Desert Thunder

I don't know why I haven't reviewed this game yet (I thought I did), I used to play this back in the day, it was fun for what it was; only 8 missions, and in the end you fight Goliath tank and destroy the terrorists' HQ.

Plays well on a modern system; only had to manually swap resolution for a modern 1440p widescreen, which took 2 mins with a guide from Steam. The game is crap, looks awful, plays awful, AI woeful, controls awful. But the simple arcade 2000-era action of it makes it a good simple fun game for a blow out of fun. The campaign is set in a Middle Eastern country of origin and plays out as the invasion of said country. But it's a one-man invasion, no allies at all. You fight enemy men, tanks and other armour and a few static defences. The missions are typical army-type things: advance, take this important thing, defend it, carry on. The graphics are a turd, and I guess would have been back then. There's nothing to speak of; they function no more. The AI is so bad the enemy tanks may as well not exist, and the men are so hard to kill. So priority goes to men then wild armour. There are mines and obstacles to dodge, and turning this tank is slower than steering the Titanic. But overall it's just a good, fun, simple 1 pound game that will make you laugh at how crap it is.

A product of it's time, Desert Thunder has abysmal mouse controls, low resolutions, and kinda janky gameplay. That being said, if you want a 'turn your brain off for a few hours' kind of arcade shooter, it scratches that itch pretty well. Not horrible, just not worth it.

https://youtu.be/ob5golsDYME Arcade style tank action lacks when it comes to softening aim precision that would be expected for the genre.

Desert Thunder is a throwback to the early-2000s era of PC action games, developed by Brainbox Games in collaboration with Hip Games and published by Funbox Media Ltd. Originally released in 2003 and later made available on Steam, the game unapologetically embraces an arcade-focused design philosophy that prioritizes immediate action and spectacle over realism or tactical simulation. Rather than attempting to replicate authentic armored warfare, it casts players in control of a futuristic Abrams M1A6 Advanced tank and drops them into a fictional modern conflict where destruction, speed, and constant forward momentum are the primary goals. The narrative framework is deliberately simple, functioning more as a backdrop than a driving force. You are positioned as the spearhead of an elite armored unit tasked with pushing through hostile territory in a Middle Eastern setting overtaken by a powerful terrorist faction. Missions string together a linear march toward the enemy capital, punctuated by brief objectives that exist mainly to funnel you from one combat zone to the next. There is little in the way of character development or storytelling nuance, but this minimalism fits the game’…

Quite fun arcade tank shooter at first glance, nothing more. Short janky game, but a nice time waster. There are eight "story" missions varying from getting from A to B, destroying objectives and defend objectives. There are ammo and health pickups collect for your tank. Runs only in lower resolutions. "Should work strait out of the box". Get it on sale, perhaps. [h3]5.5/10[/h3]