Greg Recommends Sunless Sea

Website: Failbetter Games

Price : $18.99

The Sunless Sea is a stand alone game in the same universe as the Fallen London browser game. The year is sometime during the reign of the Empress Victoria, London was stolen by bats and now rests a mile under the surface on the shores of the Unterzee, that strange, dark, and ancient subterranean ocean full of mystery, adventure, and horror. You play as a Zee Captain in a setting that goes from refreshingly odd to unsettling to horror filled and back again as you explore the environments and narratives Failbetter Games lovingly crafted for you. The mood at zee is similar to Fallen London, dark, haunted, mysterious, Lovecraftian, and some dark dry humor. Instead of exploring and interacting with a handful of districts within Fallen London you have the entire unterzee and all of its ports of call to zail and explore. A word of caution though, death is a very constant (and often brutal) companion. This is what you might call a narrative / environment driven rogue-like exploration game. There is combat but you would be well advised to avoid it until later in the game. You make progress by exploring and advancing story arcs and the zee itself will prove a most formidable adversary even if you do manage to avoid the denizens who want to take a piece out of your ship.

The general formula of a voyage is presented thusly:

Every voyage begins at Fallen London. You'll spend 'echoes' (currency) to purchase food, fuel, crew members, upgrades, goods to sell elsewhere and other such things. You'll also check with your contacts in London to see if there are any story arcs or missions available should you perchance happen to be zailing in that direction or stumble upon interesting things in your adventures.

You pull out to zee way from the warm lights of the fallen city into the perpetual darkness of the unterzee with only the occasional beacon and the light of your rusty old zeeship to dispel the gloom. As you explore the unknown it will be recorded on your zee chart (world map) and for every island, reef, settlement, and strange thing you find you gain fragments (experience) which will enable you to level up and increase your captain's base stats. The unterzee is mysterious and unpredictable and so the islands rearrange themselves every play-through. Scattered about the islands you will find locations to land and interact with whoever (or whatever) is of interest there. You'll often be presented with story arcs and challenges similar to Fallen London (the browser game). You are given the odds of success as calculated according to your stats with something good happening if you succeed and something 'less good' happening if you fail. Depending on the nature of the challenge 'less good' may be anything from receiving a lesser reward to dying a horrible non-reloadable death. Typically though failure is rewarding and often gives you the chance to try again without consequence thus encouraging you to attempt challenges even if your chance of success is low. Between chance encounters and pre-defined story arcs and missions you can rack up a fair bit of experience and the potential for a lot of echoes by pursuing these island activities. I say 'potential' for a lot of echoes because most of the treasures you uncover really only have value if you survive long enough to turn them in / sell them back in Fallen London.

The game has a lot to do with choices where the consequences aren't obvious but are nonetheless foreboding. The almost dead 'Tomb Colonists' invite you to a feast and they look to be extremely hungry, do you go with them or decline? A wistful demoness wants to purchase your soul, do you sell it to her? The criminal underground wants you to pick up and bring back a package for them and will have "something sharp to say" if you return empty handed but will pay very well if you can smuggle it in, do you accept this job? The first few times I played I was very conservative and tried not to take too many risks. Then I began to understand the game in terms of exploration and narrative and I realized that the riskier choices were almost always more fun (and rewarding) even if I did fail.

The real danger, the thing that keeps killing me in this game, is not knowing when to turn back. You can stock up on food and fuel in other places than just Fallen London but it will be costly if it can be done at all. Should you run out of fuel you will either have to find something else to burn (food?) or you will be at the mercy of the Imperial Laws of Salvage (you lose your ship, crew, and cargo in exchange for a 1hp rustbucket with enough fuel and food to hopefully get you back home). Managing fuel and food is pretty easy though, its the sanity that can catch you off guard. That's right, sanity. As you float about in the deep dark cavern with the deep dark unterzee below you and God know's what below the surface or on the ceiling your crew starts to get a little afraid. Keeping your ship near shore and in the light halts their loss of sanity but you will not gain any back unless you're willing to pay for shore leave or return to Fallen London. Once your sanity reaches a critical level strange and terrible things begin happening. "The crewman stood near the edge of the ship and a large pale tentacle noiselessly pulls her overboard. You rush to the side but she is gone. Nobody seems to have seen or heard anything. You didn't... you didn't push her... did you?"

But here's the thing. The potential for reward and adventure get larger the further from London you zail. If you turn back too soon you may not make enough echoes to restock your ship, but if you keep going... This can quite easily turn into "just a little bit further... I have to see what is on that island" or "but if I can just fill in that piece of the zee map..." The rewards and adventure are greater, but if you don't turn back at the right time you may not get back at all.

Once you go out as far as you dare you have to make it back home. If you are low on supplies or sanity then you are especially vulnerable and the the shortest course back home may not be the safest.

Assuming you make it home though, limping into harbour with a half mad half starving crew and a cargo hold full of treasures, it's time to cash in, restock, and upgrade. The Admiralty Board pays you for every 'port report' you bring back to them (a reliable source of income and especially helpful for new captains), and fulfilling quests for your contacts also yields a good influx of echoes. Random events may allow you to sell your findings from the unterzee at a higher price than usual and the Black Market will often finance voyages if you agree to do their bidding.

Make enough voyages and you may earn enough echoes to buy yourself a decent house, a new ship, start a family, locate better contacts, and write a will to give your next captain a better start when you either retire or die at zee.

There are other, more subtle, creeping threats that can become a problem if you're not careful. Your sanity may be largely restored every time you return to London but if it had gone too low you will begin suffering from nightmares, and nightmares in a Lovecraftian environment are never a good thing. If you start associating with shady types (as most successful zee captains often do) then the authorities will start to take notice and should they suspect you of treason then searches to your cargo hold may not be the only thing you can expect from them.

The fun in this game is definitely in the exploration and the writing. It is atmospheric but unlike other games that are merely 'atmospheric' it is also challenging and death is permanent. They did a very good job at creating a world that feels like everything has a mystery behind it and even when you manage to solve some mysteries (or just survive them) the writing taunts you that there's more going on then you know.

Here are a few examples of the sort of stories and mysteries you may find zailing the unterzee.

