As a U.S. Fleet commander, the player is in charge of multiple ships, and there are a series of missions to complete of increasing difficulty. The first few scenarios are pretty simple and do nicely to orient the new player into how the game is played. The player commands a small number of ships, and the enemies (Soviets, as this is definitely a product of the Cold War) are similarly small. The later scenarios feature increasingly larger fleets, with the player having juggle the actions of more and more ships.
On the highest levels, when both surface ships and submarines are in play, the action becomes of the yell-at-the-screen variety.
There were a good number of excellent combat flight simulators released for Commodore, like Gunship, F-15 Strike Eagle, and Stealth Fighter. Strike Fleet is the naval equivalent. This game is not a joystick-only game; it requires the player to man the keyboard and stay focused, and the action can become of the yell-at-the-screen variety. Surface-to-surface missiles, surface-to-air missles, phalanx and chaff countermeasures, radar, sonar, helicopters for aerial recon and anti-sub ops, 16-mm guns for close combat; there are a lot of things for the player to stay on top of.
Today, as an adult, I recognize the addictive strategic gameplay that has kept me a strategy
fan all these years (through the Civilization series and the Sim series, among others) is still there and still addicitve. I came back to Strike Fleet simply as a trip down memory lane, but I found that it still holds up in its own right today.
It's an engrossing experience, and for anyone who gets a thrill out of split-second strategic decision-making, I recommend Strike Fleet. It's great fun!
