|
|
|
|
|
|
Previous Page
Best viewed in 800x600 with Internet Explorer 4.x or 5.x
|
Xenocracy :
The Great Solar War
Page 2
Color modes
Xenocracy also works with Colour codes. During the game, you will fight many enemies (though rarely more than one at a time). Your main opponents will be the warships of the four superpowers, the 'Earth Dominion'; the 'Mars Combine'; the 'Venus Alliance' and the 'Mercury League', though you may also, that is from time to time, battle pirate enemies too.
Each of the planetary nations paint their ships in a distinct colour and camouflage scheme. The ED uses blue, the MC red and so on. Its very easy for identification and you see directly which planetary nation has control of the colony moons.
Of course in every decent space/strategy game you have the Arcade option, which is a lot better then the sim mode. Here it's real time space combat à la Wing Commander Prophecy, Freespace and other clones. There is no originality at all, it's just aim and shoot.
The missions (about 30 ) are not that complicated like in for example 'Conflict: Freespace' where they were difficult to beat. Here, too bad that I don't have a brother, age 8 because he would finish this game in about 2 hours. Or even less.
So what's good about it?
Well, like any upcoming game title, most of them have support for 3D-cards. Xenocracy is no exception. At the main screen, you can select what display adaptor you would like to use. There are a lot of different options, some I knew they exists, but never had them displayed in a game. The first option is of course the best in game performance and speed, the native 3dfx driver. Using this driver will certainly make this game smoother. Not the gameplay, but the several objects that are moving are definitely looking smoother and better.
That's a fact but the game doesn't look impressive enough.
If you don't have a 3d-accelerator card, you can still play Xenocracy, but then in software renderer mode. This driver was made by Simis and its bad. The speed of gameplay decrease drastic and all the objects are terrible drawn.
The other options are the Direct3D types. To my surprise, I didn't knew that there were so many to choose from. You have the Direct3D secondary hardware mode (don't ask me what this really is ... plain direct3D?), the Direct3D MMX mode (increase speed by using the 'MMX' technology) and the Direct3D Ramp mode.
Take a look at those screenshots and you will see that there is a big difference between the several renderer modes.
 
Using the 3DFX native driver (3d-accelerated)
 
Using the D3D driver (3d-accelerated)
 
Using SIMIS's own Sofware Render Driver (non 3d-accelerated)
There is also a "Hud Selection Screen" where you can customize your HUD. Hud stands for Heads Up Display. Basically its your cockpit. Quite nice.
Wingmans and Wso's (Weapons Systems Officers) can also be selected and each of them has its own individual strengths and weaknesses.
Each squadron has his/her own sensor weapons and targeting rating. It's up to you to choose the one that suits the next mission.
A "Ships And Weapons selection" screen is also included and you have about 5 ships at your command, each with their own different Shields, Agility, Stealth, Speed and Sensor ratings.
AI and Controls
Your opponents in Xenocracy do have some AI but you can not compare it with other major titles like "WCP" or even "Conflict: Freespace".
Let me remind you that "SIMIS" (the developer) is a quite young game developer company. They know how to a 'game' but they just haven't reached the iceberg yet. Hopefully, they will.
The controls are all very easy , especially the other fuctions because you have help with your reference card.
Playing with a joystick is recommended and for those who own a 'Force Feedback' joystick, it's your lucky day because Xenocracy has full support for it. Feel those vibrations! ;)
You have also an in flight map, it is a 3d representation of the space around your ship.
Multiplayer
Probably the best reason why a gamer should buy this game is because it has Multiplayer support.
Indeed, Xenocracy supports serial, LAN and TCP/IP mode up to 8 players. However, I didn't test it so I can't really put any comment on it if it was any good or not.
Conclusion
Well, Xenocracy is one of those games that I really didn't enjoy playing.
It has some good features but I have played too many of those 'WC games'. There are too many out there and basically it is always the same thing. No originality and creativity.
Some of you might have fun with it but I personally think that this will be an absolutely minority.
However, if you don't care that the game lacks several things Xenocracy might be the one you are looking for.
If not, you can always wait for the next Wing Commander series. :) I will.
-Bjorn
Ratings
Manual:
80% |
Graphics:
75% |
Music & Sfx:
70% |
GamePlay:
60% |
|
This game scores
on our 5-point Rating System
Up
Previous Page
If you want to review your favorite game, or if you work with a computer game company and want your products reviewing, mail info@playdevil.com.
All contributions are welcome.
Any problems and/or suggestions are always appreciated on
webmaster@playdevil.com
Nothing of this entire Site, animation & logo's included, may be reproduced, stored, saved, transmitted, in any form or means, electronic, written or otherwise without the prior permission of PlayDevil.
Other Logos & Names are Copyrighted Material of its respectful owners.
All Rights Reserved. PlayDevil Productions © 199/8-199/9-200/0
"rip your own stuff"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
