DOS

Terra Nova: Strike Force Centauri

Descriptions:

Strike Force Centauri, the premier Strike Team on Alpha Centauri, was founded to combat pirates. As Nikola ap Io, you'll be leading them into combat... But the pirates are too well armed... And the Terra Hegemony may be involved. When the covert action turns overt and a full-out assault is mounted by the Hegemony upon Alpha Centauri... All that stands in the way is SFC...

TN:SFC is a first-person sci-fi combat sim featuring realistic sci-fi weapons with true 3-D terrain. You control a power-suit with arm-mounted weapons: just aim (with mouse) and shoot, while move completely independently (using keyboard).

You can choose from multiple types of suits (scout, regular, heavy), multiple types of weapons (everything from simple lasers to railguns to missile launchers), multiple assistance modules (from mine layer to auto-doc), and up to three squadmates that'll follow your orders. You are pitted against enemies from pirates to tanks and mechs, even psycho clones and armed drones. Missions vary from attack and recon to rescue and defend, across three different planets in a variety of weather and terrain.

TN:SFC also features FMV that rivals Wing Commander 3 in production quality.The plot is the standard "fight simple threats that turns out to be really nasty while ferreting out the mole", but there are enough twists in the plot to be entertaining.

You're part of a strike group which operates on different planets. In some missions you're on your own, but mostly you also have other people in your group you can give commands to. At the beginning of each mission you can equip yourself with different battle suits and weapons/utilities. Then you wait in an dropship to jump down on the planet surface. Your enemies are different kind of pirate soldiers and tanks. The missions themselves are very different in their objectives, like taking out an pirate outpost or protecting a convoy. The game interface is very innovating and you get used to it quite fast, you can send out drones and watch the view of their mini cameras in little screens etc.

The graphics engine is ok for its time, it featured transparent explosion effects and realistic landscapes.

robotriot (6380)

First-person sci-fi shooter with automated (programmable)three-person squad backup. You are newly-appointed squad leader in a 'drop team' of soldiers in high-tech mechanized outfits, assigned a 20-mission sequence of adventures repressing organized piracy, and an interplanetary rebellion in a distant future. Nice variety of terrains and missions, good use of inter-episode cinematics, exciting play! Good, thorough training and familiarization sequence in early missions.