A potentially sentient semi-omniscient coral reef and its many secrets. Why people have a difficult time actually dying in Fallen London. An island of soul devouring apes with warning buoys all around that say "beware of soul devouring apes. Assisting these beasts in any way is tantamount to treason and any that leave the island are to be shot on sight. They know what they did!!!" An island where kingdoms of hamsters and rats rage war for domination. An island where everyone wears masks that determine what you can and can not do. A top secret conspiracy involving esoteric 'science' that may or may not have something to do with the secret of actually dying in Fallen London. The Republic of Fire (Hell). The island of infinite paradoxes. The frightening winter beast Mr. Sacks. And of course there's also political intrigue, crazy religious orders, zee gods, pirates, unspeakable horrors, cannibalism, and all manner of questionable fauna and flora that may or may not be hostile.

I don't think this game is for everyone. I enjoy it because I am a sucker for good stories, I appreciate good horror and an honest rogue-like challenge. It is a slower game, one that requires some methodical thinking, and while some might find the absence of any quick travel options tedious it is something that I rather enjoy and I think the quality of writing and the environment more than make up for it. If you're not sure if you'd like this game then check out their free browser game Fallen London for a similar taste. Until then stay sane my tasty friend, and be wary of anything that appears human but isn't.

Greg Recommends Ghost Master

Price : $4.99
Website : STEAM / GOG

Originally released in 2003 (with special re-releases in 2006 and 2011) Ghost Master is a niche puzzle / strategy game with a small but loyal following. Basically imagine The Sims except instead of controlling the people you control the ghosts who mess with the people. The more afraid of you they are the more powerful your ghosts become and the more they can affect the physical world. You have to decide which ghosts to take with you on new missions, where to place them, and which abilities they should use. Watch out though, if a ghost is located by paranormal investigators or a coven of witches then they will try to banish it from the level. The controls and the graphics are definitely of an older generation, but if you can look past that and relish the idea of scaring the living daylights out of some Sim-like persons then this is right up your alley.

You begin each level with a description of the place you'll be haunting and why your haunting it. The reasons can range from "because we can," to solving a mystery, to stopping certain persons from interfering in the matters of the deceased. You also unlock new ghosts in every level so there's that as well. You get to pick a 'squad' of ghosts, each one with its own unique set of powers and sphere of influence. When you enter the level you'll see a layout similar to The Sims where you can see inside the building(s) one floor at a time with people walking, talking, reading, sleeping, and otherwise moving about their business. You place your squad members at different places throughout the map and then either manually execute their powers or tell them which powers to auto-use. The mortals can't see the ghosts but they can see the affects of their powers (some do make a ghost visible). Each power requires that you have a certain amount of energy stored up which you gain from scaring the mortals. Thankfully using abilities does not drain energy which means that if you have 100e then all of your ghosts can use all of their powers that cost up to 100e indefinitely. Your power (very) slowly decreases to keep your ghosts attached to the physical world but for all except a few levels this will not affect how you play.

A gremlin causes a power surge to zap sorority girls around the TV.
If this happens a few more times they might think that it's possessed...

Your ghosts can only be placed according to their type. Gremlins, for example, can be attached to electronic items and all of their abilities have to do with the item they are attached to. They can make it malfunction, act 'creepily', zap nearby people, etc. A water spirit, by contrast, can be attached to a body of water or a piece of equipment / furniture to do with water and they would have water-like abilities from fog to flood to turning water to blood. A wraith, by another contrast, can only be placed on things associated with death and while its abilities are more fear inspiring than malfunctioning electronics and mysterious fog you won't have as much opportunity to use them without being creative. Creative in this case means luring mortals to where your heavy hitter ghosts can scare them. Strange sights and sounds may make mortals curious to investigate while scary things can make them flee in a certain direction. You can re-locate ghosts to another valid position on the map with ease but for some of the stronger types there may only be one or two spots on the map where they can go. Using ghosts also grants them experience which can be used to unlock further abilities.

A 'spook' ghost can be attached to any room and is by far the most maneuverable ghost. With so many mortals gathered here it would be a perfect time to turn visible or start moving the furniture around.

Each mortal has a number of stats for you to take into consideration. The first is their amount of fear. If it gets high enough the mortal will flee the map. The second is there insanity. If you get it high enough they will go bonkers and run around the map disturbing the other mortals. The third is their belief in ghosts, their susceptibility to being scared. Each mortal also has a secret consciousness fear and subconsciousness fear that can be used to your advantage. If a mortal simply does not believe in ghosts then their otherworldly powers will rationalized as a strange occurrence and you will have a hard time scaring them, although providing enough evidence of the existence of ghosts will increase their belief and start making them susceptible. Chaining scares on a group of mortals that is already scared is a good way to create an avalanche of fear and belief which should give you enough energy to use the higher tier abilities on that level. Exposing a mortal to their conscience and subconscious fears will eventually make them go insane with hilarious results.

Don't worry it's not real fire... but try telling that to the mortals who are running for their lives!

More than puzzles and strategy this is a game about messing with things and this is where I had the most fun. It may not be quite as efficient to toy with the mortals but it's the only ghost simulator in existence where you get to be the ghosts so who cares!? This is a game where you can zap unsuspecting people, turn the lights off on them, and make them run screaming with a thunderclap! This is a game where your goal is to create chaos and confusion and you have an arsenal of very capable ghosts at your disposal who specialize at doing just that. The setting and the theme are amazing and even though the execution was a bit clunky (still quite good by 2003 standards) I can not for the life of me figure out why this game never caught on and why nobody made a sequel. You get to set people on (illusory) fire and watch panic ensue as spiders and ghosts and hurricane force winds and falling fish (and more) appear out of nowhere... who wouldn't want that? Granted there are some levels where you need to be strategic and not scare the mortals and while most of these levels are very particular about what will and will not work, the game as a whole is sweet candy.

Greg Recommends Planetary Annihilation

Price : $29.99 or $39.99 with Titans Exansion

Website : http://store.steampowered.com/app/233250/ (original)

http://store.steampowered.com/app/386070/ (Titans Expansion)

I was a little hesitant to put Planetary Annihilation on my Recommendation list. It was over-hyped in production as an Indie kick-starter success story that raised well beyond the stretch goals but turned out to be a different game than what the funding crowd had anticipated. The launch was plagued by bugs and Uber Entertainment's difficulty in communicating with the community / their questionable marketing practices. The game also had a some features that different review sites took issue with. For these reasons there have been a lot of negative and angry reviews on this game.

I still recommend it though as a fun and refreshingly different RTS, one that I thoroughly enjoyed playing and wish I had time to play more of. I've regrettably never played the Titans Expansion so everything here is for original PA.

