Lost Patrol
Description
The downing was survived by seven. Seven ordinary people, ruthlessly sentenced to confront their own weaknesses on the way to the nearest US Army base. They see no chance of survival. They leave behind a wreck, which serves as a tomb for nine of their comrades. Ahead of them lies nearly 100 kilometers of traps and cruel Viet Cong patrols in the tropical jungle...
To guide seven exhausted, food-deprived, ammunition-depleted, and hopeless individuals through 57 miles of green hell — that's the task posed by the game "The Lost Patrol" to you. One might think a game with such a storyline could only reinforce patterns based on other productions of this type, but in this case, an important breakthrough has been made. "The Lost Patrol," though rich in scenes of combat and violence, is decidedly anti-war, fully exposing the senseless events in Vietnam. Besides questionable amounts of ammunition, you primarily possess a map depicting the terrain and the presumed deployment of larger Viet Cong units. Small patrols and individual guerrillas can be encountered everywhere. Equally numerous are the concealed machine gun positions in rice fields, snipers hidden in villages, and traps. Crossing a minefield requires a long knife, a grenade must be thrown within 3 seconds or it will explode in your hand, and a lone Vietnamese in hand-to-hand combat cannot avoid head blows.
As a commander, you must take care of your people. You must remember to take short breaks during the day's march and set up camp at night. You must not allow a situation where soldiers refuse to move forward due to exhaustion. The strength of the soldiers (S), their morale (M), and the injuries sustained are shown on the so-called Team Morale Screen, accessible under the "M" icon. There, you can also change the leader (LEAD) and designate a scout (SCOUT) who will move a certain distance ahead of the group. Detailed reconnaissance is carried out by selecting the "grid" icon and indicating the area of interest.
When necessary, you can reduce food rations by half or even to 1/4, with all possible consequences of such action. Counting on finding something edible in the jungle or receiving help from good people in encountered villages is difficult.
The dark graphical design, sparse but unsettling background music, and above all, the magnificent animated inserts, depicting the silent jungle and the grueling march of utterly exhausted people — all of this creates a specific sense of realism, forces psychological involvement in the events unfolding, and does not allow one to view the game from a distance. Consequently, many phenomena and situations cannot be perceived indifferently, experiencing moral dilemmas akin to those that were likely not unfamiliar to actual participants in the Vietnam War. And when, during the game, you ask yourself what exactly is the purpose of your presence in this jungle, to what extent what you're doing serves your survival, and to what extent you justify your own cruelty by circumstances, these are serious educational values. And it may turn out that upon encountering an unarmed civilian, you hesitate to pull the trigger. And the sight of a helmet stuck on the symbolic grave of one of the people you were responsible for, thousands of miles from home, allows you to reflect on certain issues and look at many things differently.
To guide seven exhausted, food-deprived, ammunition-depleted, and hopeless individuals through 57 miles of green hell — that's the task posed by the game "The Lost Patrol" to you. One might think a game with such a storyline could only reinforce patterns based on other productions of this type, but in this case, an important breakthrough has been made. "The Lost Patrol," though rich in scenes of combat and violence, is decidedly anti-war, fully exposing the senseless events in Vietnam. Besides questionable amounts of ammunition, you primarily possess a map depicting the terrain and the presumed deployment of larger Viet Cong units. Small patrols and individual guerrillas can be encountered everywhere. Equally numerous are the concealed machine gun positions in rice fields, snipers hidden in villages, and traps. Crossing a minefield requires a long knife, a grenade must be thrown within 3 seconds or it will explode in your hand, and a lone Vietnamese in hand-to-hand combat cannot avoid head blows.
As a commander, you must take care of your people. You must remember to take short breaks during the day's march and set up camp at night. You must not allow a situation where soldiers refuse to move forward due to exhaustion. The strength of the soldiers (S), their morale (M), and the injuries sustained are shown on the so-called Team Morale Screen, accessible under the "M" icon. There, you can also change the leader (LEAD) and designate a scout (SCOUT) who will move a certain distance ahead of the group. Detailed reconnaissance is carried out by selecting the "grid" icon and indicating the area of interest.
When necessary, you can reduce food rations by half or even to 1/4, with all possible consequences of such action. Counting on finding something edible in the jungle or receiving help from good people in encountered villages is difficult.
The dark graphical design, sparse but unsettling background music, and above all, the magnificent animated inserts, depicting the silent jungle and the grueling march of utterly exhausted people — all of this creates a specific sense of realism, forces psychological involvement in the events unfolding, and does not allow one to view the game from a distance. Consequently, many phenomena and situations cannot be perceived indifferently, experiencing moral dilemmas akin to those that were likely not unfamiliar to actual participants in the Vietnam War. And when, during the game, you ask yourself what exactly is the purpose of your presence in this jungle, to what extent what you're doing serves your survival, and to what extent you justify your own cruelty by circumstances, these are serious educational values. And it may turn out that upon encountering an unarmed civilian, you hesitate to pull the trigger. And the sight of a helmet stuck on the symbolic grave of one of the people you were responsible for, thousands of miles from home, allows you to reflect on certain issues and look at many things differently.
AMIGA screenshots
