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August's
Summary: Turn-based strategy games don't get much better than this.
Once upon a time, many computer games resembled classic board games. They were turn-based affairs and involved moving various icons representing armies, tanks, and such across hex-based landscapes, carefully positioning your forces for victory. They were simple, fun, and addictive.
Then came the need to make "interactive movies" starring burned-out '80s has-beens, and the classic hex-based strategy game was nearly forgotten. Programmers who'd never seen a board game, much less played one, had their own ideas of what made a good computer game. Sometimes they were right. But by turning their backs on the success of board games, they often produced games that succeeded only in boring us.
Fortunately, we're now experiencing a renaissance of sorts, where game developers are once again making excellent turn-based games, using the same wonderful formulas that had gamers staring down their buddies across the cardboard till dawn. Just look at Sierra On-Line's exquisite MissionForce: Cyberstorm. A strategy version of the EarthSiege 2 action game, MissionForce's scrupulous attention to detail is exceeded only by its incredible gameplay.
It's the 27th century and mankind has managed to survive two EarthSieges from the man-made-machine-turned-enemy Cybrids. Humanity has grown and prospered under the guidance of expansionist corporate governments. Setting their sights on the riches of far-off planets, entrepreneurs can now find fame and fortune mining ore in distant star systems. But faster than you can say Utopia, our old friends the Cybrids rear their ugly mechanical heads to screw up your best-laid plans.
Now, you're an entrepreneur turned mercenary, commanding a fleet of massive, mechanized war machines called Hercs. Bioderms--replicated humans that serve you on the battlefield--pilot the Hercs against the Cybrids attacking your bases and vying for your precious ore. The Cybrids seem to be up to some mysterious, grand scheme. Ultimately, you must discover the nature of their plans and put a stop to them before we have another EarthSiege on our hands.
You begin the game as a new recruit in charge of a couple of rattle-trap Hercs piloted by cheap Bioderms with extremely poor military skills. To build up your forces you must amass more credits or rise in rank. Odds are, with just a couple of throwaway clones and poorly armed mechs, you won't be named general anytime soon. So you're going to have to go on a lot of mining missions, fighting off the occasional Cybrid Herc, until you amass enough credits to buy the killer hardware and Bioderms you need to truly kick butt.
Once you start earning promotions, you'll slowly gain access to up to eight different Hercs, each with a fully customizable chassis. You can choose from several pre-configured Hercs or buy the basic chassis and add your favorite armor, shields, and weapons (there are 70 of them) to best take advantage of your Bioderms' skills.
Naturally, selecting the right Bioderms is critical to your success. These clones of the best Herc pilots in history vary widely in skill level. Some are considerably better than others, and you get what you pay for. Thankfully, they can gain valuable experience points in battle, and you can beef up their weapons skills by using Virtual Reality Training.
Your missions take place on beautifully rendered, 3-D hex-based planetscapes, ranging from harsh, pock-marked moons to lush wilderness filled with rivers and high mountains. From a top-down perspective, you carefully move your Super VGA Hercs to hunt for ore, destroy Cybrid threats, or perform reconnaissance. Commanding up to 28 different units at once, you can use the landscape to your advantage, hiding behind boulders or in craters to gain a tactical advantage and avoid losing your forces to the enemy. If you find yourself in a sticky situation, you can even readjust your shields to give you more strength where you need it most.
You can also use stimulants known as StimGlands to temporarily boost your Bioderms' performance. Just be careful: the more StimGland you use, the more unstable a Bioderm becomes, and you risk poisoning it to death.
Depending on how much time you've got, you can choose between a quick fight or an entire campaign; in the latter, you rise in rank, fight your way through a trio of star systems, and defeat the Cybrid threat once and for all. Completing a campaign will easily take you more than 40 hours of absorbing gameplay.
The best part of MissionForce is that each mission is randomly generated, so you never fight the same battles twice, even if they take place on the same planet. Planets are generally consistent in their overall climate, but each time you play, the landscape is different, you face a new crew of Cybrids, and the ore will be located somewhere else. So you'll be facing a new and different challenge no matter how many campaigns you complete, raising the hours of potential gameplay into the hundreds, if not more.
Not only is the gameplay engaging, but there are enough bells and whistles to make MissionForce: Cyberstorm an instant classic. The graphics are superb: this is one of the only hex-based games to use true Super VGA graphics. The sound effects are excellent, as is the music, which is reminiscent of both EarthSiege 2 and MechWarrior 2. And, in a rare move, Sierra is shipping the game on two CDs--each with a full copy of the game. That way, you and a buddy can play via modem without having to buy a second copy of the game: a nice touch that's mere icing on a delicious cake.
So what didn't I like? Well, the only real problem is that the only instructions on how to play the game are in the online help on the disc. I know the company is called Sierra On-Line, but to have only an online manual for a game of this complexity is ridiculous. How expensive could it be to include a paper manual, or even a command sheet?
Also, though the game has three levels of difficulty, things can get real hard, real quick, and it can be frustrating trying to advance in rank when your Bioderms keep getting their protoplasm butts kicked.
But these obviously minor peeves shouldn't stop you from shelling out the money. If you're a strategy player, MissionForce: Cyberstorm is a must-own. Old Website Recovery