Wednesday, November 07, 2007

Interpol: The Trail of Dr. Chaos PC Game Review

Evil mastermind, Dr. Chaos, travels the world in an attempt to cause destruction. Your job, of course, as an INTERPOL special operative is to stop him. The game does a superb job of giving the game a cool and futuristic look and feel with the Interpol Crime Computer. Other than that and scenes that reflect the current locale, Interpol: The Trail of Dr. Chaos is an atypical game in the hidden object games genre.

Travel to Paris, London, New York, Rome and many other countries as you follow Dr. Chaos’ trail to thwart his plans. When you arrive in a country, seek out the hidden objects in different locations the run from the gamut of museums, coliseums, and churches. The game is very up to date as it includes objects like a USB drive, Bluetooth headphone for cell phones, and laptops for finding.

Each level requires finding a set number of objects — and the number goes up as you advance — and ends with solving the puzzle by seeking 10 specific objects or things wrong with the picture in a picturesque scene. You could be in China looking for 10 Chinese flags, in Italy looking for things that don’t belong such as an alien ship or clothing on a statue, or in Paris looking for differences between two of the same scenes.

Interpol: The Trail of Dr. Chaos contains fabulous graphics, splendid scenes, and sleek spy-style effects. While it doesn’t offer anything different or original outside of the graphics, the game provides long lasting and an enjoyable gaming experience. It takes a lot of gameplay before the game starts reusing scenes and objects. By the point, the game feels repetitive as you find many of the objects in the same place as in a previous visit.

As you inspect a room, a green box like those you see in spycams acts as your mouse pointer. Even with the box, the game might not recognize that you’ve clicked the correct hidden object. Sometimes object clicking works well and others it doesn’t.

If you find multiple objects in a row, you must wait a second or two for the previously selected object to disappear before the game accepts your next found object. I appreciate the game retains the names of the found objects for those times when you luck out and don’t know what you found. I also pick up a couple of new words and remember forgotten words. One new one is fasces, which is a bundle of rods bound together.

As for hints, you get four per level and you pick which item you want to find. I prefer this to games that randomly select the object for you. Also be ready for unexpected music. Music pops out of nowhere while you inspect a scene. For example, expect to hear either orchestra music or applause while reviewing the scene at a theater. The music grates after a while, so just turn it down or off.

Interpol: The Trail of Dr. Chaos makes a fine addition to the hidden object genre. The trial period is more than enough to give you an idea of the game. You won’t miss surprises down the road other than whatever comes with finishing the game. If you love things 007 or Mission Impossible, this one should satisfy your inner agent.

System Requirements: Windows

Windows ME/98/2000/XP/Vista

Pentium III 800 MHz or faster processor

128 MB RAM

75 MB available hard disk space

16-bit graphics card with minimum 800׶00 resolution

Enemy Territory: Quake Wars Review

Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, developed by Splash Damage and id Software and published by Activision.

The Good: Team-based gameplay, each class has a purpose with multiple objectives, neat deployables, concentrated battles, accurate combat model, experience unlocks reset every three maps, capable bots, useful interface

The Not So Good: Needs full servers for optimum enjoyment, repetitive assault-only maps, two sides are almost identical with only subtle differences, generic weapons, lacks VoIP

What say you? An enjoyable team-oriented objectives-based first person shooter: 7/8

MY POORLY WRITTEN INTRODUCTION

Multiplayer games are becoming increasingly team-oriented. In the case of the first person shooter, titles of the past have normally been an individual endeavor, trying to rack up the highest number of kills. However, clans and the use of voice-over-IP have made playing as a team a more viable option. Online shooters like Battlefield 2 started offering in-game squad organization and organized play is certainly popular in MMORPGs (which stands for “hi, I am a nerd”), where gathering a band of merry men is a common occurrence. We’ve seen more games force the team dynamic on players lately, like personal favorite World in Conflict. Another example is Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, which takes the gameplay from the free Wolfenstein add-on and applies it to the Quake license in order to sell more games.

GRAPHICS AND SOUND

While some people aren’t exactly impressed with the graphics of Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, I found them to be good enough. There are some instances of great texture detail present in several of the game’s levels, but then you encounter some bland maps as well (though I guess it’s hard to make New Jersey not look bland). The game features a good attention to detail, as most of the outside areas feel realistic, although the building interiors feel a bit repetitive and overly metallic. I like how the vehicles in the game have semi-realistic displays that show speed, rather than just showing a generic wheel. Enemy Territory: Quake Wars has some nice effects like bullet hits and a number of the explosions are impressive. The character models are well done, although most of the time you’ll be shooting from far enough away where you’ll just see the friend-or-foe indicator. The vehicles appear futuristic as well, and the game’s overall theme of near-future combat seems plausible enough through the graphics. The sound ranges from appropriate background music to some annoying effects. The jarring whistle heard when starting a new match is tremendously irritating. The game’s sense of humor with audio responses is funny at first, but then just gets old. I do like the sound indicator when you successfully hit an enemy: very useful. The music does fit the overall impending doom of the game well, though. So while Enemy Territory: Quake Wars might not be the most technologically advanced game on the market, the presentation is sufficient.

ET AL.

Enemy Territory: Quake Wars features the tense struggle between the human GDF and the alien Strogg. There are really only small differences between the two sides: the weapons and vehicles are identical (with different skins, obviously) and the abilities are the same with only a few differences. Enemy Territory: Quake Wars is designed to be a multiplayer game, but the same objective-based gameplay is available against AI bots in a single player mode. The bots are good for the most part, as they will achieve the objectives and generally act smart, though they will occasionally drive into objects or stand around. Multiplayer is integrated into game well, with browser filters that actually function correctly (I’m looking at you, Battlefield) and it’s easy to join a game. The game is occasionally laggy online, though this really depends on the server you choose. The game features stat tracking, but unlike Battlefield 2142, this does not permanently unlock new weapons. Experience bonuses are only gained in each campaign (a set of three maps) and are reset each new game. This is much better than the alternative, as new players are not at a disadvantage to players who play nothing but Enemy Territory: Quake Wars night and day. It is hard to gain ranks, however: your rank is supposed to be relative to others on the server, but after a good deal of playing I have yet to get above the entry level position. Rank doesn’t do anything, but it’s either broken or there are just too many experienced people on the servers I play.

Enemy Territory: Quake Wars features four three-mission campaigns (that’s a total of twelve…I can multiply!). All of the maps in the game are assault (one attacker and one defender); there is a lot more that could have been done to increase the variety in Enemy Territory: Quake Wars. As it stands, every map involves driving, constructing, destroying, hacking, or transporting objects, or defending against these actions. As a comparison, World in Conflict features three different modes of play, but we are limited in Enemy Territory: Quake Wars. The advantage to the assault-only gameplay is that each battle is very focused: there is almost constant action and everyone is fighting in the same area, instead of spreading out over the entire map. This is helped by forward spawn points, and each map features both indoor and outdoor areas for a little variety. The map size does not scale according to the number of players, so you really need a full 24-player server for the game to work well. Other than the three-map campaigns, you can do a single-map match or the stopwatch mode that switches attacker and defender roles and sees who can do it faster. The interface of Enemy Territory: Quake Wars is good, as it shows objective locations, enemy and friendly units, and other pertinent information in a clear and informative manner. And Enemy Territory: Quake Wars doesn’t require having the DVD in the drive when you play…bonus!

There are five classes to choose from in Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, and each class has its role in the overall scheme. I have yet to find a “hated” class and all are equally fun to play (unlike World in Conflict where I dislike the infantry role). The weapons each class gets are pretty generic (a standard assault rifle for most), considering the Quake heritage. In fact, a lot of the weapons from Quake games aren’t even included in Enemy Territory: Quake Wars: where is the plasma gun, chaingun, super nailgun, hyperblaster, or BFG? The five classes for each side are identical and are simply given different names. The basic soldier/aggressor can choose between the standard rifle, a machine gun, a rocket launcher, or a shotgun. Soldiers also get explosives that are required to complete some of the objectives. Engineers/constructors can deploy defensive turrets (anti-personnel, anti-vehicle, or artillery interceptor) and repair things. Medics can revive dead teammates (to half health) and Strogg technicians can make spawn points from fallen GDF soldiers. Field ops/oppressors and deploy artillery and order air strikes. Cover ops/infiltrators are equipped with long-range sniper rifles and can deploy radar (extremely useful…probably my favorite deployable) and remote cameras. Experience earned in each class can allow you to run faster or unlock better weapons, but they are reset after the end of each campaign (again, a welcome feature).

The gameplay of Enemy Territory: Quake Wars can best be described as a fast-paced tactical model. It only takes a few shots to kill someone, but you can run fairly fast and respawn times are generally short. It’s not the same style as Quake, with large health and drawn-out skirmishes, so the “Quake Wars” moniker is somewhat misleading. Enemy Territory: Quake Wars uses an accurate shooting model which “guesses” where you meant to shoot, to make up for lag differences. The result is a lot more accurate shooting and more enjoyable gameplay as a whole. Enemy Territory: Quake Wars does emphasize teamwork, so everyone needs to deploy their turret (one per person) and support each other to bring about glorious victory. It seems odd, then, that Enemy Territory: Quake Wars lacks voice-over-IP; although I don’t use it, the lack of this feature is surprising and it makes planning more difficult. Enemy Territory: Quake Wars puts more emphasis on infantry than the assortment of vehicles; because things are easy to destroy, even with basic assault rifles, vehicles are more for transport than assault purposes. I think this is a good thing, as there isn’t the helicopter dominance of Battlefield and taking on enemy armor is a possibility without a rocket launcher (as long as you have some help). Maps and servers that feature longer respawn times are more enjoyable, as it favors the medics and self-preservation; though it does involve some running, a fifteen-second clock is a bit too short. In general, I had fun while playing Enemy Territory: Quake Wars and the game is a few small issues away from being one of the best online shooters.

IN CLOSING

Enemy Territory: Quake Wars should satisfy your need to execute enemy forces in a team-based setting. Is it a Battlefield-killer? Well, I had more fun playing Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, though the gap between the two games is small. The game does feature some curiosities that prevent it from being completely enjoyable. The Quake license seems very extraneous, especially with identical forces and generic non-Quake weaponry. The maps are all the same, assault-only, and the objectives are repetitive enough where maps don’t retain any individuality. The maps don’t scale for smaller battles and Enemy Territory: Quake Wars lacks VoIP, which hinders online coordination. However, there are a lot of good things in Enemy Territory: Quake Wars: the shooting model, the equally useful classes, the focused action-packed battles, the decent AI bots, and the resetting of experience bonuses. I certainly did have fun playing the game, so much so that Battlefield 2 has been uninstalled (Battlefield 2142 has long since been deleted). So if you are willing to fight through some small problems and like a more tactical game, Enemy Territory: Quake Wars serves up some satisfying online shooting.

Brass Hats Review

Brass Hats, developed and published by Square Earth Games.

The Good: Straightforward strategic gameplay, good tutorials, well developed campaign with increasing difficulty, nice graphical style

The Not So Good: No random maps or map editor, no Internet matchmaking, poor performance

What say you? A good wargame for novice players: 6/8

MY POORLY WRITTEN INTRODUCTION

Strategy games have run the gamut from very complicated wargames to more straightforward offerings. Each of these ends of the spectrum appeals to a different audience, so eventually everyone is happy. There have been some more casual games in the tactical wargame theme, where you move small numbers of units around a hex-based map. One of these is Brass Hats, which hopes to marry the strategic depth of wargames with an easy-to-use accessible game.

GRAPHICS AND SOUND

Despite the 2-D graphics of Brass Hats, I actually like the presentation of the game. The levels and units might not be spectacular 3-D replicas of their real-life counterparts, but Brass Hats has a very effective cartoon-like atmosphere. I like the design of the units and the maps and I would much prefer this style to a muddled 3-D world with poor textures. The music is along the same lines: it is repetitive and MIDI-like but catchy at the same time. Not every game needs to make the jump to 3-D or have an inordinate amount of cash involved in the graphics in order for them to be successful. It is weird, then, that Brass Hats has some performance issues on my dual core computer: mouse lag is bad on large levels involving lots of units, and it rears its ugly head even on some menus. I would also like to be able to play the game in windowed mode, since Brass Hats is displayed at a low resolution. Still, overall, I was pleased by the graphics and sound of Brass Hats.

ET AL.

Brass Hats is a turn-based strategy game where you order units across a hex-based map to take over the enemy capital. The game centers around World War I-era units and includes a rather lengthy 28-level campaign. The campaign includes a branching structure that offers increasing difficulty as you attempt to eliminate the Central Powers from Europe. You can play cards earned through good performance that will give benefits to certain units. New players can learn the game through the well-written tutorial missions that teach each aspect of the game one lesson at a time. There are also a few single missions intended for skirmish play or multiplayer matches. These missions are more balanced than the campaign missions; there are not very many missions to choose from and Brass Hats lacks a map editor or random map generator, so you will exhaust the single battles quickly. Multiplayer can be done on the same computer or over the Internet, but you need to know your opponent’s IP address since Brass Hats lacks a matchmaking program. Still, the single player campaign offers enough content to keep you busy for a while.

