RoboSport

Living in the universe created by the Maxis team isn't all hard work, no matter how it may seem. There is more to life than building and maintaining, you know. There is war. There is sport. There is cheese, ham, pepperoni and pickle rolls. Most important of these is war, of course, and as humankind works its way to its own destruction, it only seems logical to assume that robots will at some stage play a large role in battle. A battle robot would need to have a heavy amount of intelligence if it is to succeed in its task, and as far as the Maxis team can see, this is where things start to break down.

Oh no, what is wrong? A game from Maxis that does not have the word ‘Sim’ in the title. Whatever can they be thinking of? SimCity, SimEarth, SimAnt, SimLife and SimFish and SimFarm in the pipeline… You do not have to be a lexical genius to realise that RoboSport does not fit into the neat linguistic progression. Success must have added the old corporate brain. Dear me, is nothing sacred? But some things never change, and you can rest assured that the latest offering from the masters of simulation still provides enough strategy and statistics to keep you up late into the night. And as with SimAnt, it tries to throw in a bit of humour to lighten the laborious load. For labour you will. Despite the seductive explosions on the game’s box, and the promise of a mixture of chess and guerrilla warfare (very attractive), it is all a bit of a trial to play.

Wie spätestens seit "Speedball 2" jedermann weiß, werden die Athleten im nächsten Jahrtausend überwiegend aus rostfreien Edelstahl bestehen. Im vorliegenden Fall wird allerdings kein Fußball gespielt... Uberhaupt hat Maxis' futuristische Materialschlacht wenig mit den heutigen Sportarten gemein, es handelt sich eher um eine besondere Form von "Kriegsspiel". Statt richtiger Soldaten kämpfen gefühllose Roboter, die man auch nicht trainieren, sondern programmieren muß, bevor sie auf eins der drei Schlachtfelder rumpeln.