Armour-Geddon

'm not normally very keen on complex simulations, but Armour-Geddon is very user-friendly and easy to pick up. What first attracted e to the game was the ability to try out all the vehicles which all have a totally different feel. But I soon realized that this was much more than a glorified flight sim. As well as standard missions, there's a lot of long-term strategy in searching for all-important minerals to produce weapons, giving air support to your own ground vehicles and knocking out enemy installations and powerlines. And unlike most complex strategy games you get to do everything yourself – in fact, with so many pressing matters it's hard to decide what to do first. But don;t be put off by the enormity of the challenge: Armour-Geddon is great fun to play and well worth a look even if, like me, you wouldn't usually touch military sims with a long-range missile.

There have been many strategy games that require you to drive around and collect items to defeat the enemy. Unfortunately these efforts have become repetitive in terms of gameplay. Armour-Geddon does not fall in to this trap. You have so many tactics and strategies to experiment with that you will be occupied for days. The range of vehicles and the two player option put all other games of this genre to shame. Psygnosis have proved once again that they are one of the leading software producers.

I can't see Armour-Geddon making anything like the impression or encouraging the level of devotion Carrier Command did (we've all seen a bit too much since then) but it's an excellent game in a very similar genre nonetheless.

Armour-Geddon is a well-structured six-mission multi-sim blast. The game has to be studied thoroughly if the vehicles abilities are to be fully exploited as both the sims and the foes are unforgiving. The player who can build and drop the neutron bomb will have to be perfect; good just won't cut it. Armour-Geddon though, lacks the initial focus needed to pull players through this very necessary learning curve naturally. These skills alone however, once mastered, allow you to discover a tough, mixed genre, game.

Psygnosis' three-dee generator certainly doesn't compete with the likes of Digital Image Design (F29 Retaliator) or Realtime games (Battle Command). Now if the graphics inside the game were on par with the gorgeous ray-traced images seen in the intro, Armour-Geddon would be five years ahead of the rest. Over to you Psygnosis...

I'd rather put the saved dosh towards getting the really rather stonking (but rather hard) Battle Command.

Mag der Spielablauf streckenweise auch ein bißchen unausgegoren wirken, als Einstieg ins harte Simulations-Geschäft ist Armour-Geddon den Action-Spezialisten doch ganz gut geglückt.

"Armour-Geddon" kombiniert ein paar nette Simulationen mit einer unübersichtlichen Rahmenhandlung. Gewürzt ist das Ganze mit einer saumäßigen Anleitung, die mehr Fragen offenläßt, als beantwortet. Mit etwas mehr Sorgfalt wäre ein passables Actionspiel mit Strategie-Touch daraus geworden, so bleibt's beim Mittelmaß.

Vor Jahren waren Pseudosimulationen wie "Carrier Command" und "Star Glider II" zu Recht groß in Mode, heute nervt's, jeden Monat eine neue Tastaturbelegung und Steuerung zu erlernen. Wofür? Viel anders als auf anderen 3-D-Schlachtfeldern sieht es bei Armour-Geddon auch nicht aus. Die Grafik hübsch und leidlich schnell, der Sound passabel: Das langt nicht für ein wirklich gutes Spiel, und sind die 3-D-Routinen noch so ausgeklügelt. Die Atmosphäre geht auf dem High-Tech-Schlachtfeld ebenfalls schnell flöten.