Brass Hats features a number of units that can be built at captured factories, airfields, and ports. These include infantry, artillery, tanks, flamethrowers, fighters, bombers, and an assortment of naval units. Each of these has advantages and disadvantages and associated costs; money can be earned by capturing cities. Brass Hats emphasizes an assorted crew: tanks are the most powerful close-range unit, but only infantry can capture enemy or neutral buildings. There are also roles for the aircraft and ranged units like snipers and artillery. Brass Hats does a good job in making each unit important to the gameplay. Some missions contain a fog of war that obscures enemy locations; snipers or units stationed in mountainous areas can increase your sight range. Units can be ambushed (which stops their turn immediately) so there is a definite benefit to scouting ahead. Most units can move and fire in the same turn; units near enemy forces can only move single hexes to prevent fast retreats or moving past enemy forces unopposed.

Combat is straightforward: Brass Hats gives you odds that are calculated based on the units involved. Units can gain experience through combat that can impose restrictions on an enemy unit’s ability to counter-attack; this makes keeping experienced units alive important. Units with decreased health can repair at a city (for infantry) or factory (for tanks), although new units cannot be produced there while the hex is occupied. Being successful in Brass Hats requires planning ahead, using your unit’s strengths, attacking appropriate units, and using combined arms to bring down the enemy. I found the gameplay of Brass Hats to be quite enjoyable and it stays true to the wargame theme without being bogged down with sight lines or supply or any of that other stuff. You move, attack, and produce new units while advancing towards the enemy HQ. The pace is slow enough to allow for some plans to develop, but quick enough to get the game over with. Brass Hats is a simple game, but it is still challenging and requires some thought in order to be successful.

IN CLOSING

If you are scared off by the complexity and monotony of wargames, then Brass Hats might be the game to change your mind. The game is very easy to learn, thanks to simplified controls and useful tutorials. Despite its simplicity, Brass Hats maintains a high level of strategic gameplay, which should satisfy players of all experience levels. I really like the overall design of the game, from the mechanics to the graphics and sound. Brass Hats may be missing some features that would extend the life of the product, but $24 gets you a good amount of content and the campaign will provide a lot of entertainment. Brass Hats is a well-designed strategy game that is easy to learn and fun to play.

Ducati World Championship Review

Ducati World Championship, developed by Artematica and published by Strategy First.

The Good: Multiple game modes, quality points are interesting

The Not So Good: Unrealistic physics and handling, no difference between arcade and simulation modes, boring circuits, laggy menus with no mouse control, must use gamepad to navigate menus to use it during the race, can’t assign an axis to the throttle or brake, sporadic AI, no online or LAN multiplayer, outdated graphics with a jerky camera, poor sound with an outrageously annoying and repetitive crew chief, most content must be unlocked

What say you? There’s no reason to play this archaic motorcycle racing game: 3/8

MY POORLY WRITTEN INTRODUCTION

There are plenty of niche motorsports taking to tracks around the world. One of these is motorcycle racing, featuring riders going entirely too fast on small two-wheeled vehicles inches from the ground protected by a helmet. I didn’t say it was very smart. There have been several notable motorcycle racing games published on the PC, from the MotoGP series to…well…the MotoGP series (oh, and I liked Superbike 2000). A new (maybe) entrant into the fray is Ducati World Championship, a racing title that features Ducati motorcycles (surprise!). Will this simulation give us reason to race with only two wheels?

GRAPHICS AND SOUND

Both the sound and the graphics of Ducati World Championship are terribly outdated. This game looks to be a port from a console game (evidenced by the lack of mouse input) and I’m not sure how old the console game is: Ducati World Championship features some really ancient graphics. The effects are underwhelming at best: there is no grass or dirt flying or collecting on the wheels (something I vividly remember from Superbike 2000), just sparks flying every once in a while. The textures are bad and lack detail, from the riders to the bikes to the tracks. The track design is bland with not much detail paid to the track surface or the surroundings. The racers experience a canned seizure-like crashing animation that makes no sense and certainly doesn’t involve rag doll physics (a fun (albeit disturbing) possibility in a motorcycle game) and shake their fist at passing motorists. Ducati World Championship also has a jerky camera that has a difficult time focusing on the action, constantly shifting small increments behind your bike; I don’t know if this is intentional or not, but it is certainly annoying. Plus, Ducati World Championship can’t display at 1280x1024, a pretty common resolution these days with LCD monitors. Ducati World Championship is not even close to the bar set by RACE 07 in terms of graphics; I have no idea why this game takes up nearly 3 GB of hard drive space. The sound design in the game is as bad as the graphics. The Ducati motorcycles sound whiny instead of manly, the crew chief screams annoying phrases at you (such as “DRIVE FASTAAAAAAAAA”), and I don’t know what the sound effect that’s played when you exit a menu is supposed to be, but it sounds like a cat being castrated. Plus, Ducati World Championship features a horrible soundtrack full of poor alternative metal. Ducati World Championship is like a dumb ugly girl: painful to look at and listen to.

ET AL.

The only thing saving Ducati World Championship from complete mediocrity is the multiple racing modes. The game comes complete with quick races, a career mode where you advance through three classes, and a points championship using the racing bikes. The career mode features 60 events scattered over three classes; you can change the setup of your bike (although the results are minimal and the options include “low,” “medium,” and “high”). New bikes are unlocked and magically put in your garage with good finishes. It’s a good way to get you introduced to the game. The championship mode features 14 events using the top class of bikes where the top 15 drivers earn points towards the cup. Also, there is the “capirex challenge” where you must complete specific objectives like perform wheelies and other special moves, or racing in endurance races against other riders. Again, this is a nice feature. Multiplayer is disappointingly only possible on the same computer, as Ducati World Championship lacks online or LAN play. You do get to play multiplayer matches as a deathmatch, best of series, or for total points, and you can include AI drivers or just race one on one. This is a pretty good set of features for a racing game; sadly, the rest of Ducati World Championship is so horrible.

Ducati World Championship features about 30 circuits (although some are alternate layouts of other tracks) and all are the same comfortable width and not very challenging. There are four kinds of bikes in the game (classic, sport, superbike, and racing), but the only difference is that they go progressively faster. There are some control issues with the game: in addition to the lack of mouse control and laggy menus, you can’t assign a joystick axis or pedal to the throttle or brake (button only) and you must use the gamepad to navigate through the menus or the game will default to the keyboard (it took me about 15 minutes to figure that out, after re-setting my controls a number of times). Once you actually get to pilot one of these things, you will find completely unrealistic handling. This goes for the arcade and simulation modes: your bike goes entirely too fast around corners. This would be fine for the arcade mode, but I would expect the simulation mode to behave like a simulation (is that too much to ask?). The first couple of bikes don’t even require the brake, as you simple need to lift the accelerator for the tightest corners. The powerful (meaning faster) bikes to require some use of the brake, but it’s still not as liberal as it should be. The control scheme is pretty standard, but the game requires you to hold “up” to reach maximum speed (to lean forward and reduce drag). This supposedly reduces handling, but I didn’t see it and just kept pressing up the whole time with no ill effects. The only interesting aspect of the racing is the inclusion of quality points; they are earned by maintaining a good line or overtaking other drivers. Quality points are used for small boosts of acceleration. This is a neat way of rewarding good driving, but it makes it very easy to cheat. This is a lot like the tactical aid in World in Conflict, and that will be the last parallel between that great game and this plague. The AI in the game is very linear and not hard to beat, hardly providing a challenge as they behave like robots following in a line all the way around the track. Ducati World Championship seemingly forgets every advance made in racing simulation during the past 15 years, and it should be avoided at all costs.

IN CLOSING

Ducati World Championship is one of the worst racing games I have ever played. While there are some bright spots, such as the varied modes of play and the quality points, they are completely overshadowed by the sheer crappiness of the title as a whole. The graphics are old, the audio is painful, online multiplayer is missing, the tracks are boring, the AI is robotic, and the handling is completely wrong. Ducati should feel ashamed for having their proud name tied to this poor excuse of a game. Do yourself a favor and pick up RACE 07, a vastly superior game. Even at $20, Ducati World Championship is about fifteen years too late and the rest of the racing world has passed it by.

Alawar Entertainment Goes Mobile

Alawar Entertainment, publisher of casual games like Snowy the Bear series, Magic Shop, and Magic Ball to name a few, announces the creation of Alawar NewEdge Mobile. This company specializes in publishing games for smartphones and mobile devices. The new company will launch over 1000 games for mobile devices including Magic Ball 2, Treasures of Montezuma, Snowy, and more.

NewEdge will continue and focus on developing games while Alawar does the publishing and distribution. With more companies producing games and applications for handheld devices, we won’t have to wait till we get home or to the office to get things done or have fun. Just do it while you fly, ride (not drive, of course), or wait in a doctor’s office.

Little Shop of Treasures 2

This highly-anticipated seek-and-find adventure game is a set in the charming town of Huntington, and your task is to help shoppers find the items they need and earn enough money to restore and re-open your Uncle Roy’s gas station.

Joystick Johnny Review

Joystick Johnny, developed and published by Flea Circus Games.

The Good: Lots of classic games recreated, short sessions with each game reduces monotony, appropriately adjusted difficulty

The Not So Good: No instructions for individual games, a loss requires to redo the entire sequence over again, levels are identical if repeated

What say you? A nice nostalgic collection of classic arcade games: 6/8

MY POORLY WRITTEN INTRODUCTION

The first video game console I played was an Atari 2600. My family had (and still has, somewhere) quite an extensive collection of games for the system. All of these titles are very simplistic by today’s standards, but they were quite fun twenty-five years ago. Not surprisingly, several collections have been released featuring those titles, hoping to cash in on the nostalgic fervor. Joystick Johnny is one of those games, sort of. You see, it contains eerily similar adaptations of classic games, and you must complete a couple of levels of each game in a set amount of time. Will Joystick Johnny successfully recapture the youth of gamers everywhere?

GRAPHICS AND SOUND

Joystick Johnny certainly captures the atmosphere of those classic arcade games. Featuring low-resolution graphics in all their pixilated glory, Joystick Johnny does a nice job representing each classic game in a slightly different context (replacing asteroids with pizzas, for example). The variety of games is impressive, and the fact that each level “looks right” is a testament to good graphical design. Joystick Johnny has a generic 80’s-like music mix; it would have been better to rip off (I mean borrow) the actual game music. Overall, Joystick Johnny looks and sounds just like it should for what it is attempting to accomplish.

ET AL.

Joystick Johnny contains three arcades in which you need to beat thirteen games in twelve minutes. Each arcade is divided into three rows, and you must beat one, two, three, and then four levels in four of the five games in each row. There is some strategy in choosing the orders in which you play the games: obviously, games you stink at you will want to play first, since you only need to beat one level to move on to the next title. The controls can use the keyboard, which works well on most of the games. Still, a joystick gives you the ability to move at an angle easier (and makes the Gyruss clone playable). I found the time limit to be adjusted well: just enough time for a semi-perfect game. Every time you die, you lose five seconds of completion time; this can become an issue in the later rows. You can adjust the difficulty to allow for more and less time; harder levels will add more bonus points to your score. It took me a couple of tries to beat each arcade level; the limited number of lives in the very last game makes it quite difficult, and also annoying if you lose since you have to play all the games over again.

Joystick Johnny features a pleasant and complete list of arcade classics, or at least reasonable replications thereof. There are around 25 different games to choose from, including Asteroids, Space Invaders, Pac Man, Marble Madness, Missile Command, Gyruss, Spy Hunter, Joust, and the unforgettable E.T. for the 2600. Of course, the names have been changed to protect the innocent. I found that all of the replicas perform just as well as the originals, so the gameplay of Joystick Johnny is enjoyable. The game doesn’t give explicit instructions in each game, so it can take a couple of tries to figure out what you are supposed to shoot or collect and what to avoid. After you defeat the regular time limited game, you can enter mystery mix mode that will randomize the games’ placement, or dollar dash that will allow you to pick and choose. After you finish a game, you can upload your score to the Internet and revel at your incompetence.

IN CLOSING

Joystick Johnny successfully recreates some classic arcade games and presents them in an original concept with a neat overall goal, instead of simply slapping them all together. The gameplay is just as you remember it, and the subtle graphics changes make sure the developer won’t get sued (much). Joystick Johnny will obviously have more appeal for people who played the original games oh so many years ago. Still, the game is well designed and the quick pace reduces the probability of boredom associated with playing these archaic games. It helps if you have played these games before, since Joystick Johnny is devoid of instructions for each game and inexperienced players might not be able to figure out why they keep dying. Still, those looking for a fast-paced adaptation of simplified arcade action will find Joystick Johnny a satisfying title.

Astraware Launches Boardgames

Years ago, I had Backgammon on my Palm Pilot and it hooked me. Then more original games came along and I forgot about it. Astraware knows these games are a mainstay for a reason… they’re good games. Astraware Boardgames comes with eight games:

Chess

Checkers

Snakes and Ladders (aka Chutes and Ladders)

Reversi

Ludo (similar to Trouble and Parcheesi)

Tic Tac Toe

Nine Men’s Morris

Astraware Boardgames Users can customize the rules and level of difficulty (three levels) for each game. Boardgames supports Palm OS devices, Windows Mobile (both touchscreen and non) 2003, 5 and 6.

Bloom Review

Bloom, developed by Karma Team and published by Elephant Games.

The Good: Easy to learn gameplay, editor

The Not So Good: Repetitive and not challenging, some flower locations are inaccessible, distracting backgrounds

What say you? A puzzle game that’s fun for just about five minutes: 4/8

MY POORLY WRITTEN INTRODUCTION

Gardening is a time consuming activity where you get to sweat and handle fertilizer. I fail to see the appeal. Still, it’s popular enough to warrant plenty of “garden centers” in large stores around the nation, and its appeal could be carried over to computer games in some way. In Bloom, you must water spouting flowers by diverting water pipes to the appropriate locations. How will Bloom stack up in the pantheon of puzzle games?