So PA is an innovative RTS whereby advanced robotic commanders are awakening all across the galaxy to wage endless war upon each other across the stars. Humanity is long gone, it's just the robots now, and there is no story line to play through except that all the other robot commanders are hostile so it's either you or them. If you kill the enemy commander then all of their stuff blows up. If your commander dies then all of your stuff blows up. Your objective? Kill the enemy commanders by any means necessary. How is this innovative? Spherical maps. Travel (and combat) in orbit around and in between said spherical maps. No unit cap. The ability to destroy entire spherical maps (and everything on / around them). There's also a full set of units with unique properties that give the game balance but every RTS worth playing has that. What makes PA's balance stand out is that creates what some enthusiasts have called a 'pure RTS'.

So let's talk about the spherical maps. In most cases RTS maps are flat with Planetary Annihilation being an exception. Flat maps allow you to see everything at a glance via a mini map that usually hangs out in a corner of the UI. Flat maps allow you to see all the possible routes you or your enemy could take towards each other and there is no confusion about which way is up. Spherical maps by contrast mean that you will never be able to see everything at a glance. Nobody can be cornered, enemy movements can be difficult to predict, and sneaky enemies can simply attack your base from a direction you weren't expecting. You can't see what you're units are doing half the time and said units could reach their destination and then be lost out of sight until you randomly spin the map and find them again. Uber added the option of using minimaps that could display the part of the planet that you were currently not focusing on but many gamers found spherical maps frustrating and thought that they should have just stayed an interesting concept and put forth arguments for why they take away from the game in practicality. I disagree. I love spherical maps. I love the ability to expand attack or be attacked from any direction at any time. I love the tactical options they provide. I love taking my enemies by surprise, hitting them from a direction they weren't expecting. I love how you get a huge advantage just by scouting your enemy to see where his troops / buildings are. Spherical maps aren't for everybody, but I loved them and maybe you will too.

The action isn't just on the surface of the planets, it is also taking place in orbit around them. If you zoom out far enough you go into 'orbit mode' which allows you to see the entire planet (or at least the side currently facing the screen) along with what is taking place in space around it. Your units and buildings become too small to identify and are replaced by minimalist icons that (once you get used to them) will easily distinguish what is what and allow you to command your forces without needing to go back down to the planet. Not only can you expand, attack, and be attacked in any direction, "any direction" also includes "up". Take care not to neglect the orbital game because a clever player may begin building orbital guns platforms above your base (I literally cackled with glee when I did this to another player for the first time) or build a mobile death laser satellite to snipe your commander out of the game. You can avoid this fate by building an interplanetary radar system (on the ground) early which will let you see what's going on in space as long as it has power. You can also build 'umbrella' turrets to shoot down orbital enemies or simply go into orbit yourself and create a fleet of spacecraft or construct your own orbital gun platforms.

This is strategy in three dimensions... or at least an outer spherical map around the smaller planet-side spherical map. But it doesn't stop there. Depending on the solar system there may be multiple planets, each a spherical map of its own that can be traveled to.

The level of destruction in Planetary Annihilation is unparalleled by any RTS title. With no unit cap you will be routinely commanding hundreds if not thousands of units at a time. Imagine that your opponent has an entire planet swarming with of bots, tanks, and aircraft. How would you attack that player? Well, to start a full scale planetary invasion all you need to do is build a gateway on the surface (which you can do from orbit) and start sending your forces through. Keep in mind that you only need to kill their commander and PA gives you a few options for how to do that when conventional forces aren't going to do the trick. There is the 'bombard them from orbit' option, but this can be countered by umbrella turrets and orbital defenses. There is the 'Planetary Canon' option which which you can literally shoot your army at a specific location on another planet. They do damage when landing and then more damage once they start shooting and three dozen advanced combat bots will make short work of a commander. Interplanetary nukes can end a game pretty quickly once deployed but they can be countered by anti-nuke missiles (assuming your opponent has them). If things are still not working out then it may be time to consider building thrusters on the moon so that you can SMASH THE MOON INTO THEIR BASE!!! (there is no defense against the moon smashing into your base) Or, if the solar system includes a metal planet, turn it into The Death Star and BLOW UP EVERY PLANET IN THE SOLAR SYSTEM!!! MWUHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! All of this to an orchestral soundtrack and robotic affirmation noises that just sound so epic together.

So those are the innovative things that make PA unique. Now let's talk about what an actual game of PA typically looks like. Depending on the game settings your commander is either automatically deployed to a location on a planet or you get to choose your starting location manually. Auto-deployment ensures a mostly equal start for all players while manual deployment is a lot more... interesting. If everyone picks one planet while the last player picks another he will be able to expand and build up undeterred and will probably win the game. If you are unlucky enough to land right beside another commander then you may just die within the first minute of the game or have your start severely slowed down.

In any case, the first objective for new players is to start harvesting minerals and generating energy, the two resources of PA. Minerals are automatically harvested by mining stations built on mineral nodes scattered throughout the map (small green triangle icons). Energy is generated automatically by power generators that can be placed nearly anywhere. Your commander can quickly construct these.

The second objective is to start unit production through one of the four factory types, land vehicles, mechs, air, or water. Each of these factories can construct the basic units of their type in addition to fabricators that can build new buildings or speed up production of factories. Land vehicles are your tanks, flame throwers, and mobile anti-air. They are slower but pack a punch and have a lot of staying power for front line combat. Mechs are weaker but faster than land vehicles and are ideal for raiding. Air factories can build fighters and bombers which are very fast and pack a heavy punch but are expensive and have few hit points. Ships are expensive and slow but carry a lot of firepower and boast exceptionally long range (ideal for leveling coastal bases).

You'll build a few scouts and set them to auto-explore to find where your enemies are. If you're aggressive you'll send some bots to go mess up their resource nodes while using fabricators to claim your own. Depending on what your enemy is doing you may want to build some static defense turrets and you will definitely want to put up radars to let you know if any enemies are incoming.

The economy works on an income / depletion ratio. Units and buildings, whether you are building them or upkeeping them do not cost lump sum of resources (as opposed to StarCraft or Age of Empires) but deplete them over time. If you have resources incoming at a faster rate than they are being depleted then your stockpile gradually goes up. If you are spending resources faster than they are coming in then your stockpile starts to go down. If you run out of either minerals or energy all of your factories keep producing, just at a reduced rate. Radars (and I think turrets) go offline if there is no power left in your stockpile. The 'macro' of PA is to keep expanding your income and while also keeping up production to use all those resources to maximize efficiency.

