Gunship is the Mega Drive version of the MicroProse helicopter series. Just like the original game the player gets to command a helicopter through a first-person perspective. Missions are preceded by a briefing and a planning stage. A map of the environment is shown from a top-down perspective with the starting position, enemy locations, fuel dumps, and the target. The player sets out custom waypoints to reach the target. Often a fuel refill is required to make it that far and it needs to be calculated in.
During missions the helicopter can be steered in any direction, but it is not necessary to keep track of waypoint directions, as they are automatically followed. The HUD contains the remaining distance, health, fuel, score, and a radar with enemies as red dots. There is a certain amount of freedom of movement and a voice warns about incoming missiles. Helicopters can be shot with a cannon. At a fuel dump the helicopter becomes vulnerable and the player can choose to disengage before the refueling is complete.
When the target is reached, an approach sequence is initiated. The game turns into a 2D 3rd-person side-scroller, unique to the series. There is freedom to move up and down and engage targets with the regular cannon or homing missiles in the air and on the ground. The helicopter can also turn 180 degrees to travel in the opposite direction. A yellow arrow marks the direction of the final target. In this sequence the player receives multiple lives (credits) to continue playing. In the first-person sequence death is final. These 2D sequences can be practiced as six scenario’s in a simulator from the main menu.
Gunship depicts one of the Western world’s finest attack helicopters: The AH-64A Apache. This simulation recreates the weapons, flight systems, and performance of the real machine. The player controls an arsenal that includes laser-guided Hellfire missiles, a 30mm cannon controlled by helmet gunsights, clusters of bombardment rockets–even air-to-air missiles for duels with enemy helicopters.
The game starts with flight training at a base in the United States. Tutorials teach the player to handle the copter; once the controls and flying skills are mastered, there are escalating challenges and hundreds of missions in any one of four regions of the world, including Southeast Asia, Central America, the Middle East, and the Soviet Union and its Warsaw Pact allies in Western Europe.
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