GRAPHICS AND SOUND

Bloom is presented in a 2-D, top-down format. The game does feature some pretty flowers and some nice detail for the genre, but the backgrounds are too similar to the foregrounds. Therefore, it is very, very difficult to spot new flowers when they are camouflaged by the background foliage. This makes playing the game ultimately frustrating as you squint in order to hunt for new sprouts. It is realistic to have flowers placed in a flowery garden, but the decision makes Bloom tricky to play, and this should not be caused by the graphics. The background effects are not much better, featuring a single looping song and some effects that accompany the flower growing. It’s rare to find titles where the graphics actually hinder the gameplay, but Bloom attains this dubious feat.

ET AL.

As I stated in the introduction, “in Bloom, you must water spouting flowers by diverting water pipes to the appropriate locations.” Copy and paste is so much fun! The method to the madness involves rotating pipes to complete connections to the various sprouting plants that randomly appear in the map and growing enough flowers before the water supply runs out. There are forty levels to complete and they go by fairly quickly; there is a pretty decent level editor that comes with the game to add some replay value. Bloom’s controls are simple, as the entire game is controlled with the mouse and the gameplay consists of clicking on pipes in order to rotate them. The game is pretty easy, once you learn that there is one solution that will divert water to almost the entire map and a couple of key points that can be switched. Some of the levels are poorly designed, however, as there can be large portions of a map that is inaccessible without the use of a bonus. There isn’t any change in the gameplay as you advance through Bloom: it’s all very monotonous. There are no difficulty settings in the game, and Bloom is too easy for players with any gaming experience. The game never really has a hectic feel that makes for good, challenging puzzle gaming. The bonuses available in the game, that do things like add more water, switch an existing connection, speed up growth, or slow time, make Bloom even easier. Because of the straightforward levels, there can be a lot of sitting around waiting for the level to end once you have set the perfect solution. Money you earn from growing flowers can be used to purchase upgrades to your house: this is pointless and doesn’t impact the game at all. It would have been much better to allow for buying bonuses instead of superfluous upgrades. Overall, Bloom’s gameplay is too easy and too repetitive to be enjoyable in the long run.

IN CLOSING

Bloom has a decent concept for a game, but the execution is definitely lacking. I don’t mind a repetitive game as long as it is fun, but Bloom is far too easy and it doesn’t offer anything different as you progress through the game. While the game mechanics are certainly easy to learn, the game becomes very boring after the first couple of levels. This game was obviously designed for the very casual player in mind, as anyone with any gaming experience will find Bloom to be too easy. There are no interesting strategic decisions to do with your earned money: instead of deciding on game-changing upgrades, you get to pick between a pond and a tree. The graphics even impair the gameplay, obstructing the flowers on the map. I do like the inclusion of an editor, but this isn’t enough to save this doomed puzzle game. Bloom wilts under the heavy weight of poorly designed aesthetics and features with uninteresting, repetitive, and effortless gameplay.

Plant Tycoon PC Game Review

I wish biology teachers had Plant Tycoon based on real plants to help students learn about genetics and trait inheritance. The game is all about breeding and cross-pollinating plants to create expensive and rare plants as well as the six magic plants. This one is more an interactive experience in pumping up your green thumb than it is a game.

The game looks familiar to Virtual Villagers players because it comes from the same developers, Last Day of Work (yet they keep working!), and these plants hail from the exotic island of Isola. Virtual Villagers takes place on Isola and the graphics style and dialog boxes are the same. You’ll also recognize many customer faces in the nursery as they look like the people of Isola wearing modern clothes.

Also like its ancestors, Plant Tycoon is a real-time game where the plants continue growing even after closing the game. Players have the option to pause time and change the speed of time to slow, normal or fast. So if you’re off to bed or work for the day, either pause the game or switch to slow mode to ensure your plants don’t check out.

The game isn’t without its pests — figuratively and literally. The literal part involves catching butterflies and insects with a net. This is an optional game within the game. Virtual Villagers fans will recall the adventures they had trying to catch every rock, bug, and shell to complete the collection.

Plant Tycoon The nursery where you sell the plants is the biggest pest — figuratively. If you exit the nursery to change a price or anything else and go back in, the customers start over. If you had hordes of people inside the nursery, they’ll be gone and you’ll have to sit and wait for them to show up again. I wish there was a way to change prices while in the nursery and that the nursery would keep running even if I’m not in that screen. When it comes time to sell the plants to make room for new ones, I open the nursery and go do something else to past time.

Shop at the store for supplies, which includes three levels of soil, water, clippers, nets, and seed collection box. You must buy a level one item before a level two, a level two item before level three. The level of supplies affects your ability to grow exotic and rare plants as well as in catching the little buggers.

Oh, how this game can go on for days and weeks! I tried to keep track of the plants and seeds on paper. That didn’t work. It was too complicated since there were too many similar seeds and plants. Then I tried using the amazing spreadsheet that contains the breeding charts, but there were too many combinations and I couldn’t make up my mind which to do.

If I had more time on my hands, I’d study these guides to better understand the breeding formula. It makes sense when I break down the chart to a small 5׵ grid, but to apply that to every single combination with over 500 plant possibilities… forget it! That’s what makes this game unique (other than Fish Tycoon from the same developer) is that it makes you think. You can only store so many seeds that it’s tough to decide which to keep as it takes no time to fill up the seed box.

For busy and impatient folks, Last Day of Work posted great guides, charts, and spoilers in its forum. Clicking the link takes you to the forum list where no spoilers appear. You can see the post titles so you can decide what to look at. Be prepared to have patience when starting the game. It takes time to grow plants and build up the funds for bigger purchases.

Plant Tycoon I love creating new plants and seeing what would show up after cross-pollinating two plants. It would be nice to have a feature that keeps track of all the plants I’ve made. I tried doing that myself, but it was a monstrous task. The game does have stats indicating the number of species you discover, plants sold, bugs caught along with your rank for each.

I also enjoy clipping the dead parts of the plants and seeing the plant change to reflect the clipping. Those with brown thumbs like mine can play Plant Tycoon without worrying about killing plants. Gregor Mendel, “father of modern genetics,” would be proud.

System Requirements: Windows

Windows ME/98/2000/XP/Vista

700 MHz or faster processor

96 MB RAM

DirectX 7.0 MB or later

Sins of a Solar Empire Preview

Sins of a Solar Empire (Preview), developed by Ironclad Games and published by Stardock Entertainment.

The Good So Far: Little micromanagement due to high amount of smart automation, outstanding intuitive interface, enjoyable 4X real-time gameplay

The Not So Good So Far: Slow pace and long travel times, research trees could be clearer

MY POORLY WRITTEN INTRODUCTION

The 4X strategy game is quite a popular genre, especially ones set in space. From Lost Empire to Galactic Civilizations II to Space Empires V to (deep breath) Starships Unlimited to Sword of the Stars, the list is getting so long that it's limiting the things I can say in the introduction (other than the list I am repeating). Produced by the same people behind Galactic Civilizations II (the best game in the genre) comes Sins of a Solar Empire, a 4X game that sets itself apart with real-time gameplay. That’s right: no more turn-based nonsense! Through an incident involving a llama, two sticks of dynamite, and former President Clinton (don’t get me started), I got my hands on a preview build of the game, which is due for release in February 2008. If you are reading this in February 2008 (probably because I referenced the preview in my review), how is it in the future? Has Paris Hilton doomed humanity yet? Oh, maybe that was February 2009; Nostradamus can be a year or two off. In the meantime, please enjoy this preview!

GRAPHICS AND SOUND

Sins of a Solar Empire has a nice graphics engine that shows detail all the way up close back to the entire universe you are playing in. This is a lot like Supreme Commander, where the game map and the mini-map are one in the same. Sins of a Solar Empire does a fine job showing all of the pertinent information on multiple zoom levels, including the useful, albeit initially confusing, empire menu that shows all of your ships and structures as blips next to your planets. This preview build only contained one playable race, so the variety of ship designs is not evident yet. Overall, Sins of a Solar Empire seems to be a good looking space game, as the environment lends itself to visual splendor. The sounds also appear to be on track, with some genre-appropriate background music and good effects for the various combat operations on-going in your game world. We’ll see what Sins of a Solar Empire looks and sounds like with four more months of tweaking.

ET AL.

Sins of a Solar Empire is a classic 4X strategy game, where you establish your colonies, build a fleet, and go blow stuff up. The innovation is playing the game in real-time, and I am not sure if this is a good thing. The game goes by very slowly in the beginning while you are expanding your empire; this is normally the time where you would keep hitting the “next turn” button, but in Sins of a Solar Empire you just have to wait. The game features single player skirmishes on a handful of pre-designed and random maps, a tutorial that teacher some (but not all) of the game’s mechanics, and multiplayer over LAN or Ironclad’s matchmaking service. The multiplayer aspects of the game seem to be working fine so far.

The economy of Sins of a Solar Empire is based off of collecting credits (from taxes), metal (from mining), and crystal (from more mining). The game displays a per planet rate of resource collection, useful in determining your most important economic strongholds. The usually excellent user interface does a good job in giving the player useful information in sizable bites: controlling a large empire scattered over several star systems can be difficult, but the sorted reports, zoomed views, and empire menu help immensely. Your resources will be spent upgrading planets, building things, conducting research, and raising defenses. Each of your planets can be developed in five areas: civics (increasing the population and therefore the taxed credit income), logistics (more buildings), tactical (more defenses), and your fleet and capital ship caps. There are a number of structures that can be built in orbit around each planet: metal and crystal collection facilities, factories for ships, labs for research, trade ports and refineries for additional funds, and broadcast centers for culture. Defensive buildings consist of the typical gun platforms, plus repair vessels and shields. If you don’t want to manually place all of these structures, you can have the game auto-place them. There is a good selection of buildings available; they cover the range of possibilities without being overkill.

A portion of your economy will be devoted towards building ships. There are three classes: small frigates, medium-sized cruisers, and huge capital ships. The ships will automatically engage enemies in their planet’s range (unless told to hold fire) and usually don’t require much micromanagement. Thankfully, the special abilities available to each ship can be auto-used by the AI, reducing the tedium even further. Your largest ship, the capital, can level-up, increasing the success of its special abilities. There are some alternatives to fighting, such as negotiating cease fire, intelligence, trade alliances with the other empires. There is also a three-part research tree (military, civilian, and artifact) that could be a lot clearer. It’s hard to make out the icons and difficult to see which grant new ships or are required for certain structures. It would be nice if they build menus were somehow tied into the research trees, showing where the requirements for building a trade port are actually located on the convoluted display.

As far as the gameplay goes, the AI is not terribly aggressive and seems to send out only one large force to begin with. This makes it easy to colonize perimeter planets, as long as you get lucky and don’t run into the large enemy fleet. The game mechanics are interesting, as there are several paths you can choose since your resources are quite limited. You can focus on colonization, research, military, cultural, or diplomatic exploits, and each has an advantage. Maybe it’s because I’ve been playing World in Conflict, but I found Sins of a Solar Empire painfully slow. The ships move slow, colonization is slow, and the beginning of the game takes 30 minutes just to get a decent sized empire going. I don’t really see how this would work very well in multiplayer, unless players have an extremely high amount of spare time. The movement times are agonizingly realistic (a problem also seen in 3030 Deathwar) and it takes forever just to move a couple of ships to a new planet. Since a lot of the game is automated (which is a good thing), you’ll spend an inordinate amount of time waiting for the credits to add up or for a ship to move. Granted, Sins of a Solar Empire still has four more months of development left, so things could improve in the future, but right now I found the pace to be very slow.

IN CLOSING

Sins of a Solar Empire, for the most part, looks good so far. The game has a nice foundation of 4X gameplay with great graphics and promising multiplayer capabilities. The user interface is great and helps you control a large empire with ease. I really like the amount of automation present in the game, removing a lot of the monotony associated with this genre. The pace is slow, but hopefully the game will all come together with four more months of work. We’ll find out then!

Diner Dash Hometown Hero Web Site

Diner Dash Flo receives her own Web site complete with extras, forums, blogs, comic strips, featured diners and waiters, tips and tricks, high scores ,and more. Her latest game also comes with extra helpings for PCs only. Diner Dash Hometown Hero Gourmet Edition includes over 500 clothing and diner decor items as well as the ability to play with friends in multiplayer mode.

With so many casual games, it’ll be interesting to see how Flo does with all these extras. If I didn’t have a busy life with kids and a job, perhaps I’d be active in the community. What would happen if every game gets a community of its own? We’d never have time to play other games, right?

RACE 07 Review

RACE 07, developed by SimBin Studios and published by Viva Media.

The Good: Forty-one tracks, eight racing series, custom championships, realistic helmet view, everything that was in RACE

The Not So Good: Still no tutorials

What say you? This racing simulation sequel has enough new content to justify its existence: 7/8

MY POORLY WRITTEN INTRODUCTION

It’s now become an annual occurrence: the arrival of “new” sports games. Usually, they only feature roster updates and one or two new features, but the mindless populace buys them anyway. I’m more interested in new, innovative games, or at least content that surpasses a typical expansion pack. RACE 07 (actually released in 07!) is the sequel to RACE, a game I liked a lot due to its easy-to-drive cars, capable AI, realistic driving model, and awesome graphics. That game was released (at least in the U.S.) earlier this year; a nine-month turn-around usually doesn’t bode well for giving the users enough content to justify spending money on a new version. Does RACE 07 fall into the same content-light trap that many other annually published games do?