Once you have secured your position it's time to pick a target and look for ways to kill their commander. Massing tanks is an easy and effective tactic, especially if your target is otherwise occupied fighting another player. If you can't see any way to quickly kill a commander then you need to assess whether it is better to go after his base, keep to raiding, or lie low to build up your forces.

If you can take out a commander or two with your early units then all the more power to you. If they prove difficult to remove then you may want to consider either going orbital or investing into advanced factories. Advanced factories can build advanced units (which are very expensive but exponentially better than standard units) and advanced fabricators which unlock all of the other advanced buildings. This is a true investment as your first advanced factory will take a long time to build and be a huge drain on your economy. The advanced units will greatly improve the effectiveness of your army though and the advanced fabricators can upgrade existing mining nodes and build advanced power generators to send your economy soaring. As for the advanced buildings, they include a variety of of defensive structures, heavy artillery that can shoot across half a planet, nuclear missile silos, anti-nuke silos, planetary canons, Hailey planetary thrusters, and catalysts that can turn metal planets into planet destroying Death Stars.

You always need to be assessing your enemy, trying to figure out his weak spot. Could you overrun him with tanks and just demolish his base? Does he have Anti-air? If not, then 25 bombers will kill his commander awfully quickly. Does he rely too much on air units? They die very quickly if countered. Does he have surveillance? If not then it would sure be frustrating and confusing for him to be attacked on two or three fronts at once. Are his power generators vulnerable? It would be a terrible shame if something where to happen to them... Does he have orbital? No? Time to build some orbital gun platforms over his base. Does he have anti-nukes yet? Is his commander susceptible to a swarm of suicidal boom bots? Remember, once you kill the commander, all of his units and all of his buildings are also destroyed and if you are clever you can put things in motion to kill a commander before the enemy can react to stop you.

Just remember that when a commander dies the blast will destroy everything within a large radius and you may want to pull half your army back when victory is assured.

If you are lucky enough to kick everyone else off your planet then you will have time to scout out the other players, identify their weaknesses, and then also have the sort of economic might to leverage them. Just don't neglect your own defenses, as your enemies can still snipe your commander whilst your are unaware...

Planetary Annihilation isn't perfect but it is innovative, unique, and put together well. I have a few personal caveats that I should put here though. Once your forces get beyond a hundred (as will often happen when there is no unit cap) it is difficult to manage such a large force beyond basic "everyone go this way and shoot all the things" type of instructions. Thankfully none of your units have deployable abilities except for your commander, so it's not a huge issue. Managing bases on two or three planets at once is a real hassle though. I think most players just manage a main base on one planet and then also a forward base on your chosen front of combat. Transport units (at least when I used them) are a real nightmare to use and may just get shot down while you fiddle with their finicky load and unload options.

The campaign is... lacking. You get a map of the galaxy and can travel from system to system. If the system is empty you get to unlock a new technology to take with you, if the system is occupied then you fight the AI using what technologies you have acquired so far to hopefully pick up another new technology. It was an interesting challenge at first to adapt strategies against the AI with a gibbled tech tree but got boring and samey half way through a medium sized galaxy. You can unlock additional commander skins by playing through the campaign but even though I've done half a dozen compaigns I've never had the opportunity to unlock said skins... either the planet required to conquer didn't spawn or it was owned by the wrong faction.

Personally I have had the most fun with playing 6 - 12 player free for all and the 1v1 competitive matches. Other players have really gotten into the alliance mode where you play with a friend to control your faction together. If I had any friends played this game then I would have been all over that.

Overall I think Planetary Annihilation is a fine game. It is a lean mean and streamlined RTS that 'cuts the fat' by getting back to doing the basics well and there's no point in being upset because its different than its predecessors. Anyone who poopoos it for not having more unit types / factions, for using spherical maps, or for Uber's marketing techniques either never understood what PA was before purchasing or felt entitled for some reason. Nobody forced people to purchase the beta for the full price of the finished game and nobody forced people to purchase additional cosmetic commander skins for an exorbitant price. If you're not happy with how much something costs then either wait for a sale or just don't buy it.

In any case I really enjoyed PA and if the user reviews on STEAM are any indication then Uber seems to have appeased their critics with the Titans expansion. I wish I could justify spending the time to play this game again.

Greg Recommends Age of Empires III Complete

Price : $39.99

Website : http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msusa/en_US/pdp/Age-of-Empires-III-Complete-Collection-PC-Game/productID.253711400

I grew up with Age of Empires and have played every game in the series to death. I remember standing in a long line in the cold to pick up a Boxing Day special for AoE3 at Future Shop and then spending more than what I saved taking my parents out for breakfast as bribery payment for getting me there at an ungodly hour and then waiting for the store to open. It provided me with years of quality entertainment so I think it was a good investment. I achieved the rank of Major (above average) in the online competitive ranking system but had to let it go when more important life issues came up and haven't been able to justify the time commitment to play competitively since.

For those who have never heard of the series, Age of Empires 3 is a real time strategy game set within 1500 - 1800 in "The New World" (North / South America). The original AoE3 allows you to choose between 1 of 8 different civilizations while the War Chiefs expansion adds 3 more and the Asian Dynasties adds another 3. Each civilization has unique strengths and weaknesses that will greatly affect how you play the game but the basic gist of it is "gather resources from the map, build up a base to create military units and then use your military to burn down everyone else's bases and kill all their people." That is every RTS in a nutshell but Age of Empires 3 has a few things that make it stand out as an RTS title.

The first is an Age of Empires hallmark, being able to advance through the ages. An 'Age' in Age of Empires represents a significant advancement in history and technology. There are five ages (Discovery, Colonial, Fortress, Industrial, Imperial) Someone in the 'Colonial Age' can build basic military units and research basic upgrades while another player in the 'Fortress Age' will have everything from the Colonial Age plus advanced and specialized unites, new buildings, and better upgrades available to them. Each age builds upon and improves the units, buildings, and upgrades presented in the ages previous. Advancing to a new age is an expensive and time consuming move to make, and knowing when to make it is key to victory.

