Doc Surge
Reviews
Command & Conquer (DOS)
The yardstick by which all RTS are measured.
The Good
The gameplay is a refinement of Dune II : The Building of a Dynasty. You establish your base, build defences for it, and ensure you have a supply of income through the collection of tiberium.
C&C established the standard gameplay elements that all latter RTS were based on. The User Interface was well done with it being possible to create groupings of units that could be easily called and sent into battle.
Unlike WarCraft, C&C did not counter the two sides with duplicated units, but had GDI and Nod forces possess unique units that countered each other. Infantry could be effective in groups against tanks, yet were vulnerable to artillery. Artillery was in turn vulnerable to tanks. An intricate rock-paper-scissors balance was crafted.
Graphics were excellent and the carnage that ensued from the battles was a delight to behold. Infantry crawl on their stomachs to avoid being pulverized, tanks smoke when damaged, the bases are all well drawn and distinctive. Full Motion Video filmed top notch actors to help set the scenes of the game. Most of the missions had clear goals.
The music and sound is top-notch. The sound of the battles is loudest when your screen is centered on the action and is more muffled when you are away from the battles looking after
your base or harvesters.
The Bad
The AI is weak, not mounting much of an assault, and is helped with some challenge base layouts. Basically, tackling a based requires a tactical hand, first of all disabling the defensive turrets, then throwing waves of armour at the enemy. It is not very skillful, but is a lot of fun. At times, units reacted poorly to being attacked and not responding
with returning fire which was frustrating.
The Bottom Line
Set in a fictional future where two global forces (Global Defence Initiative & the Brotherhood of Nod) battle over an alien and powerful resource called Tiberium. Players must help guide their chosen faction through a series of missions by balancing micromanaging resource collection, base creation, and mortal combat all in real
time!
Each successive mission introduces the player to new units and structures that they can build and employ. By creating a Tiberium Refinery, you create a Harvester that will intelligently collect resources, return to base, and refine these resources into credits that you then use to enhance your base and army. The interace is intuitive and incorporates mainstay features like grouping and map deployment.
Command & Conquer is the undisputed yardstick by which all following Real Time Strategy games were measured by. I give this game 29 out of 30.
By Doc Surge on January 31, 2006
Advanced Civilization (DOS)
Makes the excellent board game it is based on redundant.
The Good
Being a computer game instead of a board game, you don't need to worry about finding other players or knocking the map and spilling the counters. Additionally, this game mimics the board game which was a masterpiece of strategy gaming.
The artificial intelligence give you quite a challenge by playing well and following the rules.
The gamplay is great. It is scaled in difficulty as you start off with a single token and eventually command large spanses of land with cities, ships, trade goods, and dozens of tokens.
The graphics/sound/presentation is colorful, crisp, and attractive. The interface is clean.
The Bad
A minor quibble which applies to the both computer and board versions. It is frustrating having one's empire be maimed by a random calamity card. It is possible to have your empire split in half and given to one of your opponents or a plague destroy many of your cities. Of course, the same thing could happen to your opponents and you could be the beneficiary, but it is feels so contrived.
The Bottom Line
Advanced Civilization is based around the Mediterranean Sea, during the dawn of history. Each player starts with a single population token and grows and expands his empire over the course of the game and tries to build the greatest civilization. The game is turn-based and each turn is further divided into phases.
As each empire grows, players can build cities in regions they control. Each city grants a trade card to the owner, which allows trade with other players for any of eleven commodities, such as iron, grain and bronze. Along with trade come eight calamities such as volcanoes, famine and civil war, which destroy population and cities. Trade cards are combined in sets to purchase civilization cards, which grant special abilities and give bonuses toward future civilization card purchases. Randomness is through the use of cards as dice are not used at all.
The goal of Civilization is to be first to advance to the final age on the Archaeological Succession Table (AST) - essentially a race across time. At several points, certain conditions must be met (such as, the civilization must have a certain number of cities) in order to advance. Since most civilizations do not meet the advancement criteria at all stages on the AST, games usually last more than fifteen turns.
Advanced Civilization is refreshing as it encourages trade and cooperation in order to advance. War and combat are inevitable but a drain on your resources. The game is masterfully balanced. I give this game a 27 out of 30.
By Doc Surge on January 2, 2005