GRAPHICS AND SOUND

The graphics of RACE 07 are almost identical to RACE, which is not a bad thing. The level of detail is still very nice and the game runs as smooth as ever. The new tracks and cars maintain the high quality set in the previous title. There are some minor improvements with the track detail and damage models. The only completely new feature is a helmet view for open cars, complete with tear-offs for clearer viewing pleasure. While this isn’t a monumental addition to the game, it is nice and does impact the gameplay somewhat with a more restricted view. The sound of RACE 07 continues the strong tradition established by RACE: all of the cars sound believable.

ET AL.

Since RACE 07 is obviously a lot like RACE, you should go read that review to get the basics down, as I will only talk about the new additions to the game. Fortunately, RACE 07 has enough new stuff to validate getting it, and the fact that it is not a full-priced game helps as well. The game modes are generally the same: a single race event (with no practice this time), time attack, practice, multiplayer, and championship modes. I wasn’t able to test multiplayer very much since I got the game to review before the release date (I am sweet like that), but I enjoyed the multiplayer of RACE a lot and I don’t foresee any changes in this department. I do recommend, however, to get some practice under your belt, as almost every multiplayer server uses pro settings with no driver aids, including manual shifting. RACE 07 also has this Virtual Grand Prix option; there was nothing in the press packet about it, but it seems that races in RACE 07 are going to be broadcast on TV in Sweden, or something. RACE 07 does add the option to create custom championships: a neat feature. You can include any of the cars and tracks in the game and set up your own schedule, something that would have been silly in RACE due to the relative lack of variety in that game.

RACE was a bit limited in its content: only the ten 2006 season tracks and cars, plus Mini Coopers and the 1987 WTCC vehicles. RACE 07 adds the eleven 2007 tracks, which are mostly the same as the 2006 tracks, but some new chicanes have been added to some of the tracks (probably by the same people who screwed up Hockenheim). RACE 07 also contains twenty additional tracks (for a grand total of 41): three completely different tracks (fan favorites Estoril and Imola, plus the Vara street circuit) and alternates of existing tracks, from reverse layouts to shorter and longer version, including some ovals. All of the new tracks are designed well and resemble their real-life counterparts well. The inclusion of new racing locales is a welcome addition to the game and adds more variety to the simulation.

Since RACE 07 is the WTCC game, it includes all of the cars from the 2007 and 2006 seasons. In addition, the Mini Coopers and 1987 cars have returned, along with the Caterham vehicles from the expansion. RACE 07 also adds Radical prototypes and some open wheel entries from minor leagues Formula 3000 and Formula BMW. All of these cars handle well and seem to mirror their real life counterparts; now, open wheel fanatics can experience RACE 07 in a whole new light. The game allows you to mix the field of any event with multiple car types, adding to the possibilities. The WTCC cars are still my favorites because they are powerful yet easy to drive: they don’t break loose if you slam on the gas exiting a corner like the open wheel vehicles. The strong AI exhibited in RACE makes a return, offering an aggressive but not overly aggressive opponent for single player mayhem. Overall, I feel that RACE 07 adds enough new tracks and cars, far beyond what is typically added in a new title for a series, to make purchasing this game viable for both previous and new players to the franchise.

IN CLOSING

You would figure that if anyone wouldn’t screw up an annually published game, it would be the fine folks at SimBin, and thankfully you were right (you are so smart!). RACE 07 keeps the satisfying core of the game intact, with a very approachable racing engine that will appeal to novices and veterans alike. RACE 07 drastically increases the number of tracks and double the number of cars, and really that’s all you can really ask for in a sequel published less than a year after the original. There are some new graphical enhancements (though the original didn’t exactly look bad) and custom championships to round out the package. So you should get it, especially if you missed the original: RACE 07 comes with sufficient enhancements to invest more of your money into the franchise.

World in Conflict Review

World in Conflict, developed by Massive Entertainment and published by Sierra.

The Good: User-friendly action-oriented tactical gameplay, outstanding team-based multiplayer, non-trivial single player campaign, good AI, highly detailed graphics with some great effects

The Not So Good: Very fast pace negates some ability to plan

What say you? A first person shooter mentality makes this real time tactics game uniquely enjoyable: 8/8

MY POORLY WRITTEN INTRODUCTION

1989. If I recall my I Love The 80's correctly, 2 Live Crew provided family-friendly entertainment, Kevin Costner demonstrated his hatred for corn by building a baseball field in a field, and Milli Vanilli swept the Grammys. And that (sort of) brings us to World in Conflict, a real time strategy game from Massive Entertainment, responsible for the Ground Control series. I remember playing the demo for Ground Control 2 and it was OK, but not something I would spend money on. World in Conflict hopes to infuse the constant action of multiplayer first person shooters with the strategy genre; normally, strategy games are slow, methodical experiences as you collect resources, construct a base, and eventually blow stuff up. Will World in Conflict be a more approachable real time tactics title?

GRAPHICS AND SOUND

The presentation of World in Conflict is absolutely outstanding, from the graphics to the sound. This is one of the best looking strategy games to date, surpassing the likes of Supreme Commander and Company of Heroes with its awe-inspiring destruction and high attention to detail. The units look good up close and far away, with nice realistic animations. The different maps in the game are also well done, putting the action in popular real-world locations and lesser-known settings. The explosions are way over the top, but they sure do look nice and create a great feeling of doom. Watching a city transition from nice coastal hamlet to hell-hole is fun, as buildings explode and craters start to dominate the landscape. World in Conflict is awesome to see with almost constant flashes of light as things go “boom.” All of this graphical splendor comes at a price, as almost nobody will be able to run this game at the highest settings with a smooth frame rate. Fortunately, the game looks almost as good on medium as on high, so there is hope for us all. The sound is just as good as the pretty pictures. The explosions have a nice importance to them, and the cut scenes in the single player campaign are well acting, including narration by that guy from The Usual Suspects. The background music is composed admirably, although it does tend to repeat after a while. Nevertheless, World in Conflict looks and sounds awesome, and it should fill the needs of gamers everywhere that just want to blow crap up.

ET AL.

World in Conflict is a real-time tactical strategy game: there is no base building or resource collection like in Supreme Commander. Instead, you are given a set amount of points to call in reinforcements that become available slowly over time (and everyone is given the same total amount, no matter how good you are doing), and you can also earn points to order artillery strikes and other fun things by blowing up the enemy, helping your teammates, or securing objectives. World in Conflict features a tutorial that does a good job introducing new players to the control scheme. The user interface of World in Conflict is minimal yet affective, giving users access to tactical aids, reinforcements, battle overviews, and all of their units without hiding much of the main screen. A single-player campaign that follows the exploits of an American officer is also available; the gameplay translates well from the multiplayer portion of the game (which was the focus of the product). There are a number of different objectives in each scenario that vary from typical “destroy all enemies” order found in most strategy games. Instead, you’ll be given offensive, defensive, and support orders, along with a number of secondary objectives that can allow for some additional units or other bonuses later on. I found the campaign to be well designed and it portrays a realistic depiction of war: you are part of the action, not the whole of the action. Usually, allies are off fighting in a different portion of the map, and you may be called in to help on occasion; this gives a more accurate feel to the battles.

World in Conflict was built around multiplayer, and the game has some good options you would typically see in an online multiplayer game like the Battlefield series. The Massgate service (free, of course) provides stat tracking, awards, clan battles, and player rankings, in addition to finding online games to join. It is a well designed piece of software and doesn't have the browser issues present in Battlefield 2142. The rankings thankfully don’t unlock anything, so new players won’t be at a grave disadvantage like in Battlefield 2142. You can also play skirmish matches against the AI (by setting up a LAN server); the AI does a pretty good job I thought, although a capable human player will almost always get the highest score.

World in Conflict lets you choose one of four roles in the game (reminiscent of Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, although since this was released first, maybe that game is reminiscent of World in Conflict): air, armor, support, and infantry. All of these classes are very well balanced and usually offer counters for two other classes. I have yet to see any class dominate a map, since there is always something you can do to defeat the enemy units. The heavy helicopters of the air role are designed for quick attacks against armored units, while medium choppers can engage other helicopters as well. Armored tanks are the beasts of the ground, capturing and holding objective locations with their firepower but slow mobility and susceptibility to air units. Support units include artillery (slow firing but powerful) and anti-air units to take care of those pesky helicopters. Infantry are the stealth units of the game, allowing you to hide in buildings and forests and ambush unsuspecting armored units. There is a role for everyone, and you can even combine roles, although units from other classes are more expensive. Each unit in the game usually has an offensive and defensive special ability. This introduces some micromanagement into the game, but since the unit count is never too high (usually 2-8 units) it’s not terribly annoying. I would like, though, to have the ability of units to auto-cast their special abilities. It is advantageous to keep units alive as they gain experience over time and will improve their stats automatically. In addition to not having to shuttle units from the spawn points and wait twenty seconds for reinforcements to arrive, this gives reason to keep those tanks rolling.

If you are successful in defeating the enemy and helping out your friends, you will earn points for using tactical aids. These are very fun toys that can be used in a variety of situations. All of them have a time delay associated with them, so they aren’t overly powerful or unbalanced. Most of the lower-level tactical aids are designed to eliminate one particular unit type (napalm strikes for infantry, tank busters, laser-guided bombs for buildings, air to air strikes), but the more points you save the bigger the boom. While a lot of people will save up for the nuke (which does cause a lot of damage), there is a lot of fun to be had with precision artillery strikes, radar reconnaissance, chemical strikes, unit drops, carpet bombing, heavy air support, and more. The joy in perfectly executing a tactical aid is rewarding to be sure. It’s a simple and effective feature of the game that gives the players a lot of options.

World in Conflict comes with three game modes that are all based on controlling objective locations, noted by connected circles. You must have friendly-only units in each circle in order to capture an objective (a great place to drop in an artillery strike, by the way). Domination mode is the classic conquest gameplay made famous by Battlefield 2142. Assault features a series of single objectives that must be captured in order; after time is up, the defending team gets a crack at beating the time. Tug of war feature a line of several objectives that will advance or retreat based on who holds the command points; it’s just a more focused version of domination. All of these modes are fun to play and they take place on some well-designed maps that further heighten the action. Command points can be fortified with defenses if you keep units inside of the circles (a juicy target for artillery). Besides the eight-on-eight battles, you can play World in Conflict in a few-player mode designed for 2-4 participants. Here, you are given a bunch of reinforcement points and have at it; I personally don’t like this game mode and it is thankfully not that popular online.

All of the features present in World in Conflict come together quite nicely in a very entertaining package. The game really has a first person shooter feel to it, from the almost constant action to the ability to join games in progress. There isn’t any waiting around, removing a lot of the boredom associated with most strategy games in the build-up phase. The explosions start thirty seconds into the game and continue all the way until time expires; you would be hard-pressed to find a more action-packed strategy game. The combat of World in Conflict has a great feel to it, as there are mini-battles taking place all over the map, each of which affects the overall game. For example, you might have anti-air support units battling helicopters near one objective, armored tanks taking victory locations, infantry scouting through forests and taking buildings, support artillery shelling from large distances, and various players calling in tactical strikes. This team-based gameplay works a lot better when you play with people that actually know what they are doing and understand the basic mechanics of the game, but when it works (which is more often than not), it works very, very well. There are quite a few memorable moments you can take from each round: shelling enemy units advancing towards an objective, taking an assault location seconds before time expires, sneaking up on artillery units, just to name a few. I could go on and on about the great experiences I had while playing World in Conflict, but the bottom line is that you need it. You need it to live.

IN CLOSING

World in Conflict is the definitive action-packed tactical game. The title is designed with the sole purpose of providing players with as much enjoyment from start to finish with no boring moments or lulls in activity. The single player campaign is well designed, the reinforcement model eliminates tedious base building, and the classes allow for customization and a variety of roles to influence the battle. Each class, from air to infantry, has their role, and you can be successful in each one after you learn the strengths and weaknesses. The controls are very straightforward and the user interface is superbly designed for easy of use. The amount of action found in World in Conflict is unparallel in the strategy genre, but that doesn’t mean planning and tactics are thrown out of the window: coordination will win the day. World in Conflict simply (and wisely so) eliminates all of the boring aspects of strategy games and delivers a slick, entertaining game that should not be missed, whether you are a strategy aficionado or not. World in Conflict has the simple mechanics, satisfying gameplay, and constant action that should make it a very popular game for a wide audience, and that wide audience should include you.

Machines at War Review

Machines at War, developed and published by Isotope244.

The Good: Easy to learn, smart automated units, quick games, allows for different strategies, robust technology tree, some advanced gameplay mechanics, random maps, available on multiple platforms including phones

The Not So Good: Lacks multiplayer or alternative modes like team play, stalemates on occasion due to strong defenses, needs a directed tutorial

What say you? A straightforward RTS game with some clever ideas that is a few features short of complete satisfaction: 6/8

MY POORLY WRITTEN INTRODUCTION

With cellular telephones becoming increasingly more powerful, games have started to appear in ported form on the platform. Better hardware means more sophisticated games, and now phone software can rival the PC in terms of gameplay complexity. This brings us to Machines at War, a real time strategy game that appears on the Windows and Macintosh operating systems, as well as Pocket PCs and Smartphones. Obviously these formats cannot compete in terms of graphical quality, but gameplay is of paramount importance and Machines at War could deliver an engrossing experience. I’ll be looking at the Windows version of the game, but the other formats are eerily similar, with only some differences in screen resolution. Will Machines at War deliver an entertaining strategy affair?