The second is a unique 'card' system whereby you can build a deck of shipments to send from your home city to your settlement in game. As you earn XP by exploring, building, and fighting you will earn the ability to send these shipments. The cards (shipments) in your deck can be anything from a squad of military units, extra villagers, unique technologies, extra resources, permanent unit buffs, or free buildings. There are different tiers of cards that correspond to the different ages; so a Colonial card can be sent once you reach the Colonial Age but a Fortress card can only be sent once you reach the Fortress Age. The higher the card tier the more potent / valuable the effects (usually). This ensures a wide variety of strategic options are available to you and so you can build as many decks as you have strategies to try out.

Here are some basic strategies to give you an idea how this works:

An aggressive 'hit them hard right from the start' strategy will rush to the Colonial Age and use military shipment cards combined with all the units you could build in the meantime to give you a formidable and quite possibly game winning force at the 5 minute mark at the expense of your economy.

A counter-strategy for this would be to send free guard tower buildings and crossbow units in addition to what you were able to build before your enemy attacks. (Crossbows are the early cost effective counter to building destroying spearmen)

Alternatively you could linger in the Discovery Age before advancing to build up your economy, send food and gold cards when you reach the Colonial Age, and jump straight into the Fortress Age to get elite military units and cannons while everyone else is still mucking about with spearmen and crossbows.

Your civilization bonuses, the map, and which civilization you're playing against are all factors to consider when deciding which strategy to implement. You can have as many decks as you like but you can only choose one to ship from when you claim your first shipment.

Age of Empires 3 features a strong "rock / paper / scissors / lizard / Spock" approach where everything is good against something else but can be countered by a different unit or strategy. Musketeers are a tough all-round balanced unit with a melee bonus when engaging cavalry but get torn to shreds by skirmishers and cannons. Skirmishers get a damage multiplier bonus against heavy infantry (muskets, spearmen) but will quickly fall to a hussar's saber or be blown away by a cannon ball. Cavalry will demolish artillery and light infantry but need to watch out for pikes, spears, and ranged cavalry which have significant damage multiplier bonuses against them. Add to that basic structure all of the unique units that come with which civilization you choose, the unique units that come with allying with indigenous peoples, and which cards you play / upgrades researched and you have yourself a very complex game of attack, counter attack, and counter-counter attack.

Knowing what counters what is essential when it comes time to engage your foe's military. "But isn't that all the time?" you may ask. No. Another key element of a good RTS is importance of raiding and harassing your enemies before going toe to toe with them directly. Killing enemy gatherers means they can't get as many resources which means they can't produce things as fast which means when it comes time to crush them they will not be able to resist you. Denying a gold mine or huntable animal herds early in the game will force your opponent to improvise or fold as you keep up the pressure and slowly strangle them for resources. Of course even here you have to be careful not to allow your enemy to kill your raiders or allow an opening into your own vulnerable economy.

Let's talk about maps for a minute. AoE3 features lots of map types which will generate a new random map every time the game is played. Typically players start out in the Discovery Age with a randomly placed Town Centre, a handful of villagers, and some starting resources with gather locations (huntable animals, berries, fish, gold deposits, trees) nearby. Depending on the map type some resources will be plentiful on the map while others are sparse. Some maps mix it up a bit by giving the player extra resources or a free economic building or free towers to start with. Maps possess all the usual obstacles and features you'd expect with cliffs, lakes, and forests placed randomly according to the map type and enemy players *usually* placed equidistant from each other on opposite sides of the map.

Where AoE3 mixes things up a bit is that there are treasures scattered throughout the map that your explorer can claim and specific locations along pre-determined trade routes and indigenous villages where you can build trade posts that net you new bonuses or abilities. The treasures can range from free resources to free units to permanent buffs for your explorer and can shave precious seconds and sometimes minutes off a strategy if collected. They are guarded though, so you will have to weigh the risk / reward ratio. Your explorer has a massive damage multiplier against treasure guardians and a 'snipe' ability that will kill a single treasure guardian in one shot but it has a long recharge time. Depending on your Civ and the cards you send you may be able to rack up a lot of treasures to give you an early game advantage. (Spain is a natural treasure collector)

The trade posts cost a heft 250 - 200 wood to build but if placed on a trade route will produce bursts of XP to speed up your shipments. Upgrading the trade route at any trade depot along that route (even if you are not the one to do the upgrade) will speed up the bursts of XP and allow you to get bursts of a chosen resource instead of XP. Placing a trade post at an indigenous village will allow you to train their warriors and unlock special technologies that would otherwise be unavailable to you. Some cards can be used to specifically enhance or get free indigenous units. Depending on the map you the indigenous units can be your key to an early victory! Even late game they can provide an edge over your opponent.

Here are some examples of popular maps:

Great Plains : A large wide open map with plenty of bison but few trees and scattered gold deposits. An ideal map for raiding. One long trade route that runs down one side of the map with Lakota and Comanche villages (melee and ranged mounted warriors with cavalry tech).

Yukon : A winter map split by a river with crossings on the top and bottom. On the right side are all the players with a trade route along the river and on the other side are valuable treasures, plentiful resources, and Cree and Nookta villages (powerful sniper and powerful building destroyer / cavalry killer)

Amazonia : A tropical map cut down the middle by a large river well stocked with fish with players taking positions on opposite sides. One side has a trade route with three nodes while the other side has three villages that could be Carib, Inca, or Zapotec. Claiming the river is essential for victory.

How does it compare to Blizzard's genre defining StarCraft 2? I would say that the RTS formula isn't as refined or as well packaged as SC2. Managing four resources (food, wood, gold, XP) at various points around the map as opposed to managing 2 resources that come gift-wrapped as part of natural base expansions means that you have more things to be aware of and divide your attention. There are a lot more options and possibilities in AoE3 (civ bonuses, cards, unique units, more techs, raiding) which, on the one hand give the game tactical and strategic breadth while on the other hand make it a bit unwieldy to play by comparison. AoE3 does not have the sort of 'micro' game that SC2 has. Your military units (with the exception of your explorer) do not have any special abilities, just raw attacks with varying damage multipliers according to who is attacking what. While 'micro' in SC2 is a professional skill in and of itself that can change the entire outcome of a game the 'micro' in AoE3 is still important but more simplistic and not quite as game changing.

SC2 hits the sweet spot between simplicity, depth, and what I'll call 'potency'. Three very unique and diverse factions (Terran, Zerg, Protoss) with 15-18 unique and diverse units each has been the foundation of a lean mean and powerful RTS engine that is currently driving International E-Sports. AoE3 is not as simple and its depth is in different locations. 13 different (but often overlapping) civs with dozens of units or variations of base units shared between them feels 'muddy' when compared to SC2's 'clarity.' The end result is that AoE3's RTS engine isn't as 'potent', as in, AoE3 struggled to become an E-Sport and has never really been mainstream while SC2 defines both E-Sports and mainstream gaming.

