Line of Fire

aka: Bakudan-yarô
Moby ID: 14715
Arcade Specs
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Description official description

Unusually, this Operation Wolf-influenced shoot 'em up sees you start behind enemy lines, and gradually attempting to escape. As you've captured the Rapier machine gun your enemy have been developing, there are plenty who can't bear to see the back of you unless it's bloodied and lifeless.

The game's 8 levels feature quite a variety of settings, vehicles and situations. You will have to evade fire from snipers based in windows, enemy jets, helicopters and well-trained marines, while riding tanks and speedboats as well as being on foot. The levels are set in locations such as the enemy camp, the jungle, a ruined city and the final flight back to your base.

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Screenshots

Promos

Credits (Amiga version)

8 People

Amiga programmer
Music
  • Uncle Art
Graphics
Protection check code
  • Tiertex
Nagging and hassle

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 53% (based on 15 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.0 out of 5 (based on 21 ratings with 1 reviews)

Not really as good as Operation Thunderbolt

The Good
I think that Line of Fire is Sega's answer to Taito's Operation Thunderbolt, because if you compare both these games, then you would know that the gameplay is basically the same, with its exact gameplay and the type of scrolling used. No story about an hijacked aircraft though. You are a commando, who must carry out an assignment that was supposed to be accomplished by two other soldiers, known as Blue and Red. This assignment involves stealing a secret machine gun unit from the enemy's lair, and get out alive.

There are eight stages in the game, and these stages take you through a jungle, river, canyon, desert, ruins, and the enemy camp. To succeed through these stages, you have to kill enemy soldiers, choppers, and jeeps. If you get hit by any one of these enemies, you will lose some life, but you can restore life by shooting the little med-kits along the way. To kill enemies, you only have your machine gun, but you also have bombs that will pack quite a punch, and more bombs can be picked up during the mission. You have unlimited ammo, which is an advantage because you do not have to rely just on bombs to do all your dirty work.

I enjoyed playing LOF. I like games more if you are forced to use some other peripheral (eg: gun) other than the joystick, and you use that peripheral to shoot at enemies once they have appeared on screen, and the same strategy can also be used against the bosses that appear at the end of the stage. You can use the joystick to play the game, but I rather not use it if there is a second option available; it only wastes a lot of time as you slowly point the cursor to a certain enemy and then fire your gun.

The Bad
Unfortunately, besides the gameplay, the rest of the elements are such a disappointment. First, the graphics don't amaze me at all. Apart from stage one, all the graphics lack detail, and consist of basic colors, instead of mostly gradients. Gradients are only used for a portion of the background which indicate skylines, but there is little of them.

The sounds are not that special either. Only one tune can only be heard on the title screen. There is no music during the game, nor when the game is over. As I said earlier, you use a machine gun to fire at enemies. Yet, when you fire, it does not sound like a gun at all, but more of a clock ticking.

Worse of all, there is no satisfying ending. I worked so hard at completing the mission, and all I get in return is a trip back to the title screen without any congratulations.

The Bottom Line
There are better shooters out there besides LOF. The game lacks the graphics and sound that it really deserves. The only thing that is good about the game is the fact that you can use more than a joystick to play the game. Perhaps the coin-op version of LOF is much better.

Rating: *½

Amiga · by Katakis | カタキス (43092) · 2005

Trivia

Credits

Sega wouldn't allow the developers of the home versions to be credited in the game. To counter this, Amiga programmer Richard Aplin put all the developing credits, as well as other miscellaneous information, at the end of the disk's startup-sequence, right after taunting crackers looking to crack the game.

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  • MobyGames ID: 14715
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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Martin Smith.

Arcade added by 666gonzo666. Amstrad CPC added by Skitchy.

Additional contributors: Игги Друге, Patrick Bregger.

Game added September 7, 2004. Last modified October 9, 2023.