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In the world of video games, like other forms of media, there are different genres and subgenres. For example, first-person shooter is a genre. And I would consider games like the Beachhead titles to be a first-person shooter subgenre. They are technically first-person shooters but what makes them different is the fact you’re stationary and your objective is to defend an area from enemies. Whatever you want to call it, I do feel it’s a niche genre. The games are repetitive by design and may not appeal to everyone. The Beachhead titles came out in the early 2000s and while they certainly didn’t rock the video game world, they have spawned a fanbase. Some other games in the same vein have released in the years following and more of them seem to be appearing in more recent years including the Beach Invasion titles. Developed and published by Alx2 Games, Beach Invasion 1944 was released for PC in December, 2022. Like others of its kind, the objective is to defend an area but this one is set in World War II and let’s you use “iconic WWII weapons”.
It appears the developers were inspired by games like the Beachhead titles and decided to design a game around a historic conflict. Beach Invasion 1944 is set in World War II and the obvious influence here is the Normandy beach landings. You can switch to any of the weapons along the fortified beach to repel the invading enemy ground, naval, and air forces. There is no multiplayer or cooperative modes and the game is very easy to jump into.
If you’ve played any other games like this, you can expect this to be just as repetitive. If you can get past or ignore that aspect, you’ll probably get more out of it. Beach Invasion comes with two game modes, Progressive and Sandbox. Progressive is the real meat of the experience and Sandbox was added in as part of an update. In Progressive, the objective is to survive as many waves as possible. If you survive a wave, you earn points that can be spent to unlock and repair weapons, on defenses like explosive barrels and mines that can be placed on the beach, and on artillery barrages. To complete a wave, you have to defeat a set number of enemies and each wave is more challenging than the last. Sandbox is a mode where you can set the time of day, weather condition, how many enemies you must defeat, and what enemy types will appear. You are given access to all weapons from the get-go in this mode and just need to survive the conditions you set to achieve victory. And that’s basically it. That’s the whole game.
I went into Beach Invasion expecting it to be repetitive but I do feel there should be more to it. There’s only one map or level and there is no scoring system. It’s all about surviving as many waves as possible. Once all your weapons are destroyed or disabled, you lose. One thing I do like compared to some other games like this is that you never have to worry about ammunition. However, each weapon does have it’s own health bar so to speak, and enemies can drain through their health even when you’re not using them. Surviving for as long as possible will come down to knowing what weapons are better against what threats, switching between weapons accordingly to defend all areas, and placing defenses appropriately. However, by the time I reached wave twenty six or so, I seemed to always spend most of my points on repairs because as you progress through the waves, it becomes more challenging to the keep the invading forces at bay and keep your weapons functional.
You can call for artillery barrages that will help clear the beach and pickups if you want to call them that do come in the form of boxes or crates that are dropped by aircraft, and sometimes these can be repairs and barrages. Unfortunately, there’s no way to tell what pickup is in the boxes until you destroy them. At least not as far as I can tell. I’m also not sure the exact names of the pickups but some are temporary power-ups like incendiary and gas rounds among some others. After surviving so many waves, I found that repair pickups were the only ones I started to really care about because if I could repair my weapons during the wave, that’s less points I had to spend on repairs once the wave was over, and I could instead buy defenses.
What’s cool about Beach Invasion is the production values. There’s a cinematic quality to the action. From the lighting to the visual effects, it all looks cool and as a result, the action and gunplay look and feel satisfying and the game features some neat details. I like that you’ll see friendly NPCs firing at enemies on the beach. Destroying enemy armor, aircraft, and killing certain troops will sometimes result in a killcam where the camera focuses on the kill and it plays out in slow-mo. Ground forces include infantry and armored vehicles and troops will carry different weapons, including Thompsons and flamethrowers and they can be shot, blown up, set on fire, and you’ll see wounded ones crawl on the ground. Ground forces typically arrive by watercraft but paratroopers will come from aircraft as well. Enemies never stop coming. You shoot down one plane and another will be right behind it. Some are attack planes, others carry paratroopers, boats will move along the water and blast away at you, and watercraft will carry ground forces. All you need to do is defeat the set number of enemies to survive the wave. Do this repeatedly until all your weapons are disabled.
As mentioned before, I like the production values. Even though there isn’t any environmental variety because there’s only one level or map, at least the scenery looks nice. Visual effects like explosions and muzzle flashes look cool, animations are pretty good, and the weapon models look nice. Blood squirts when troops are shot and explosions will send dirt, debris, and bodies into the air. The audio work is also good although I do wish there was more music because I got tired of hearing the same tunes over and over again. On the technical side, the game ran smooth for me and I encountered no major issues.
Beach Invasion 1944 sometimes feels like a demo or a college student’s project. I might even say it feels unfinished. Like there was supposed to be more to it and it just didn’t happen. However, the developer did release a sequel and from what I know about it, it has more content so I am eager to check it out because what’s here is actually pretty good. It just needs more. At least I think so for a game released in 2022. It lacks content and variety. The lack of variety is not uncommon for games of this kind and I went into it expecting a repetitive experience. But the lack of a scoring system and anything to really work towards kind of holds it back. Surviving as many waves as possible is fine but there’s nothing to really mix things as up. No upgrades, no modifiers, no difficulty levels, no additional maps, no cooperative modes, and no cosmetics, although the game did receive free Holiday DLC. Don’t get me wrong, Beach Invasion 1944 is not a bad game, and it’s a nice addition to the genre, but I feel it could have been better.
I do recommend Beach Invasion 1944 if you like games of this kind. If you’re a fan of the Beachhead titles and Operation Blockade, you may get a kick out of this. However, it doesn’t have the same kind of replay value or lasting appeal that others in the genre like IS Defense and even the latest BeachHead game have. Games like this are often simple and repetitive by design but Beach Invasion 1944 is a little too bare. If you like these kind of games, I still say check this out but you might want to wait for it to drop below five dollars first.