GRAPHICS AND SOUND

Despite being played from an overhead perspective, the graphics of Machines at War are actually pretty good. The game is rendered in 2-D and contains some nice detail, from the individual trees that dot the map to the amount of destruction that comes about from a heated contest. There is an impressive amount of smoke that billows from defeated machines (you know, the ones at war). Machines at War lacks cutting-edge pixel shaders and all those graphical features that makes your games run slowly, but it really doesn’t need it as the title maintains a nice feel, reminiscent of, say, Red Alert 2. The game runs fast, as you would expect for a title that can also run on a phone. The audio is nice, though somewhat repetitive. The background music is well done, and there are some basic sounds that aren’t quite as varied as big budget RTS titles, but that is to be expected. Still, there are enough explosions and unit acknowledgements to create a believable environment. I’m not sure what makes the low-budget presentation of Machines at War so effective, but it all comes together nicely resulting in a pleasing 2-D RTS title in terms of graphics and sound.

ET AL.

Machines at War is a classic real time strategy game collect resources, build units, and kill stuff. The main complaint about the game is its lack of features. First, the game features only single player action against the AI. Second, there is only deathmatch, no conquest or capture the flag or domination modes to enjoy. There aren’t even team games, as each contest is a free-for-all no matter how many sides are playing. Third, the game’s tutorial is all reading and no interaction, and we all know reading is no fun. Any of these things would have been quite nice to include and allow the game’s replay value to increase. Thankfully, the AI is a good opponent at hard difficulty levels so you’ll have some entertainment there. For each game, you can change the landscape and climate, which will affect the appearance of the game’s randomly generated levels. Most of the levels look about the same and there are no extreme changes in geography, but having them somewhat randomized is still a nice feature. You can also adjust the map size, population cap, and how the map is revealed. The lack of multiplayer and alternative game modes is really the only sore spot in an otherwise entertaining game.

The first step towards victory in Machines at War is resource collection. This is done automatically by scavengers, who will gather ore and deliver it to your base without any interaction needed. You can also build scouts (usually one will suffice) who will automatically go around and uncover the map. Both of these are great features that allow the player to focus on the more important decisions in the game. Buildings in the game have a monetary and power requirement; power is generated using (surprise!) power-generating buildings. Since the game is called Machines at War, you will be building machines: there are no infantry units in the game. These are constructed at your garages and factories, while airports can add helicopters to the mix. If you double click on one of your garages, all will be selected; picking one unit will build that same unit at all garages, cutting down on micromanagement considerably. The tooltip for the money required does not scale, however, so you’ll have to do some quick math to figure out if you can afford five Humvees at once. In general, each unit counters another type of unit, usually not its own type. For example, the lightly-armored Humvee counters heavy armor, while the heavily-armored Challenger takes out light armor. This puts the emphasis on mixed units to push back any type of attack the AI throws at you.

The lab is one of the most important structures in the game: it unlocks more advanced structures and allows for research. The research tree is quite extensive, allowing for offensive, defensive, and resource-based upgrades. You are given a set number of points you can allocate to unlock the opening technology in a group and subsequent upgrades down the line. There is the choice of focusing on one area of research (which could potentially be countered by the enemy) or spreading yourself out with low-level techs. There are some interesting decisions to be made, for sure. There are some nice structures in the game other than the basic unit-producing buildings: the extractor will provide a constant flow of resources, the radar station detects enemy units outside of sight range, and the refinery can serve as a drop-off point for resources far away from your HQ. You can also construct defenses, including various guns and walls. The defenses in the game are quite strong and difficult to overcome; this results in a lot of stalemates until you mass enough units to take them out. This is the same problem as in Supreme Commander: defenses are too cheap and too powerful.

Machines at War includes some interesting subtle enhancements in its gameplay. The more structure you build at once, the slower they will build; this is a good abstraction of construction units without having to worry about construction units. Also, buildings will build faster if you have more spare power, creating an advantage for those who employ good power management. While most of the user interface is well-designed (I’m curious how well it handles on a phone), Machines at War does need a “select all military units” button; while using a select box will only choose military units (good) and you can double-click a unit to select all on screen, you cannot select everybody everywhere. This makes handling a large force difficult, especially since you can’t zoom out. The AI performs well on hard levels, building large bases, acquiring new resource locations, and constructing a large force. They seem to use the same strategy each time (a happy medium between rushing and turtling) so you might be able to counter them with the same plan each time. This is why I would like to see multiplayer incorporated into the game, since you can’t anticipate what a human is thinking…most of the time.

IN CLOSING

Machines at War is a well-designed old school real time strategy game. The number of strategic decisions to make causes Machines at War to become quite stimulating. I also like some of the innovations Machines at War brings to the table, such as the building speeds. You have to strike a balance between build speed and volume, balance your resources, construct the right units, and use the technology tree to your advantage. Machines at War contains enough automation to make the menial tasks of resource collection and early scouting disappear; this lets the player focus on the bigger picture. The user interface is well designed and works well on the Windows platform (just give me a “select all military units” button, please). While the game generally plays out the same each time, there are some different strategies you can successfully employ, although the decent AI will follow the same path. The only thing this game lacks is multiplayer and some new modes of play; add those and Machines at War will become a very nice title.

Penguins Arena Review

Penguins Arena, developed and published by Frogames.

The Good: Very cute design, fast pace, easy controls, allows for tactical planning, incorporated online browser, competent AI

The Not So Good: Rounds are too short, lacks game customization options

What say you? A hectic first person shooter with a great theme that’s more advanced than you’d think: 6/8

MY POORLY WRITTEN INTRODUCTION

First person shooters are a very popular genre on the PC. The only problem is that they involve shooting, and that isn’t appropriate for all ages. While most games strive for unbridled realism, there is something to be said for kid-friendly action you can enjoy without feeling guilty. That’s where Penguins Arena comes in, offering up feathered friends slinging snowballs at each other. Who needs authentic bullet drops from an M-16 if you can lob a clownfish at a penguin? Will Penguins Arena provide good competition in a relatively non-violent package?

GRAPHICS AND SOUND

Penguins Arena uses the Torque game engine, and the graphics are blocky but serviceable. The game looks like it was developed by a small company (which it was), featuring relatively bland environments, low resolution effects, and rough snowy environments. Obviously, comparing the landscapes of Penguins Arena to those of Lost Planet is unfair and we’re not expecting that level of sophistication, but the environments could still use some more detail. The rest of the game is can best be described as “minimal but effective.” The penguin animations are funny to look at: watching them waddle around still makes me smile. The expressions on their faces when they get hit are priceless as well. The sound effects, though repetitive, are memorable as well. The music fits the game’s theme and it is much more distinctive than the generic music found in most games: the tunes get stuck in your head, for better or for worse. Despite its independent roots, Penguins Arena provides memorable, if basic, graphics and sound.

ET AL.

Penguins Arena is a first person shooter where you must eliminate all of the members of the opposing teams. This is done on an island; in a nod to the Worms series, penguins are eradicated by shooting them into the water where they are devoured by sharks. Snowballs are your basic weapon of choice, and connecting with any other opponent will cause them to fly backwards. There are a number of alternative weapons available as well, from dynamite to rapid fire clownfish to powerful projectiles; they are obtained by picking them up from the playing surface. Weapons are indicated with large arrows, so finding them is quite easy. Penguins Arena features basic FPS controls, which makes the game easy to manage: there is no “lean” or “crouch” or even weapon selecting. Regardless of its relative simplicity, Penguins Arena actually features some interesting team-based gameplay. You can join team members in assailing one foe (since one snowball hit usually isn’t enough to propel someone into the water), use special weapons to annihilate the competition, and circle strafe to turn the tables on the competition. Penguins Arena is actually pretty advanced, thanks to the elimination technique that doesn’t just involve health, but placement and orientation as well.

Penguins Arena is intended as a multiplayer game. It is easy to find online games with the browser and new games can be automatically broadcast to the Internet like DEFCON. The game supports anywhere from two to four teams per game, and human players are automatically distributed among them. In all, there are twelve penguins at the beginning of each game equally divided over the teams. Each team has a number of lives equal to the number of starting penguins; this makes rounds really, really short, as you run out of lives very quickly. I would like to have the option to increase the number of team lives, but Penguins Arena doesn’t allow that option. The game keeps a running score, awarding two points to the winning team plus one point for each surviving penguin. Scores can be reset every 20 minutes if a new set of people has joined your server. Human players have stars above their penguin avatar so you can pick them out of a crowd, but the AI plays well enough to hold its own in games. Although they aren’t as aggressive or shoot as often as humans do, they will knock you in the water if given the chance. In a fast-paced game such as Penguins Arena, lag can become an issue, and there is some lag present in the game when playing online with reasonable (less than 200) pings. This makes aiming more of a trail and error process, but it seems everyone suffers from the same issue to it kind of balances itself out. Overall, I found Penguins Arena to be quite enjoyable as a quick online first person shooter, and the overall theme makes the title appropriate for all ages.

IN CLOSING

Penguins Arena is a surprisingly sophisticated first person shooter. The theme is great, complete with adorable penguins being blasted by snowballs. The non-violent tendencies make Penguins Arena appropriate for a wide age group. Also, the simplified controls mean different skill levels can enjoy the game. Penguins Arena is built for multiplayer action, but the AI is still decent enough. Joining or creating multiplayer games is a snap, and the overall goal of knocking opponents off the map instead of simply shooting them adds a new player of strategy that frankly isn’t present in many first person shooters. Giving players an objective other than standard deathmatch rules really opens up the playbook for a variety of plans for success. Penguins Arena doesn’t include the options present in other games, like setting a time limit or increasing the lives for each team, but it’s still pretty fun to play. Don’t let the charming penguins fool you: there is a quite enjoyable first person shooter here.

Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened Review

Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened, developed by Frogwares and published by CDV.

The Good: Mostly realistic detective work, useful objects are clearly marked, challenging puzzles, decent lengthy story

The Not So Good: Terribly linear, no current objective list and sporadic guidance, obscure yet specific clues to gather, too many illogical solutions, barren static environments, drawn-out cut scenes

What say you? The extremely subtle clues and odd puzzles overshadow realistic methods and testing puzzles: 5/8

MY POORLY WRITTEN INTRODUCTION

One of the most gifted detectives has been represented countless times in books, movies, and computer games. Tackling cases of the strange and unexplained, he is probably the most recognizable fictional character of all time. I am, of course, talking about Gil Grissom. Oh, and Sherlock Holmes is pretty good, too. Yes, the venerable sleuth is back in a computer adventure surrounding cult activity in London and around the world, including exotic locales like pre-FEMA New Orleans. Will Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened maintain the heart-pounding excitement of the novels, or will it become yet another poor licensed product hoping to cash in on a big name?

GRAPHICS AND SOUND

Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened features Half Life era graphics (sadly the original, not the sequel). While this may be vastly outdated when compared to contemporary shooters, they are a step up in the adventure genre as the game is actually rendered in all three real-life dimensions. The level design is basic, and while there is a nice attention to detail with an architecture that reflects the time period, the levels are so small that good theme is to be expected. The towns are lifeless at best: usually, each “city” is only populated with a couple of people, instead of the bustling metropolises you should be traversing. The characters in the game are very stiff and poorly animated, but at least the mouths generally follow the dialogue they are speaking. There is a good amount of blood in the game (it is rated “M”), but nothing beyond what you would see on CSI (curiously, not rated “M”…sounds like a double standard to me). I guess we can just expect baby steps as adventure games catch up with the rest of the world and join the realm of 3-D, but Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened still looks archaic. The sound is better: all of the characters have decent enough voice acting delivered in an app subdued format. The background music is appropriate for the mood of the game as well. While the presentation of Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened might be good enough for gamers accustomed to basic point-and-click 2-D offerings, but the graphics and the sound definitely do not impress.

ET AL.

Since The Awakened follows the trials and tribulations of Sherlock Holmes, you would think the story would be halfway decent, and it is. While it might have been better to incorporate a real story penned by Sir Arthur (although it would spoil the ending for people familiar with that particular story), it works well enough with a tale of the supernatural. The controls are standard for a first person shooter, but point-and-click enthusiasts will have to convert over to three dimensional gameplay. WASD is used to move around the game world, and clicking (or using the spacebar) is used to interact with objects. The appropriate action is chosen depending on which object you are looking at, and the cursor in the game changes to highlight important things in the game. You don’t have to be looking directly at an object for the cursor to change, which is great for hunting the extremely subtle clues that are present throughout the game.

Sherlock is equipped with an inventory that holds various objects of importance. There are a few combination puzzles in the game, but most of these make sense (except for possibly the “bone torch”). The game doesn’t let you advance in the story without picking up every piece of evidence you need; Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened will not explicitly tell you what you need to find, however, so it can take hours to try and figure out what, exactly, the game wants you to discover. Dialogue in the game is boring and drawn-out to annoying extremes. Thankfully, you can skip past it with a quick press of the escape key, and the entire conversation is recorded in your notebook for future reference (good for subtle clues). Notes are also made during your investigations, and the map lets you teleport to previously visited locations. The one thing that Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened lacks is an objective list. While the game does fully restrict your movement to the present area (with prompts of “I have no need to go there” and “I should investigate further”), the game never tells you what to do or where to look or where to go next. This is even worse if you exit the game and come back later: you had better remember what you were doing.

Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened is a very linear game: you must do everything the game wants you to do before you can advance, no matter how minor. If Watson remarks, “you should get a newspaper,” you better darn well buy a newspaper or the game will not advance. Unlike better adventure games like Sam & Max, Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened doesn’t allow you the flexibility of doing things out of order, and successive games will always play out the same with identical dialogue and puzzles. Normally, you will first search for small clues in the game world, scouring every square inch of the crime scene looking for small black pellets or picking flowers. Most of your time is spent looking around until the cursor changes and hoping this is the last piece of evidence you will gather. After spending an inordinate amount of time staring at the screens, you will analyze your clues, solve answers with your evidence, and solve some puzzles. Most of the puzzles are numerical in nature, making you figure out a pattern or something along those lines: they are OK. The main problem with Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened is the main problem I have with most adventure games: there are too many irrational solutions that make no sense. Examples: placing a horn on a goat’s head, picking flowers to uncover a metal rod, taking a false beard from a bookcase, the aforementioned bone torch, satisfying Watson’s obsessive need for lemons (from a tree used to open a secret door), opening a gate with a wooden leg, and combining an anvil, a pot holder, and a trolley to open another gate. These are inventive to be sure, but I’ll be damned if they make any sense.

IN CLOSING

In short, Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened features everything I hate about adventure games. I will say the game comes with some good parts: the story is enjoyable (if convoluted), most of the clue gathering has an air of practicality, and finding required items is easier with the large cursor. But Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened has too many weird puzzles and solutions that must be completed in order. While there are some hints provided by the game to push you in the right direction, I would have had a heck of a time trying to complete the game without the almost constant assistance of a walkthrough. You must do everything the game wants and you can’t forget any single action, no matter how insignificant, or you will be stuck. At least Sam & Max let you go about things in a different order; the flexibility that is missing from Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened goes a long way in making the game frustrating to play. While we don’t quite reach the level of tossing sea salt onto a tombstone to make a building collapse (interestingly, also published by CDV), Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened still has too many puzzles I deem impractical for the common gaming audience. So, I bid good day to you, sir, as I free up some hard drive space.

Depths of Peril Review

Depths of Peril, developed and published by Soldak Entertainment.

The Good: Very interesting diplomatic options in a dynamic world, fast-paced with almost constant combat, good AI, minor penalty for death, lots of items to find, neat method of recruitment, existing characters can carry over to new games

The Not So Good: A high density of enemies results in lots of dying at first, sporadic tutorial messages are confusing rather than helpful, generally useless map, relies heavily on quests for experience, house guards are very tough to defeat, no multiplayer

What say you? The unique diplomacy and conquest-orientated goals makes this action role-playing game stand out: 7/8

MY POORLY WRITTEN INTRODUCTION

Two role-playing reviews in a row? What is the world coming to?! Regular readers of this site (both of you) will note that I rarely review role-playing games (not my favorite genre), so having two in a row is something quite unique. The one on the docket today is Depths of Peril, an action RPG in the Diablo style that infuses some grand strategy elements in diplomatic relations with other factions. I’m all for unique features in an existing genre, so will Depths of Peril up the ante for role-playing games?

GRAPHICS AND SOUND

For a game that’s played from an isometric perspective, Depths of Peril looks pretty decent. The title has a lot of little details that make for a nice environment, elevating the game above what it could have been. The characters in Depths of Peril all look nice with a good attention to detail, and the different areas are varied in their appearance. My only issue with Depths of Peril results from the inability to zoom really far out, resulting in a lot of clicking to move short distances. The map is ineffective, as clicking somewhere won’t move your character. This limitation applies to the mini-map as well. Depths of Peril has some nice effects, in the form of spells, treasure indicators, and so on. I like the graphics of Depths of Peril, and the ability to zoom out or use the map would sweeten the pot. The audio of Depths of Peril is pretty standard stuff: nice indicators of proposals from other factions and a good variety of effects accompany the graphics. The background music is well-done and fits the theme of the game well. I think the production values of Depths of Peril are above what is typical for an independent product, so that is to commended.

ET AL.

Depths of Peril has its roots in the hack-and-slash role-playing game, in the vein of the venerable Diablo. This is a single-player only game, so there is no cooperative or competitive multiplayer action. I think that competitive multiplayer would be an interesting addition to the game due to the strategic overtones of the objective, so its omission is notable. Getting into the game is more difficult than it should be: Depths of Peril relies on copious amounts of messages to act as a tutorial, and they do a poor job while interrupting the gameplay too much. A more guided approach would have worked better to get new users accustomed to the game. The object of the game is to make your faction the most dominant force in the city of Jorvik. You do this by destroying NPC monsters and completing quests, and negotiating diplomatic agreements with other factions to form alliances or declare war. This is certainly an interesting approach to a game and I don’t remember seeing a grand strategy/RPG amalgam previously. The game is very fast-paced, and you can complete an entire match in a couple of hours. All of that leveling up isn’t wasted, however, as you can carry over your characters to a new game, and the rival factions will also maintain their levels of excellence. This is a good feature: you don’t have to start over with a low level character each time you start a new game.

The first thing you’ll need to do is to create a character and customize the game world. The options are quite limited: there are only four classes to choose from (warrior, rogue, priest, mage) and each class is pretty limited in what they can do. In one game, I kept coming across “mail” (as in chain mail) armor that I couldn’t use as a mage (only warriors can), so that was disappointing. Depths of Peril has a random name generator, which is kind of cool, although this does not extend to naming your covenant. You can adjust the difficulty of each game, which will essentially change what level your opponents will be. I thought that the default values were tough enough, but experienced players can make it even harder on themselves and create an outrageously difficult game.

Each game will contain a number of rival covenants, and victory is gained by eliminating them all or forming an alliance with the remaining powers. If you are part of the winning alliance but not the most powerful member, you can choose to fight for overall victory and more fabulous prizes at the end of the game. You will start out as a very exclusive, single-member-only covenant, but you can (and should) recruit new members. This is done mainly through quests. Occasionally, someone will become available for recruitment and the first faction to complete their quest (which usually involves killing a number of monsters) wins. This is a pretty cool dynamic and it can result in some tense moments as all of the factions are trying to attain the same goal. This would be even more exciting in multiplayer, but, alas, that option is not available. You can also find neutral NPCs scattered around the map, but these are rare. Your headquarters contains your lifestone, which heals friendly units and can be destroyed to eliminate a covenant. In order to prevent against attacks while you are out killing stuff, you can recruit guards to protect your house. These guards are a little too tough to defeat, and you really need a multiple-player covenant in order to bring down a rival faction. Death is a common occurrence during raids, but you will respawn at your home base, assuming your lifestone has enough hit points. Your HQ can also hold relics: found scattered around the map, these are bonuses that are applied to every member of your covenant. You can also collect tomes for attribute bonuses and stash extra items for all members to share. The diplomatic options in Depths of Peril are common for a 4X strategy game: you can sign non-aggresion pacts and treaties, establish trade roots, or exchange items. The AI factions are very hesitant to agree to anything without giving them a bunch of free stuff first, even if you are much more powerful than they are.

The way you gain influence in the town and become the most powerful conveant is through killing monsters and some quests. These methods have a dual effect: making your faction seem better by “protecting” the town, and increasing your own experience points to level up. You really don’t gain much experience by killing things: you will need to complete quests in order to do that. You can embark on as many quests as you’d like at one time, and since most of them concern killing a certain number of monsters, you should just undertake as many as possible and you’ll complete most by accident. There are a lot of items to find around the game world, either on fallen foes or in the many chests that are scattered around each of the game’s areas. Depths of Peril allows you to teleport from any explored area back to your base, making defending attacks easier. There are a lot of enemies to defeat in Depths of Peril (that’s the whole “Peril” thing, I guess), and new players will have a tough time when engaged by a gaggle of enemy units. Once you gain a partner, however, monster hunting becomes a lot easier. It’s a good thing, then, that the penalty of death is not that bad (just a experience reduction for a period of time). The AI in Depths of Peril is competent, both as an ally and an enemy. While the monsters aren’t too smart (they are monsters, after all), the friendly units will engage enemy units and not be a hindrance to your efforts. The enemy factions will also war at the appropriate times and not just gang up on the human player, resulting in a nice game of diplomacy and war. Some games that attempt to combine two genres just result in a mish-mash of good intentions, but Depths of Peril nails it, resulting in a great strategic role-playing game that offers grinding combat and tense negotiations in one package.

IN CLOSING

Depths of Peril makes itself much more than a simple Diablo clone with its unique implementation of diplomatic goals. The 4X-like portion of the game, where you must balance relationships with rival faction and eliminate the weak competition, makes for some very interesting gameplay. Not only are you battling the NPC monsters, but you are also battling rivals who are battling the NPC monsters. The game switches seamlessly from traditional RPG combat to diplomacy and back again, and the end product is very entertaining. You never spend enough time in either part of the game to get tired of it, and alternating between grand strategy and action role-playing varies the overall experience in a good way. You might be a high-level monster-killing machine, but if all the other factions gang up on you, it will not matter. You have to master both aspects of the game, and this dichotomy is where Depths of Peril shines. There are some missing features and it’s not the easiest game in the world to get in to thanks to the sub-par tutorial, but it sure is fun once it gets going. Depths of Peril is a highly recommended title that seamlessly blends two genres into a unique and compelling gaming experience.

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Two Worlds Review

Two Worlds, developed by Reality Pump and published by SouthPeak Games.

The Good: Unrestricted game world, stacking items is neat and quite useful, quick leveling up, numerous skill upgrades with open-ended character development, robust multiplayer, traps for powerful foes, teleporting saves time, no penalty for dying and frequent respawn points, horses

The Not So Good: Exceedingly difficult (in the beginning) on anything other than “easy”, very abbreviated tutorial and uninformative tool-tips, uninteresting combat, fighting from horseback is almost impossible, confusing quest log, silly and drawn-out “medieval” dialogue, generic setting, laggy multiplayer

What say you? Several unique features make this role-playing game almost memorable: 6/8

MY POORLY WRITTEN INTRODUCTION

Fantasy-based role-playing games are quite numerous on the PC. By far the most popular setting for a RPG, an alternate medieval universe with swords, spells, and elves brings in the big bucks. From the gold standard Oblivion down the line, many developers are trying their take at the genre. From Reality Pump, responsible for the Earth 240/2160 series and the completely forgettable World War III: Black Gold, comes Two Worlds, a role-playing game based in a fantasy world (who would have thought?!). Will Two Worlds make us forget about Oblivion, at least temporarily?

GRAPHICS AND SOUND

I think the graphics of Two Worlds are comparable to Morrowind rather than the most recent Elder Scrolls game. The two worlds of Two Worlds look decent enough, with nice fantasy geography of thick forests and large mountains (you never see a game set in Kansas). The towns are believable in nature and the character models and various creatures roaming the land look decent enough. The animations, though, could use a lot of work: the characters are very static when talking (and their mouths seem a bit off), and horses look especially silly when trotting around. Characters appear to “hover” over the landscape rather than walking on top of it, especially when descending mountainous terrain. There are also some hiccups in performance while the game loads a new outside area (about a second or so). These don’t occur during combat, so it’s not that big of a deal. While the graphics don’t compete with the Oblivions of the world, they do look decent enough for a RPG. The audio is very standard for the genre: fitting background music and battle sounds are good enough, but the voiced dialogue is not very good. First, the game uses old words like “perchance” and “mayhap” to put you in the time period (whatever period actually used those words), which come across as being downright ridiculous instead of being authentic. Secondly, Two Worlds features some low-quality voice acting where the dialogue lacks any conviction or realism. The actors seem to be simply reading the lines instead of injecting some humanity into them. Two Worlds compares favorable to most role-playing games that have been released recently, but comes up short of the top of the mountain.

ET AL.

Two Worlds is, in general, a classic first person role-playing game. The title kind of assumes that you’ve played this style of game before, as the tutorial just teaches you how to move and the rest is up to you. This makes the learning curve high for new players to the genre and requires reading the manual (gasp!) to understand the controls. Speaking of the controls, they are standard for PC RPG games: WASD to move, plus four hotkey bars that allow for one-button access to spells and special abilities. You can also scroll through the spells using the mouse wheel if you change the default setting in the options menu. Two Worlds uses the spacebar to interact with anything in the game world, from speaking to people to picking up loot to mounting horses: a nice simplification that takes a bit of the learning curve away. The single-player campaign features a very common story present in pretty much any role-playing game. The game leans more towards the Oblivion side of player freedom, as you aren’t required to follow the main story as numerous side quests are available. Two Worlds is not just a single player game, however, as the game features some nice multiplayer options in two mode. You can play instanced missions (like Guild Wars) with several other players in the RPG-mode, or conduct hot player vs. player action in the arenas. Either way, you are given separate online characters with pre-set classes that make everyone competitive right out of the gate, instead of rewarding just those people who completed the single player portion of Two Worlds. You can choose from a warrior, sword dancer, knight, ranger, thief, archer, barbarian, air mage, fire mage, water mage, earth mage, or necromancer; each has slightly different starting skills and diverse weapons and spells at their disposal. The RPG matches seem to offer different quests from the single player game, rather than just being a cooperative copy. The arena matches offer team deathmatch and domination-type games where you have to destroy the enemy’s base or monsters. The ability to create online guilds is nice for team-play and joining a match is easy through the game’s browser. The only problem I’ve seen with multiplayer is the huge amount of lag: the pings aren’t all that great, but the performance should still be a lot better than it is. Servers are either slow or crash more often then they should, so there is some work to be done to improve this portion of the game. Overall, Two Worlds offers a lot of content in both single player and multiplayer modes that should keep RPG fans busy.

