Millennium: Return to Earth
Description official description
Millennium: Return to Earth is the forerunner to Deuteros: The Next Millennium and has a premise similar to Sierra's Outpost. Set in the 22nd century, the Earth has been destroyed, and the player's mission is to re-establish human colonization of other worlds, beginning with just one outpost and a few hundred survivors on the moon. Success requires maintaining life support, mining and producing resources for more colonies, and defense against a powerful alien race bent on humanity's destruction.
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10 People
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Reviews
Critics
Average score: 69% (based on 15 ratings)
Players
Average score: 3.9 out of 5 (based on 30 ratings with 2 reviews)
A "management game" I actually enjoyed
The Good
This game has a simple interface, excellent graphics (for the time), an engaging story, and a fair amount of gameplay in it.
The Bad
I stink at strategy/ management games, clear and simple (ask me about my one time playing Age of Empires). I am so inept at managing resources that the game made my shortcomings painfully obvious. If you don't enjoy building, researching, exploring, colonizing, re-building, shifting resources, etc. the you may get a headache after while... although the cool sci-fi setting and story offsets this to a degree.
The Bottom Line
I bought this game on a whim back in the good old DOS days when autoexec.bat and config.sys meant something and you spent a lot of time cursing the stupid 640Kb memory cap. That being said, this is a seriously fun, although time consuming, management type game. Your basic "microcosmic god" game. Ever heard the saying, "if it's meant to be, it's up to me?" well, put that saying in a space setting and get cracking because you're going to have a lot of work to do to keep things afloat. Great setting, excellent graphics, simple interface, and basically a fun game.
DOS · by Paul Kostrzewa (13) · 2004
The Good
This was a game that engrossed me totally in the struggle to ensure the survival and renewed prosperity of humankind with only the handful of people left on the Moonbase. The story begins with simple enough concerns - researching equipment, locating the resources to produce such luxuires as spaceships and improved power generators, and improving the quality of life on the base. The pace begins to pick up speed when you begin sending probes out into space and suddenly you have to deal with attacks from the Martian colonists who want to scupper your attempts to establish new colonies on other planets and moons within the solar system.
The pacing as mentioned above is perfect and gradually draws you into the strands of the wider plot and ultimate goal of the game. There are many evocative happenings along the way. I remember well how proud I was of my new colonies and the sense of wonder I got from seeing the mutated humanoids who developed in the various different planetary types - the Hydroids of Saturn being particular favourites although I never trusted those Methanoids! I also remember the colossal shock to my ego when my carefully nurtured colonies all started declaring independence from Moonbase. Likewise when I first saw the gigantic Martian fleet amassed to make it's devastating attack on Moonbase I was ready to weep at the destruction and death that followed in it's wake. I certainly had no qualms about rebuilding my fleet to attack and destroy those Martians in retaliation after that!
As the pace hots up in the endgame I found myself desperate to succeed with our plans and spent many many hours playing when I should have been asleep!
It basically boils down to clever and subtle plotting throughout by the game designers.
I also remember being particularly pleased with the introductory music which was by Mahler (the "Death in Venice" tune). For me it's haunting tones summed up the atmosphere of the game to a T.
The Bad
Dealing with your spaceships was perhaps a little repetitive at times. However because their cargo was often so extremely important to their destination planet I found that most of the time I was feverishly interested in plotting their comings and goings and did not find it tedious to do so.
The spaceship combat sections were probably a little uninspiring. These were used to determine whether an attack on a colony (by us or by the enemy) was successful. Again though I was usually so caught up in the action that I didn't notice!
The Bottom Line
This games draws you in subtly and develops the plot so superbly that you find that you have become emotionally invested in the survival of the Moonbase to the point where any niggling shortcomings in graphics and gameplay fly out of the window.
Only a select few games have had this ability to insinuate themselves into my life like this one did. It will always be one of my favorites.
Atari ST · by Tamzin Cebula (22) · 2006
Discussion
Subject | By | Date |
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DOS UK release date | Shankao (15) | Jul 13, 2016 |
Trivia
Awards
- ST Format
- January 1990 (Issue #06) - Included in the list 50 Games of the Year
- Zzap!
- January 1990 (Issue 57) – 'The Best Games of the 80's Decade' (Stuart Wynne)
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The Syntax Error
Has a remake for Windows -
Wikipedia: Millennium 2.2
article in the open encyclopedia
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Contributors to this Entry
Game added by EboMike.
Atari ST added by Martin Smith. DOS added by gamer p.
Additional contributors: Ye Olde Infocomme Shoppe, Sciere, Martin Smith, Mobygamesisreanimated, Jo ST, FatherJack.
Game added November 30, 2003. Last modified February 22, 2024.