Personally, I love AoE3. I love all the choices, I love the overlap, and while the engine is older and isn't as refined or well packaged it still runs great.

The expansions (The War Chiefs + The Asian Dynasties) added a few things to original AoE3 to mix it up a bit. The three Native American civs added (Iroquois, Sioux, Aztec) are *very* different from the European civs from the original using a completely different building, units, and card set with 'big button' technologies that get stronger the longer you wait before using them, reusable cards, and dance circles that allow you to pick an buff (free XP, stronger units, everything trains faster, etc) and become more potent the more villagers go to dance there (up to 25). The Asian civilizations (China, Japan, India) are also suitably different from the European civs utilizing, another completely different building, units, and card set with wonders that give buffs while standing, and the ability to recruit powerful mercenaries by offering a small percentage of all items gathered in exchange.

Deck sizes were increased from 20 to 25 with adjustments made to existing civs to balance things out. Spies and Mercs can be hired from a saloon building instead of only being available through card shipments. Europeans Civs can declare independence instead of advancing to the Industrial Age which turns all of their villagers into colonial militia and they can build powerful colonial units and a powerful new colonial deck but can no longer gather resources. The new 'trade monopoly' victory condition and timed 'treaty mode' (no attacking for X minutes after start) were added.

The original game and expansions each have their own campaigns which are 'ok'. Definitely not the caliber of storytelling you'd get from a Blizzard title, but still alright. The original campaign recounts the connected story lines of a family of explorers and adventurers in The New World. I played through them all a few times and to be honest I only really remember about 5% of what happened beyond just blowing up the bad guys and feeling satisfied with that.

AoE3 is a solid and sometimes complex RTS with a lot of depth to explore. I don't know what the online community is like right now but it is still a $40 game so I suspect the community is alive and well. The game is great for LAN parties and has been integrated into STEAM which makes finding other players easier. If you're into RTS (or would like to be) then keep an eye out for this title.

Greg Recommends Deus Ex : Human Revolution Director's Cut

Price : $21.99

Website : http://store.steampowered.com/app/238010/

I tend to avoid action and shooter games, but Deus Ex won me over, first from the overwhelmingly positive reviews it got and then half way through the first act when I realized I couldn't wait to come home and play some more. It doesn't have the best 'shooter' mechanics, but it is one of the very few action games out there that does stealth and a conspiracy story very well. I'm a sucker for good story line, good art, and thought provoking material and in my books Deus Ex scores very high in all three categories.

Here's a summary. It's the year 2027 and there have been several significant leaps in technology, specifically in bridging the gap between humankind and machines. You play as Adam Jensen, a newly hired security manager for Sarif Industries, a private technologies corporation that specializes in biotechnology. Things go bad rather quickly and spectacularly; and you find yourself trying to A: figure out how all of the company security has been compromised, B: stop para-military terrorists from murdering the breached research wing, and C cut through said para-military terrorists to get to your love interest. Long story short it doesn't work out well and Adam clings onto life by the skin of his teeth after a boss fight that... let's just say the odds were not stacked in his favor. It's maybe a cliche beginning, but it's executed well and serves as a solid foundation and motivation for the story that follows.

Sarif industries decides to rebuild Adam using their cutting edge prosthetic military grade technology and lets just say Adam goes from ex-swat of questionable ability to Angel of Death corporate attack dog. He's called into service early when the same para-military terrorist group breaks into a factory and takes hostages. Adam is tasked with defusing the situation while hopefully finding leads as to who these people are, what they want, and where they kidnapped the scientists to. He finds leads alright, but the people behind the attacks are well connected and cover their tracks very well by working through other powerful entities which in turn hire independent and corporate agents to do their bidding. It's big and it goes deep. This is a conspiracy story and it is a good one. Someone is working in the shadows to block your way and the deeper you go down the rabbit trail the darker the secrets and the larger and more unsettling your list of possible conspirators will become.

All that being said you have incredible freedom for how you deal with the enemies that oppose you. You technically don't have to kill anyone in the whole game, except for a some specific boss fights where you must fight to the death. Otherwise enemies can be knocked out, sneaked past, or in some deliciously dramatic encounters, diplomicized and / or intimidated into assisting you. The game does stealth well, often providing you with multiple paths to your destinations and rewarding experience for skillfully avoiding conflict and a large bonus if you complete a level without being seen by anyone.

Complimentary to the conspiracy setting and the ability to choose from violent and nonviolent approaches is the leveling mechanic. You earn experience by completing objectives and either dispatching or sneaking past enemies and when you have enough you are able to unlock one of several different augmentations that Sarif Industries hard wired into you (they just haven't fully synced as your body is technically still adapting to them). These augmentations range from increased strength / stamina to hacking ability to filtered lungs to heat vision to increased speed / jump height to 'chameleon mode' that makes you invisible for a short time. Pick which augmentations compliment your play style. If you're the run and gun shoot all the things type then pick the strength and vision upgrades. If you're the sneaky sneaky steal all the corporate secrets type then grab hacking and pheromone augs to learn all the secrets. The game rewards both sides of the spectrum with maybe a tad extra for players who take the time to follow up on side stories and enjoy hacking corporate emails.

Going back to the story for a minute. It's not just a conspiracy story, it's a story that also touches on some pretty heavy issues. What is the value of human life? Just how much power should corporations and governments exert over individuals? At what point is the cost of power and scientific advancement too high? These may sound abstract on their own but there were points in the game where I was authentically unnerved and upset by the secrets I uncovered and it was because it brought a very raw and real application to these philosophical questions. The game lets you take action on some of these issues and you can become an angel of light or a total cyberpunk jerk but there were a few times that I found the choice difficult to make and even wandered if I had made the right choice in the end. The game also does a good job of making you actually care about the characters you encounter. They have lives, hopes, dreams, fears, motivations, family, and may or may not depend on your actions to see them through to the end. These things are the hallmark of excellent story telling and with the drive for revenge, the action, and the twisting plot points I was hooked right to the end.

The art style in Deus Ex is very intentional, lots of gold on black and light accented by darkness. I don't remember the name of this style but I believe other review sites have identified its origins as Reconnaissance Italy. I think it really helps set the mood and atmosphere for the game while looking awesome! The art style compliments the story and the underlying themes within the game and acts as a subtle stylization on realism which means that the graphics will always look good even though they will become dated.

