PlayStation

The Unholy War

I really enjoyed playing through The Unholy War. I thought it was a nice enough diversion that provided a good number of hours of enjoyment. It's combination of strategy and action/arcade elements may attract new players to each genre and actually work pretty well together. The graphics and sound effects don't set any new plateaus but are appropriate for this style of game...they work. The two-player game is killer and should really enhance the titles replay value. Oh, the disc also includes a playable demo of the forthcoming title Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver on it. As you might suspect, this just sweetens the deal.

As a huge fan of the Star Control series, I've been salivating with anticipation for what unrelated by name and publisher as it may be could potentially prove successor to those superb games. Now that it's here, I find myself both elated and disappointed. I'm in the dumps because of the basic strategy portion of the game. While not awful in any sense, it's definitely not as deep or engrossing as I had expected. Instead, it's a purely no-frills affair that ultimately strays into the boredom zone. Snore... But as large a part of the game as the strategy element may seem, its shortcomings certainly doesn't spell doom for the experience as a whole. It's when you bypass this portion of the game entirely and grab a friend (or a few) that The Unholy War truly starts to shine.

Graphically, Unholy War is beautiful. The polygonal characters all look amazingly detailed. The lighting effects used give life to the explosions and energy weapons. The 14 different maps that you fight on all look great and all have unique terrain, weather, and obstacles. The intelligent camera is fantastic; it zooms out when you and your opponent get some distance between each other and then zooms in when you get closer. Overall, Unholy War is a really fun game, especially when playing with another player. However, the AI of the computer is really good, and you can have fun fighting it out alone as well. The only negative side to the game is its lack of depth. The combat tactics mode really doesn't offer that much more to the game. Yet, the two-player mode is so much fun that you'll play it again and again.

This game is slightly more fun than checkers, because it is a video game and you can manufacture the type of army you dream up. However, you will probably have plenty of games you like better than this one. That said, it is fun and compelling in some ways. If you like fighting games that are based more on rock-paper-scissors logic and less on highly specialized memorized keystrokes for fancy moves (like most of the fighting games), perhaps you would appreciate this game.