really did not do much to change things up.

This Is My Bunker!

The premise of the game is the same as it was in the previous game. You need to survive as long as you can. There is no end in sight here, you will die and your bunker will be destroyed, but you may do better than you did the time before it. This works very well for an arcade game, but with Beach Head 2002 I feel that they could have added in some kind of story or some actual point to be fighting this war.

I Cannot Move!

I have heard many people categorize this along with its predecessor as a first-person shooter. While I would agree that the game is played from the first-person point of view. I do feel that this has far more in common with light gun shooters. You are in a fixed position and you can only rotate a bit on each side. That is the only movement the game gives you; I do not really have a problem with this. However, I can see why some people would be put off if they came into this thinking it was a first-person shooter.

Take Them All Down

Each time you start a new mission, you never know what is coming. You may have to shoot down a bunch of soldiers coming from the sea, some tanks, aircraft or you may even have to fire off flares so that you can see, before shooting down those that want you dead. The basic idea of each stage is that you have a limited number of guns to make use of and you need to kill everything that is coming your way. It is pretty mindless stuff, but it can be a fun distraction for 30 minutes or so. It can be very rewarding when you do get in a groove and just start mowing down wave after wave of enemies.

There is no real “point” to the game, other than trying to do better than you did the time before. Sometimes it is like enemies can spawn out of nowhere and I have seen stuff flat out fall through the map! So, the game is lacking a bit of polish.

When looking at a game like Beach Head 2002 you have to take into account what it is. This is an arcade-style shooter and in the arcades this type of gameplay is fine. You put in a few quarters and you play until you die and then you move onto a different game. I feel that for a home release, this game really needed something else to help keep the player engaged and motivated in order to keep on playing. What is here is not “bad” it is just what is here is really lacking in substance. It is even more annoying that they never added anything noteworthy over the 2000 game!

6.5

Final Score

Pros:

  • There is a decent selection of guns
  • Tons of enemies to kill
  • Shooting down jets is cool
  • I liked the explosions
  • The sound effects of the explosions are kind of cool

Cons:

  • They have not changed or added much from the previous game at all
  • The game can get old very quickly

Download Beach Head 2002

PC

System requirements:

  • PC compatible
  • Operating systems: Windows 10/Windows 8/Windows 7/2000/Vista/WinXP
Arcade

System requirements:

  • PC compatible
  • Operating systems: Windows 10/Windows 8/Windows 7/2000/Vista/WinXP

Game Reviews

Overview

Back in the day, I was a huge fan of the arcade shooter. From Missile Command to Battlezone, I couldn’t creep into my parent’s bedroom often enough to try filching quarters for the video arcade. Beach Head 2002 looked to be the solution to every poor gamer’s desire for a cheap, easy, arcade thrill. What I got instead was a dismal attempt at a resurrection of an age-old favorite genre.

Gameplay, Controls, Interface

Beach Head 2002 is simple enough to play. So simple in fact, that it doesn’t require a manual and the keyboard commands take up six lines in the "read me" file if you don’t include the two cheat codes. In looking at the simplicity of the read me file, I figured there wasn’t much more to the controls than "aim and shoot." I was duped.

Aiming the weapon is difficult. Not difficult in the "I’m-completely-inept" sense, but more so the "I-can’t-believe-the-developers-thought-this-was-a-good-idea" sense. Putting your sites onto a target is like trying to put your crosshairs on a bot in online multiplayer Unreal Tournament with a 300 baud modem (and yes, I used to have one, and yes, I know I’m dating myself). There is significant, purposeful, sloppy aim when trying to bead in on the target. It’s like trying to swing a weapon around under water. I’m sure that this was designed in such a manner to make the aiming more difficult, but give me a break. That in itself was frustrating enough, but fortunately, I was blessed with many more disappointments.

Weapon choices were severely limited as were the range of enemies. With only nine different enemies (not including the ground troops that leapt from the transport vehicles), my interest level quickly deteriorated as the game progressed. Interesting how my pistol shot tracer fire that was as large as what was produced by the M-60. Even more interesting was how I could shoot cannon fire that would completely pass through some of the tanks and other vehicles, and how ground troops would pass right through parts of the transport vehicle while running. Could this get any worse? Why, of course it could!

Graphics

In this day and age, it should embarrass the game developers to put out games that are not just graphically inferior, but that are just plain bad. Having a 360 degree perspective while taking in the landscape provided, for some excellent views of the graphic deficiencies in the game. If you look at the screenshot with the red lines, I’ve identified some of the clear demarcations that are visible in the game. While playing, you can clearly see where they’ve done a poor job of sewing together the various textures and how clear the delineation is between them.

Explosions were crude at best. Transport trucks blew apart in 8-10 large, chunky sections. Tank turrets merely popped off when hit. In all situations, blown-up shrapnel and dead troops disappeared almost immediately after being hit. Only exploded troop transports and tanks remained visible once shot. Burned terrain, downed airplanes, and dead bodies were nonexistent. As you can see, those gamers with graphically challenged computers will have little difficulty keeping this game running along smoothly.

C’mon guys... we deserve better than this.

Audio

Fortunately, the audio was as pathetic as the video. Remember being a kid and watching old westerns? (Again... dating myself.) Remember the sound that dynamite used to make when it blew up? This is the exact sound produced when any aerial vehicle hits the ground. The M-60 is fine, but the pistol sounds like a cap gun instead of a .45. Cannon fire and other explosions are bass-heavy and are not notable. When troops are shot, they wail cartoonishly in one of only two varying sounds.

I could probably say a bit more about the audio, but it’s not worth it. The audio was functional at best and considering the effort put forth in the graphics, I shouldn’t have expected much more with the audio.

System Requirements

Pentium 350 MHz or higher, Windows(r) 95/98/Me, 64MB RAM, CD-ROM, 90MB hard disk space, DirectX compatible sound card, 16 MB DirectX, compatible video card, and a mouse.

Bottom Line

Don’t waste your cash, even though the game carries a $20.00 price tag. Considering today’s theatre prices, you’ll get more bang-for-your-buck out of a double feature than you will playing this game. If you really want to see a quality beach head assault, get Castle Wolfenstein and play multiplayer.

Snapshots and Media

Arcade Screenshots

PC Screenshots