I didn't get too many theological vibes from this game. I found the light and darkness in the art style reminded me a bit of how light and darkness are opposed in the Gospel of John, but the story and overall direction seemed to be more existential than theist even though there were numerous references to the Bible and Christianity. Adam, a biblical name with special meaning that the game taps into. Seraf, a powerful angel. Artistic depictions of angels and demons spread throughout. The game borrows themes from Christianity but seems content to leave any concept of God (especially a Christian understanding of God) out of it. Different characters try to play god or uplift humanity to become gods, even Adam Jensen gets to play god if he so chooses and other characters will regard him as an angel of death or an angel of light depending on his actions. There is lots of 'working in the dark to serve the light' which is most definitely not Christian but makes for a great thriller story nonetheless. The game seems to borrow overtones from religion and theology which makes it interesting but not enough to be religious or theological and, refreshingly, doesn't try to bash religion like other games.

What Deus Ex does well it does really well, but it is not a perfect game. The art style is great but graphics feel truncated if you take a close look at some of the textures and details, probably so that it could run on the XBox 360. Some characters look great, others, especially the NPCs that aren't characters you can talk to have that glazed over look when they walk around and repetitive 'same voice actor' feel to them. Anyone who played the original Deus Ex will immediately notice that the areas and maps are a lot smaller than the original, which makes sense when you consider the exponential bloat that modern day graphics technology puts upon the size requirements of any game. A lot of people really didn't like the boss fights because they didn't allow for the same sort of 'multiple alternative routes' game play that the rest of the game does well but the 'Director's Cut Edition' addresses this to some extent. FPS players will probably be underwhelmed by the actual 'shooting things' aspect of the game as the weapon selection isn't spectacular and the shooting mechanics aren't on the same level as a modern day Call of Duty title. It's more of a role playing game that allows you to shoot things rather than a shooter that allows you to role play. Then there is the ending... I won't spoil it, but lets just say I appreciated the journey more than the destination. The destination was worth the journey, make no mistake, and I understand why they ended it the way that they did, but I just expected more given the gravity of everything that brought us to that point and what was at stake now that all the cards were on the table.

As already stated, what Deus Ex Human Revolution does well it does really well. If you enjoy games that do stealth well and if you enjoy a good story then I highly recommend Deus Ex: Human Revolution. In my mind it stands head and shoulders above other 2011 titles.

Greg Recommends Evil Genius

Price: $10.99

Website: http://store.steampowered.com/app/3720/

Another old game with stylized graphics, Evil Genius hails from Rebellion publishers 2004. It's a stylish evil genius simulator that is not for everyone but still high on my recommendation list. If the idea of plotting out a master plan to take over the world and setting up cunning traps to dispose of nosey do-gooders brings a smile to your face and you find yourself tapping your fingers together or thinking about your favorite spy thriller then this game is for you.

Evil Genius is a simulation game in which you are in control a secret base on an unnamed island of indeterminate location and you enact your will to dominate all humankind through your henchmen and an army of disposable minions. On the island you command your minions by creating various job orders (place item here, build room there, render that private investigator unconscious and lock up in the nearest empty cell) and they will scramble to go your bidding. Once you have a control centre you can also send minions and henchmen abroad to 'generate income' and go on evil missions to nab special items, special people, or just to spite the world security forces that oppose you. Every mission you run nets you 'notoriety' (Evil Genius street cred) which unlocks new options while also netting you 'heat' which brings the forces of justice to your door. If the forces of justice kill your avatar the game is over. If you are clever, patient, and play your cards right you are on the path to toppling the governments of the world and becoming the supreme ruler of all humankind.

You will spend most of your time in and around your base. New rooms are created by click and dragging 'Dungeon Keeper' style and your yellow clad construction minions will grab briefcases of gold bullion from your treasury, run over to the island's helipad or dock and emerge with armfuls of dynamite to blast the room out of the solid rock of your hidden mountain home. Every type of room can be used for specific purposes and can contain specific items (barracks is for minions to sleep, armoury can hold weapon rocks and prison cells, control centre can hold your electronics, etc.) You start out with just the basics, but by the middle and late game you'll have access to suitably advanced and nefarious items to deck out your base, improve your minions, and deal with intruders.

Planning out your base is the first type of fun this game offers. Making sure that your minions can replenish their stats, maintaining an efficient work flow, and keeping sensitive equipment and personal away from unwelcome eyes should inform how you layout your base.

Deciding which types of minions to train up and how many to keep on hand is part of this as well. You start out with yellow clad construction workers but there are 13 different minion types, each with its own uses and abilities, and knowing how to manage them is an important key to success. Military minions (guards, mercenaries, snipers, martial artists) can use guns (except for the martial artists), hold up quite well in close combat, and 'earn income' on the world map faster. Social minions (valets, spin doctors, ambassadors, and playboys) can confuse and distract unwelcome guests and keep your heat down on the world map. Scientific minions (technicians, scientists, biologists, quantum physicists) are necessary for researching new rooms and items and technicians can repair damaged equipment.

Henchmen are your elite lieutenants that you can directly control via good old fashion select and right click. They don't muddy their hands with the grunt work of moving crates or building things, but they do put up an incredible fight and have unique abilities that can make them invaluable in a fight or especially strategic for keeping your minions on task at different points in your base. You only start out with one but as you advance in the echelons of evilness you will be able to hire more henchmen from all corners of the globe. They are invaluable in a fight and great for missions abroad but they're not invincible. A squad of soldiers is often enough to take down one or two lone henchmen, thankfully being reduced to 0 health only knocks them out for a while and does not kill them. The exception to this is if they are killed by a super agent 3 times, then they are gone forever.

Despite being an unnamed island of indeterminate location your home attracts all manner of unwanted guests. Tourists, Private investigators, secret agents, and (if you make someone angry) special forces. Dealing with these unwanted guests is the second type of fun Evil Genius has to offer. You can just kill them if you like, but the nation they came from will wonder where they went and may send a larger force to investigate their whereabouts. If they escape with evidence of your wrongdoings though... (photographs of body bags, stolen loot, advanced technology, etc) then you can be sure that you will have attracted the wrong sort of attention. If they complete their mission and leave without seeing anything suspicious though your heat will drop and you will only have to contend with annoying tourists.

