Summary
Unlike its sequel, a classic that brought some new ideas to the party when RTS clones were dominating everything
The Good
At the beginning of the era when "RTS" games have nearly driven the planning and thinking out of "strategy" games, this was a game with real depth that encouraged thoughtful play over the rush to the Tank Rush, while catering to some of the visceral feel of RTS games. It even offered a second play mode that hybridized realtime and turn-based play in an innovative way. Base building took much more thought than the norm of the time, let alone the modern one. Your base layout needed to account for the maintenance of the conduit system between buildings, and for not covering up the best mining areas before you discovered them, as well as defensibility and capacity. Yes - mineral resources were
mineral resources which you had to survey for with a specialized unit, not icons on which you raced to build a building. Although the terrain was visually simple, and consisted only of water, land, and impassable rocky areas, it was sufficient to allow interesting tactical considerations. The unit mix was interesting and balanced, with units' strengths and weaknesses tweaked to make a mixed force stronger than a similar-cost homogeneous one. There was no "uber-unit", though for specific situations and tactics there was generally a best unit or group composition.
The Bad
Sadly, while the AI was enough to force the player to think rather than react, it was not strong enough to challenge a skilled player without outright massive cheating. And while the maps were excellent for only three terrain types, the game was visually pretty boring.
The Bottom Line
If you have a DOS retro machine to play it on, this is a game you should check out. It has some unique ideas that haven't caught on, and despite the eventually disappointing AI is one of my fondest-remembered strategy games, almost in the realm of XCOM and Civ2.
