 Overview
A technical glitch in the new satellite defense system touched off a nuclear firestorm that consumed nearly all of humanity. Of those who survived the nuclear devastation, only small bands of the organized and prepared remained after years of famine,
plague and nuclear winter -- in all, maybe a million souls.
Your group has decided to emerge from hiding and find what is left of the land above. Humanity must be rebuilt and you have the vision to do it. Opposing forces must step aside as you usher in a brave new world. Be careful, however, because the sinister force behind the satellite malfunction is out there. Waiting.
Gameplay, Controls, Interface
This is, in my opinion, one of the coolest real-time strategy games to date. It really brings a breath of fresh
air to this cookie-cutter market. One of the most obvious innovations (well,
it's not really original, but pretty close) is the three-dimensional terrain and vehicles with positional camera. You can zoom in to eye-level to enjoy the action or zoom out for a commander’s
overview. Is that mountain blocking your view? You think there are some enemies cowering behind that building? No
problem; just whirl your camera view around for a look on the other side. It is really cool. However, I
found myself mostly watching the action from a medium distance because there is too much going on to be worried about whipping my camera around all the time.
Speaking of lots going on, Warzone 2100 is a whirlwind of activity. Time is
critical; you must not waste it. Build like mad when
it's slow, because it won’t last. When it's not slow it's all-out war, but you must keep building,
researching and prototyping in addition to directing the action. Oh, did you forget to close up that back entrance to your base? Now
you're fighting on two fronts. Ah, beautiful chaos!
The controls are pretty straightforward. Basically, seven simple icons take you into various menus which let you design, build, and order your troops around. Designing your own units is a real treat. As you progress along your research path, more and more goodies are added to your pool. When you push the design button, you assemble a prototype from your pieces. There are three main pieces to assemble: wheels,
chassis and turrets. Wheels can be things like actual wheels, half-tracks,
hovercraft or flying machines. Chassis are essentially armor and can be made of several materials that vary in weight and strength combinations. Turrets can be machine guns, missiles, flame-throwers,
howitzers or command modules for leading other machines in battle. You can create literally hundreds of different machines any way you like. Of course, some combinations work better than others, but Pumpkin
Studios did not expressly
explain what each improvement is good for. It's kind of a trial by fire -- which, depending on your perspective, may make the game more fun.
There is oh-so-much more to this game, but I will let you discover it for yourself.
 Graphics
Graphics are pretty good. They are not as polished-looking as
Starcraft or Age of Empires, but you must remember that this is a true
3D game. Each unit is not just a pretty, pre-rendered bitmap. Each object is fully three-dimensional. So in order to have hundreds of objects on the screen at once, each object is simplified. However, they are pretty well done as you can see by the
screenshots. Most importantly, you can tell most units apart from one another at a
glance (except those darn repair turrets; they are really hard to pick out).
Eye candy is a big part of this game. Explosions abound. Sometimes you think everything is on fire. And if
it's not on fire, it's smoking like a chimney from all the damage it took in the fire. However, if you survive to win the battle, the scenario rewards you with a little
fireworks display. Yeah!
Audio
This is always a tough one. Sound is pretty good in this game. Different weapon types make different sounds so you can tell if you need to look at something more closely just by the sound. Plus, the sounds fit the actions. That doesn’t sound like much, but
it's actually quite rare and beautiful. Usually I write something in here about distracting, out-of-place sounds, but I didn’t have any of that in this game. You shouldn’t notice good
sound; it should enhance gameplay, and that’s what Warzone 2100 does.
System Requirements
Pentium 166, 16 MB RAM, 30 MB hard drive space, and Windows 95 are the minimum requirements. However, Pumpkin recommends: a Pentium 200, 16
MB RAM, and a 3D card or 32 MB RAM for software rendering mode.
Documentation
The documentation was pretty sparse. At first I really wanted some information about how to choose between different chassis and wheel types. I mean there is nothing said anywhere about that. Then I discovered that figuring it out was part of the game. Well, I still haven’t made up my mind about whether I like that or not. I
had a hard enough time keeping track of the battle around me. I don’t need to stop and take the time to examine the little in-game bars and graphs for each discovery. Well,
where the documentation leaves off, I’m sure the Internet will pick up.
There is a pretty good in-game tutorial as well. It covers the very most basic aspects of the game. You quickly
outgrow the skills learned in the tutorial, but you get a feel for the game and that gives you a jump start.
 Bottom Line
As I said before, this is a pretty fun game. However, there is one problem for me. It is not addictive. A great game should make you come back again and again.
Age of Empires does that for me, so does Half-Life,
and I even load X-Com back on my system periodically if you can believe it. For some
reason that I can’t place my finger on, I couldn’t keep playing this game over and over. Perhaps it is because none of my friends have it and the
multiplayer element hasn’t spurred it forward. But whatever the reason, it keeps a really cool game from being a really great game.
Bottom line: Give it a shot if you have some extra dough and find a good
deal -- not necessarily in the bargain bin, just a good deal. If you like RTS games with loads of action and mile-a-minute chaos, this could be the game for you. Especially if you have some friends
who need crushing!
Review Posted On 20 August 1999.
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