|
Updated Sunday 15 May, 2011 12:18 PM |
|
|
Join Writer Development Section Writer Development Member Section
This Day in Alternate History Blog
|
Jeff Wayne's The War of the Worlds – A Review
Oddly enough, I never looked at this game – because I didn’t know it existed – until I found a spare copy in a second-hand shop. It looked interesting enough to purchase, and I was delighted to discover that while it wasn’t perfectly faithful to the original book (although way better than any film adaptation) it offered hours of enjoyment and…well, fun. The game takes a number of liberties with the plot. The story is simple; the original Martian attack was beaten off by the human forces, which destroyed the first landings. Deciding that humans are more dangerous than they had thought, the Martians land in Scotland and start a long campaign to defeat the humans. In the game, you can play as either the humans or the Martians. Gameplay is a curious mixture of strategic and tactical. It was unusual at the time, as instead of having pre-set missions, battles only take place when one sides' forces are sent to a sector occupied by the other. In effect, you decide your own missions, and fight them. Unlike most RTS computer games, units typically consist of multiple vehicles, except for highly specialised or utility units. The Martians use large vehicles with powerful weapons, that can take a lot of damage. The Humans have smaller, weaker vehicles, but have more per unit, and quicker build times. The humans rely mostly on artillery, WWI-style tanks, and ironclad warships. Playing on the Martian side, players can expect to be attacked by more than a hundred human vehicles in a single battle, on some occasions. The Humans can build water units, such as Ironclads, which can devastate Martian defences, while requiring the Martian ground forces to wade out into the ocean to retaliate. The Martians can build a number of extremely specialised vehicles. Resource usage is different from the trend of the time. There are no gathering units that manually gather resources, and the resources are not used to build or purchase units. Instead, each sector has three resources (Steel, Iron and Coal for the Humans and Uranium, Copper and Human blood for the Martians), in certain levels of abundance. Players can build facilities that will extract these resources at a certain rate. These resources are drawn from the sector the building or unit is in, and the sectors directly surrounding it. Deficiencies in resources will result in decreased efficiency, and increased time for unit/structure building and repairs. The War of the Worlds is a tricky game to master, but one thing is certain; it rewards the effort. Play and enjoy! Good points; complex strategy, complete autonomy, exciting battles. Bad points; resources can be too complex, game can have problems on some computers with too much effort, battles can sometimes last for a long time as enemy forces refuse to attack or retreat.
|