Leveling up in Two Worlds happens pretty fast, especially when you focus on completing quests (killing low level creatures isn’t where the XP is). When you level up, you can distribute five points over four areas: vitality (health), dexterity (speed), strength (damage), and willpower (mana). I needed to look in the manual to remember which skill was which, and some tool-tips would be nice (this is an extension of the poor tutorial). Also, you get to upgrade skills, from general ones like swimming and riding to schools of magic (that must be unlocked by a teacher first) to a whole array of active and passive skills like balance, critical hit, defensive combat, break sword, death strike, and accuracy. This is a neat system with lots of options that allows the player to really tailor their character beyond a simple “mage” or “warrior” class. Your reputation and relationships with the various clans and guilds in the game will also change over time, allowing you to undertake side quests for the merchants or necromancers.

The inventory system of Two Worlds is standard fare with one major exception. You still gather items from people and then sell them, and you are restricted in the amount of weight you can carry, so you’ll often have to venture back home to sell your wares. Two Worlds features a nice arrangement of weapons: swords, axes, clubs, magic wands, halberds, daggers, and bows are all present. The game also has an assortment of armor and shields for defensive purposes. Probably the most unique feature of the game is the ability to combine like items. For example, you can combine two low-level swords into a more powerful sword. This has big ramifications for the game mechanics, as low-level weapons now have an important use: you can create an extremely powerful weapon from, say, twenty low-level weapons, eliminating the usual level-based restrictions on good weapons. While this is very neat for beginning players, it does tend to make the game easy as you reach the end of the campaign. In addition to combining weapons, you can apply magical powers to weapons and combine various items to form potions. You can throw together anything and it will make a potion, which is really neat and eliminates the need to search for valid recipes. Obviously, it won’t be a good potion, but it’s still cool. I like the wrinkle that Two Worlds has added to the RPG formula with the ability to combine weapons, and this new feature makes the game distinct.

You will spend most of your time completing quests, so it’s too bad the map could be a lot better than the quest list is very confusing. The quest list shows a lot of unnecessary background information; I just want to know where to go and what to do, not the life story of the character! The quest locations are all shown on the map at once, and they indicate the origin and destination, resulting in even more confusion. The completed quests also remain on the quest list in a slightly grayed-out text, compounding the issues even more. The land of Two Worlds is fairly large, so it helps to mount a horse to travel into new areas. This method of transportation is much, much faster than walking, but it’s extremely difficult to fight and you really need to dismount before engaging the enemy. Once you discover a new town, a teleport location appears to allow for quick transportation to old areas. This is nice, but you lose your horse in the process! Magic in the same is somewhat unique, as spells are earned by finding cards on defeated enemies (or buying them). The five schools have some cool spells, but they are generally repeated in each school. You can only equip three spells at a time, requiring some strategic planning before entering into battle. You have the ability to add boosters to spells, which will increase the damage or duration, or decrease the mana usage. The magic of Two Worlds isn’t unique, but you do get to throw fire a lot.

Combat in Two Worlds is very ininspired, as it is a lot of clicking. Multiple clicks result in a combo attack, but most people will probably just keep clicking and watch their avatar do unnecessary (and life-threatening) animations in the process. Aiming is difficult, as you must move the camera to directly aim at the beast you are fighting. The game automatically picks an enemy to engage (a nod to the console roots of Two Worlds), but it generally does a good job at this. Ranged combat is preferred over close combat, at flinging arrows or spells is a lot easier than swinging a sword. Enemies will surround you (clipping into each other in the process) if you engage in close combat, so constantly backing up is the usual form of self-preservation. Two Worlds is remarkably difficult: I died during the very first “tutorial” battle in the game. I then switched the game to “easy” difficulty and the game was more appropriately balanced. It’s a good thing that there is no penalty for death: like BioShock, you spawn at frequent respawn points with all of your experience and weapons intact. Enemies will also keep their damage when you do respawn (again, like BioShock). Two Worlds features average AI at best: they will stay back if equipped with bows or charge if they have blunt weapons, but they won’t do anything extraordinary. The difficulty arises from having to engage multiple enemies at once, so having an area-of-effect spell that can damage more than one enemy at a time is mandatory for survival. There could have been a lot more done with the combat in Two Worlds; the game features very standard combat that is more annoying than exciting and epic.

IN CLOSING

Two Worlds does feature a couple of unique features that set portions of the game apart from the pack. The item combination options make low-level weapons actually useful, and the quest-based and PvP multiplayer modes are nice. However, there are a number of little problems that add up to an unpolished gaming experience: the tutorial is woefully inadequate, combat is boring, the quest list is confusing, the voice acting is bad, and the difficulty is poorly balanced. It’s like in order to add one neat features, the developers had to screw up two. Still, I had fun playing the game and I liked the fresh approach Two Worlds brought to a number of role-playing game conventions. Though I do like it when games add new features to a genre, there are too many small issues with Two Worlds that bring the game down to an average title overall.

Gladiator Trials II Review

Gladiator Trials II, developed and published by Tagged Software.

The Good: Straightforward gameplay, large gladiator matches can be fun, level editor

The Not So Good: Very elementary city building and resource management, small battles are uninteresting, light on features, abbreviated tutorials

What say you? This city building/turn based strategy hybrid is a bit too simple: 5/8

MY POORLY WRITTEN INTRODUCTION

About eight years ago, there was a role that elevated Russell Crowe to superstardom. A grizzled action movie where men were men, fighting for their livelihoods during the darkest of times. That movie was, of course, Mystery, Alaska. Oh, and there was that movie about gladiators (I forget what it was called). Speaking of gladiators, wouldn’t a game surrounding the gritty underworld of muscular combat be fun? That’s the premise of Gladiator Trials II, a combination of a city builder and a turn-based strategy game. Encompassing the development and support of your fighters in addition to the matches themselves, Gladiator Trials II hopes to successfully combine two genres in a smooth, satisfying experience.

GRAPHICS AND SOUND

The graphics of Gladiator Trials II are very basic, which is to be expected considering the small roots of the independent developer. The city building portion of the game is played from an isometric perspective, and the game features basic textures, static buildings, and sparse animations. These might have been cutting-edge graphics fifteen years ago, but now the game looks very outdated. The turn-based mode is also devoid of much elegance: even the arena battles are very boring to look at. The game is played from a fixed 800 by 600 resolution, which makes navigating around each map a chore (and the lack of a mini-map doesn’t help things). The sound is along the same lines: appropriate background music coupled with generic sound effects. I wasn’t expecting Gladiator Trials II to be a spectacular game in terms of its presentation, and it certainly reached my low expectations. Of course, if the gameplay is good, who cares about the graphics, right?

ET AL.

In Gladiator Trials II, you train and fight a gaggle (I think that’s the right term) of gladiators. This takes place in the campaign, which gives you small goals to reach before unlocking more advanced buildings and weapons. There is a two-mission tutorial in the game that teaches the basics, but it is too short and not comprehensive enough. Gladiator Trials II does come with a level editor so that you can create your own campaigns: a nice feature. There isn’t any multiplayer action to be had, but really it would be the same as the single player campaign and it’s frankly not worth the effort.

The first phase of Gladiator Trials II has you constructing your headquarters of domination. First, you will need to purchase the few plots of available land on the map. Then, you pick a building to construct and then assign a peasant or gladiator to use that building. Camps are used to recruit new people, armorsmiths make armor, markets are used for trade, weaponsmiths make weapons, wells provide water, bakeries provide food, inns are where peasants eat and drink, and gladiators can use the training yards, libraries, and archery ranges to increase strength, intelligence, and dexterity. Since you are limited to just a few structures, you need to be almost perfect in your planning. The city building phase of the game is very straightforward and almost trivial, if it weren’t so hard difficult to make money. You are required to engage in constant combat and trade in order to just break even. Problem is, the arena matches grow in difficulty and it’s very difficult to keep up with the pace, since buildings are expensive and wages for those people who maintain the buildings are quite high. Only in this sense is the city building mode of Gladiator Trials II challenging, as the rest is underdeveloped and limited in strategic scope.

The arena matches are where you are going to earn the big bucks. They are turn-based affairs where you move or attack with your squad of ruffians. Once your gladiators have advanced a few levels, they can be equipped with spells and weapons that make the fighting much more interesting, but in the beginning the arena matches are quite bland. I guess this makes sense, as Gladiator Trials II eases you into the turn-based portion of the game, but it’s still tedious in the beginning. Each turn, you can either move or shoot, which makes for some strategy when opponents become close. The AI tends to move straight towards you instead of playing a game of chicken, waiting for the other person to move and allow their opponent to attack first. Still, close combat doesn’t really warrant any advanced strategies, as everyone needs to be adjacent to each other. This further shows that the later battles with more advanced weapons and spells are far more interesting. When you start playing with multiple people against multiple people, with traps and other surprises scattered around the arena, Gladiator Trials II can get fun. But, unfortunately, it takes a while to get there and I doubt many people will hold out that long.

IN CLOSING

Gladiator Trials II is a good idea and it’s designed well, but there isn’t enough depth to keep people interested for a long period of time. The city building more needs a bit more complexity, through the addition of more buildings or bigger maps with more options. The arena mode can be entertaining, but it takes a while to ramp up the action to fun levels. This is one of those games that has potential, but it a couple of features short of being wholly entertaining. Thankfully, it’s also one of those small developer games, so the chance of seeing improvements in the future is high. I do think that Gladiator Trials II might appeal to novice players looking for a “light” strategic experience, since the mechanics are straightforward and the game is easy to learn. Still, more experienced players won’t find the depth they are accustomed to, but Gladiator Trials II is still a promising framework for a game.

3030 Deathwar Review

3030 Deathwar, developed and published by Bird In Sky.

The Good: Large “alive” universe, neat graphical design, simplified controls

The Not So Good: Painfully slow travel times, difficult with slow tedious progress, limited jobs, unintuitive interface, limited tutorial and no multiplayer

What say you? A sluggish, boring pace and high initial difficulty hurt this space adventure: 5/8

MY POORLY WRITTEN INTRODUCTION

I think most trading adventure games take place in space because it’s an interesting setting, as opposed to, say, Delaware. There have been quite a number of space adventure games released in recent times: Space Trader, Parkan II, SpaceForce, DarkStar One. Now we get to experience the full fury of 3030 Deathwar, a top-down game from an independent developer. Now, it obviously won’t have the graphical splendor of the big budget titles, but it can make up for that with innovative and entertaining gameplay. Will 3030 Deathwar push the genre forward, or just suffer a death war of its own?

GRAPHICS AND SOUND

For a top-down 2-D game, 3030 Deathwar actually looks pretty good. I really like the overall presentation of the game: there are number of nice effects with the various maps and icons, zooming in and out and such. This attention to detail makes up for the lack of spectacular 3-D vistas. While the game is played at a fixed low resolution, the maps are nice and the universe of 3030 Deathwar looks nice when you are around stations. In open space, the game is very drab with hardly any background images to look at: realistic to be sure, but not very stimulating. The background does light up as you approach a star, so that’s kind of cool. The game shows the interior of each station from the side, but the game layout is used for the every station, making them all run together and losing a distinctive feel. Still, for an independent developer, the graphics of 3030 Deathwar are about as good as you can expect for a 2-D game. The sound is pretty generic: none of the dialogue is voiced, but 3030 Deathwar comes with a good assortment of effects and pleasing background music that fits the genre. While neither the graphics nor the sound are impressive, they do their job and give 3030 Deathwar a characteristic feel.

ET AL.

3030 Deathwar is a single-player only game where you follow the misadventures of John Falcon. The story is generic for the genre: lone wolf gets mixed up in galactic conspiracy. The game has the potential to incorporate a massively multiplayer aspect to it, but honestly the single player mode works just fine and you’d probably never run into anyone else anyway (since the universe is so large). The game comes with a tutorial when you start a new game, but it doesn’t explain a lot of the icons in the game (and neither does the manual); more explicit clarifications would be appreciated. 3030 Deathwar also lacks an editor, but the game is expansive enough to not really need one. The overhead view from which the game is played lends itself to simple keyboard controls. However, the Newtonian physics (with a strict application of inertia) makes it difficult to control the ships in the game, actually more so than in most space games where piloting is fairly intuitive. It takes some getting used to the controls in 3030 Deathwar, and the less-than-comprehensive tutorial and manual don’t help matters. You are given an auto-fly mode (if you purchase it) that will maintain the highest speed possible to make life easier, and the split-drive makes traveling large distances easier (but, as you’ll see, not nearly easy enough). The game limits you to saving while in a station and not in an active mission. While this might make for smaller save game files, it is a frustrating limitation (more on why later).

The HUD is confusing at first, as icons representing stations, planets, asteroid fields, ships, and systems are displayed around your ship. The HUD shows heading well but not distance, as everything over a screen’s width away overlaps. The map makes finding objects easy as it is organized well. Flying to a distant station is a matter of choosing it on the sector map and then flying towards the heading. The docking procedure is neat: you must maintain a slow speed and follow the lights into the station, which will tick off as you get closer to your destination. The stations themselves offer a trade screen (for trade) and a job screen (for jobs), plus a load of NPCs that are usually there for mission purposes. On the trade screen you can purchase goods for trade, new ships, upgrades, or repair and refuel your vessel. You will need to purchase fuel on a regular basis as you will go through your supply very quickly. Upgrades are very, very expensive which slows down your progress through the game dramatically. While this gives you a longer experience, it is annoying that you must complete a ton of missions just to afford a slight improved gun. Jobs usually consist of bringing someone (or something) to another station; there isn’t much variety here. Still, 3030 Deathwar offers the most believable space world since Independence War II (still my favorite game of the genre): the stations are buzzing with activity and it’s much more believable than most of the other space games that only have one or two other ships flying around. Unfortunately, travel times in 3030 Deathwar are a little too realistic. Even with the split drives, it will take upwards of ten minutes to reach a destination in another star system. I don't mind waiting in a game like Microsoft Flight Simulator (that's part of the game), but watching your ship just fly in 3030 Deathwar is unnecessary and annoying, especially when there is nothing to look at and absolutely nothing to do. You just sit there, as your engines are on maximum and your heading is already set. You won’t run into any enemies or discover any cargo: you just sit and wait for time to pass. This is exacerbated the fact that your split-drive is actually slowed down if you are anywhere near a star. If you are somewhere on a star’s map (ot near a station, star, or planet, mind you) you are limited in your speed. Why would the split-drive speed be lowered when there is nothing to do and no reason for it? Eventually the game speeds you up to make trips a bit faster, but you've still wasted time staring at a blank screen. Sure, it's realistic, but that doesn't mean it’s fun. And speeding up interstellar travel won’t change the game, because during this time you are just waiting anyway. It’s really annoying and genuinely frustrating because there is absolutely no reason why you can’t just instantly zap to a new system.

There are a handful of things to do in the 3030 Deathwar universe: trading, bounty hunting pirates, exploring derelict ships, mining asteroid fields, and taking missions. The mission pay is very weird and seemingly arbitrary: you can actually get less pay for longer or tougher missions. You will have to engage in combat (usually against pirates), and you are given access to missiles and other weapons, assuming of course you can afford them (which you can’t for a while). You even need to purchase an upgrade to target enemy ships. I guess money is the driving force of the future. 3030 Deathwar features frustratingly difficult gameplay, especially at the beginning of the game. Let me tell you a story. I wasted 30 minutes flying (yes, I spent thirty minutes just flying between two stations in the game...sigh) a mission only to be destroyed by a friendly station that was shooting at a pirate ship. Awesome. I couldn't save the mission halfway through because the game wouldn't let me, so now I have to waste another half an hour and hope I don't die again. Having to attempt the third mission in the game FIVE TIMES (after being blown up by a pirate ship, a friendly space station, another pirate ship, and another friendly space station) before surviving is not what I call an entertaining experience. What are pirates doing in the first few systems anyway? Why not ease the player in? You certainly can’t afford high-priced weapons, ships, or shields to defend yourself. The combination of long travel times, expensive ship upgrades, and no concessions for beginners makes 3030 Deathwar exasperating when it shouldn’t be.

IN CLOSING

3030 Deathwar has the potential to be a very entertaining game, but a couple of oddball decisions ruin the overall experience. I haven't been this frustrated in a game in a long time, because I can see how good it can be, but the various areas of disappointment suck all of the fun out of the game. The basic design is good, with a good implementation of a 2-D universe with simple controls and some nice graphical effects. But, the insane travel times and overly difficult pirates (with friendly stations that just happen to shoot you) make playing 3030 Deathwar a very trying experience. If you enjoy staring at a mostly blank screen while not doing anything, then 3030 Deathwar is the game for you! Luckily, I think most of the problems with the game can be easily eliminated by allowing for faster split-drive speeds, especially when you aren’t near anything (which is the case almost all of the time). It doesn’t have to be instantaneous, but a thirty-second trip between two systems is a request that I think is reasonable. Ten to fifteen minutes for a one-way trip is ludicrous, especially since there is nothing to do while you are traveling other than to wait. Speed up the game and 3030 Deathwar would become a much more appetizing title, but the slow speed makes the game too boring to enjoy.

BioShock Review

BioShock, developed by Irrational Games and published by 2K Games.

The Good: Extremely varied and customizable weaponry, fantastic setting, outstanding graphics and sound, not terribly difficult with no penalty for dying and frequent respawn points

The Not So Good: No multiplayer, ridiculous and redundant copy protection

What say you? A tremendously well-developed shooter: 7/8

Note: This is a spoiler-filled review. Kevin Spacey is Keyser Söze

MY POORLY WRITTEN INTRODUCTION

As a smallish review site, I normally get to pick and choose which games I annoy publishers about getting. This is why you’ll see an inordinate amount of strategy games (my favorite genre) reviewed here and hardly any role-playing games (meh). I’m not the biggest fan of single player first person shooters (I do, however, enjoy online shooters), so when you see one on the site, you know I think it’s potentially pretty good. That brings us to BioShock, developed by what used to be Irrational Games (now called 2K Has Deep Pockets), authors of several games I enjoy (SWAT 4, Tribes Vengeance). Will those countless e-mails sent to 2K’s press relations company be worth it?

GRAPHICS AND SOUND

BioShock uses the new-ish Unreal engine and the results are impressive. The game looks technically good, with all sorts of shiny surface, light tricks, and all of that stuff that most high-end games include these days. The water has gotten special attention in the game (since the game takes place under water) and it looks nice, although it’s not as overwhelmingly spectacular as others have stated. The special effects like fire work well, and the weapons come with high detail as well. The thing that really works for BioShock is the setting: the developers have created a semi-plausible environment with a consistent theme and finely detailed characters and buildings. It really puts you in the game and BioShock is very immersive (Mircosoft Word says that’s not a word, but I think it is). Any game can have bump-mapping and reflective surfaces, but it doesn’t mean much if the total package doesn’t come together in an impressive fashion, and it does in BioShock thanks to the unique scenery. A bonus is that the game performs smoothly, even with all of the snazzy features cranked up. Accompanying the quality graphics is equally fine sound. BioShock features great, heartfelt voice acting that almost makes you feel bad for killing little girls (almost). The music in the game works well, and the sound effects are also well done. Overall, BioShock looks and sound very impressive and the high production values produce a very believable environment in which to shoot things.

ET AL.

The first thing you’ll notice when you play BioShock is that you have to register your CD key online. I have no problem with that: most of the games I review are downloaded and registered online. However, you must also have the disk in the drive every time you play and you are limited in the number of reinstalls you can do (in case you get a new computer or need to reinstall Windows, although Windows is so stable why would you ever need to do that?). This is overkill to the extreme. If everyone has to authenticate their game with a key before they play, then why is the disk required to be in the drive? I thought the point of online authentication was to eliminate the need for a CD, not to exacerbate the copy protection problem. It’s enough to take the overall score down a point…so take that!

BioShock is a single-player only first person shooter where you explore the underwater world of Rapture and shoot stuff. There is no multiplayer, which would have been an interesting addition considering some of the exotic weapons and spells that are present in the game. The game takes place during the early 1960s, and BioShock takes place in a futuristic environment for the time period. The world of Rapture is very well designed and it’s a captivating place in which to destroy things. The story is fairly interesting and you can listen to optional audio tapes that shed some light on the strife present in Rapture. The weapons you are given are the standard fare: a wrench, pistol, machine gun, shotgun, crossbow, and grenade and chemical launchers. However, each weapon (with a couple of exceptions) can hold three different kinds of ammo: they can include armor piercing, explosive, electrical, napalm, or incendiary rounds. Each of these alternative ammunitions are appropriate for different enemies in different settings, which makes the strategic elements of the game much more interesting than generic weapons that are present in most shooters. Taking a cue from role-playing games, your character in BioShock can become equipped with a number of spells (the game calls them “plasmids”) that grant special powers as a secondary (or primary, depending on how powerful it is) weapon. You can freeze things, set fire to them, electrocute them, use a swarm of insects, command a tornado, hypnotize enemies, and move objects with your mind. These are much more interesting than the standard spells in most RPGs that simply cause damage. Together with the weapons, the plasmids open up a large variety of attacks and all of the weapons (even the lonely wrench) and plasmids have their use for the entire game. For example, electrocuting enemies and then knocking them out with the wrench remains a viable attack for the whole campaign. That’s something that can’t be said in most shooters, as the most powerful weapons you get near the end are the best. You are also limited to carrying two plasmids at once (you an unlock additional slots, though), so having a good combo is important.

Plasmids are powered using Eve, which is collected around the map or “borrowed” from fallen enemies. Ammunition and health are gathered in the same fashion. New plasmids, however, require gathering Adam, and this can only be taken from Little Sisters. Unfortunately for you, these defenseless Little Sisters are always accompanied by Big Daddies, large hulking robots with very powerful weapons that require extreme firepower (or good planning) to defeat. These Big Daddies are by far the most difficult part of the game (the normal enemies aren’t that challenging until late in the game). Thankfully, they won’t attack unless provoked, so you can lay mines and set up turrets before making your initial strike. Once you destroy a Big Daddy (which is kind of sad in a way, with the Little Sister weeping, “Bubbles! Noooo!”), you can choose to “free” the Little Sister for a small amount of Adam (but you feel better about yourself) or “harvest” the Little Sister for maximum Adam, killing her in the process. You are given rewards over time for the less violent approach. In addition to the plasmids, you can also gain tonics that provide permanent physical, weapon, or other upgrades (like faster hacking). With all of the weapons, ammo, plasmids, and tonics, you can really tailor your character to your play style in BioShock.

Other than the ammo, first aid kits, and Eve needles scattered around each level, there are a number of machines to serve your needs. Different machines allow you to reconfigure your plasmids and tonics, purchase new plasmids, purchase ammunition or kits with money “borrowed” from corpses, shut down security camera, increase your health, upgrade weapons, or even make new items. You can also get a camera for research purposes, which will improve your attacks against the enemy you researched. BioShock includes a hacking mini-game for gaining access to turrets and machines: you need to connect pipes. It’s a good challenge and a decent puzzle game on its own.

One of the reasons I dislike single-player shooters is that I get stuck. A lot. So I’m happy to report that I only got lost a couple of times in BioShock, as there are normally hints on what to do next and an arrow pointing the way to the objective. Another annoyance with single player games is death, which usually requires you to reload a saved game. In BioShock, there is no penalty for dying: you will just respawn at the last checkpoint (of which there are plenty) with all of your weapons and money intact. The enemies you were fighting will also keep their damage (otherwise defeating Big Daddies would be almost impossible in the early game). You can get stuck in a loop as you run out of ammo and money, but it’s still a better system than the alternative. The AI opponents are smart: they will run for water if they are on fire and use health stations if needed. While they won’t necessarily use cover, they do provide a good enough amount of challenge without being overly difficult, especially for veteran players. I had fun playing the game, with the occasional hiccup for getting stuck or having to respawn a lot for a Big Daddy battle. But overall, I had a grand time vacationing in Rapture.

IN CLOSING

If you like single player first person shooters, then BioShock is a good one to play. BioShock makes the shooter experience deeper than the typical game, due to the successful blend of varied weapons, ammunition, spells, and power-ups. The setting is very memorable and distinctive, unlike all of those World War II games. While experienced players might fund BioShock to be too easy, the difficulty level makes the game appeal to a much larger audience. The various strategies you can employ, coupled with the Big Daddy battles, elevate BioShock above the rest of the pack. Unfortunately, the game doesn’t come with multiplayer and the copy protection scheme is extremely annoying and restrictive. Still, most fans of first person shooters or simply games in general will find a unique and fun experience.

Delicious 2 Deluxe

As the sequel to the popular Delicious Deluxe, the newly-released Delicious 2 Deluxe delivers even more fast-paced restaurant management fun. Featuring two game modes, all-new customers, and hours of family fun, Delicious 2 Deluxe is just the thing to satisfy your craving!

Ricochet Infinity

The Richochet series of breakout-style arcade games from Reflexive Entertainment have become classics of the genre, featuring graphics and game play that quickly made the series a favorite in offices and homes across the world. The games in this series have included Ricochet Xtreme, Ricochet Lost Worlds, and Ricochet Lost Worlds: Recharged. Now there a [...]

Gemsweeper

Indie developer Lobstersoft has released a Windows version of the hit Nintendo DS game Picross, called Gemsweeper. Gemsweeper features unique gameplay, easy to learn rules, brilliant graphics and sound, two different game modes and 225 fun levels. It does not require fast reflexes and is even easy for kids to learn, but requires enough strategy [...]

The Rise of Atlantis

In this interesting and well-done match-three style puzzle game you set out on an adventurous quest around the ancient lands of the Mediterranean to find a way to bring the legendary continent of Atlantis back to the surface and restore it to its might and glory. In every country you visit (including Greece, Troy, Phoenicia, [...]

Help Protect Animal Habitats With Venture Africa

Pocketwatch Games has donated 4% of the income generated in 2006 by Wildlife Tycoon: Venture Africa to The WILD Foundation, a Boulder, CO based non-profit dedicated to protecting animal habitats in Africa. Pocketwatch Games will also motivate others to support The WILD Foundation by providing a link to the WILD website in their upcoming game, Venture [...]

Little Shop of Treasures

Little Shop of Treasures, from Gamehouse, is the latest game in the very popular “hidden objects” genre, where the player attempts to locate objects cleverly concealed in plain sight. The game is set in a charming little town called Huntington, and you are new to town but dream of opening your own Little Shop of Treasures [...]

Monarch: The Butterfly King

The latest game from Reflexive Entertainment, Monarch: The Butterfly King, has just been released. In the new game, you’ll find yourself immersed in a story of magic and adventure as you attempt to stop an evil wizard intent on destroying the butterfly kingdom. You’ll journey across majestic Celtic ruins, creating potions and harnessing magic in this [...]

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