You can capture unwanted guests (and random minions) and throw them in the cells. Once captured they can be interrogated, executed, or experimented upon using a variety of devices to hilarious effect. Some devices conveniently brain wash your captives (literally) so they can't remember what happened to them. The experiment / interrogation animations (and sounds) are *very* amusing and suitably evil in a James Bond / Dr. Evil kind of way.

But for the more refined Evil Geniuses simply killing or beating up unwelcome guests isn't enough, no... a truly villainous genius will set up elaborate traps to gas, roast, toast, flatten, shock, slice, bounce, blow up, exhaust, confuse, and / or kill enemies once triggered. Trap components can be linked together so that once someone sets off a trigger, any number of components will activate and the fun begins. If an enemy is hit by multiple trap components in rapid succession you will earn 'trap combos' which are rewarded by giving you extra money.

Of course there is another way of dealing with annoying agents and tourists... set up a tropical vacation site to waste their time until they have to leave. They can stay in hotel rooms, chat it up with your social minions, disco dance, and hang out in the lounge. If they have enough fun they will forget about their missions and report back that they couldn't find any evidence of an evil base on that island.

Then there are the Super Agents... Dealing with Super Agents, the parodies of famous 60's secret agents, can be annoying (or lots of fun) until you discover their weakness and exploit it to get rid of them permanently. Figures like Marianna Momba, Jet Chan, Katerina Frostinova, Dirk Masters, and John Steele can not be killed and will cause trouble for you unless otherwise occupied by constant 'experimentation' (preferably with the giant mixing bowl as this lasts the longest). Unlocking the secret to their demises is a very satisfying (and entertaining) accomplishment.

The third type of fun comes from the style of the game. The graphics are stylized to be cartoony and a little wacky but everything from the aforementioned graphics to the music to the menus, minions, characters, fonts, mission texts, environments, missiles, and items scream 60's spy thriller on all the right channels. I mean, even the save / load menu has synchronized swimming scuba diving minions and the graphics settings menu has an agent sneaking around and then gets chased by mind controlled monkeys all to the sound of some swinging jazz... what other game puts this level of style into their games? It's hard to imagine a better setting or style for an evil genius sim. I found it quite delightful.

The mission texts are also loads of fun. Attaching signal emitters to schools of fish to overwhelm coastal sonar detection, using an earthquake generator to demolish the home of country music, scouring the letters of ancient tablets, and stealing The Eiffel Tower and The Ark of the Covenant are just a few things you can do.

Where Evil Genius may not be for everyone is that you tend to do an awful lot of waiting. I didn't mind this so much because I enjoy planning things out in advance and making my moves slowly and strategically. Other people may just get bored. Money can take a while to generate so you'll be waiting for that. Most of the really cool things are unlocked once you have acquired enough notoriety which means missions that amount to more waiting mixed with luck. Research can also take a long time, especially if your science minions get distracted and decide to abandon their projects for a visit to the staff room for a few games of ping pong or a nap before returning to pick their work up off the floor. Then there is the necessary cleanup and repair that needs to happen when angry soldiers or Super Agents start shooting up the place. For a patient or diabolical soul the waiting is just part of the simulation and well worth it in the end.

Greg Recommends Startopia

Price: $5.99
Website: https://www.gog.com/game/startopia

Startopia was a phenomenal game for its time (2001) and aside from some initial hiccups at setup it is still a really good game fifteen years later! It was created by the same folks who gave us Populous 3 and Dungeon Keeper 2 so be prepared for innovation, quality, and quirkiness in this classic space station / amusement park / gardening management sim.

Not bad for 2001 graphics.

Startopia puts you in the unique position of a space station administrator tasked with turning a derelict space station into a profitable hub of business and pleasure. You are provided with basic structures, some scuzzer bots, and a sum of energy (money) to get started and it's off to the races! Your first goal will be to attract aliens to land at your portion of the station and get them to pay you for things that they need or want. In the beginning of the game this usually means offering basic food, sanitation, lodging, health, and maybe a love nest or some simple shops. The more services and higher quality of those services, the more aliens will land and if they leave happy the higher your popularity will be. As you start to earn a profit you can look at investing in a variety of options to gain the advantage over your rivals ranging from factories to disco/rave pits to communication relays to spiritual retreat centers to advanced medical care and beyond. The more you grow the more options you unlock and the more things that could go wrong. The progression isn't perfect, but it is fun.

The outside of your space station. The glass enclosures are sections of the biodeck,
below is the pleasure deck and at the bottom is the utilities deck.

The map in Startopia is unique in that it is a spinning doughnut shaped space station partitioned 'horizontally' into 3 decks. The lower utility deck is where all the industry occurs, the middle 'pleasure deck' is where your guests can shop, have fun, and enjoy luxury living while the upper 'bio deck' is sculpted to resemble a 'Halo type' planet surface for aliens to 'get some fresh air' and enjoy reconnecting with nature. The space station is further partitioned 'vertically' by enormous blast doors that can be unlocked once you pay the required amount of energy to repair the adjoining section.

The style of map is sci-fi genius, tactically unique and interesting (as much as it needs to be for this game). There is only so much room on the space station and you will eventually grow to the point where you are rubbing shoulders with your rivals. More on this later. What might throw new players is that gravity pushes everything to the outer edge of the doughnut structure of the map and so once you unlock enough sections you realize that everything appears to be moving uphill in both directions and that aliens (and buildings) far away from the camera look like they could tumble down the slope.

The Utilities Deck

The first bit of fun is figuring the system out for the first time through the guided campaign. You're AI assistant 'VAL' (a sarcastic parody on Space Odyssey's 'HAL') leads you through nine scenarios each of which focus on a specific aspect of the game. In the first level you learn the basics. Some buildings come as is and you just place them on the ground. Other buildings require you to set a floor plan and then decide which other pieces to include and where to put them inside the building. If the buildings / furniture placed were in your inventory then scuzzer droids will grab the crates (because everything gets packed into crates) and unpack them. If they were not in your inventory then you use energy to make them materialize which is convenient but expensive. Aliens need food, sanitation, sleep, health, social, and fun. The first alien types (Gruelian Salthogs, Grays, and Grekka Targ) are fairly simple and tend to get along with cheaper accommodations even if their tastes differ on a few points. Soon you'll have a handful of aliens aboard paying you energy credits for meals, beds, and basic shops and you will feel like a benevolent disembodied observer looking upon the works of your hands.

The second bit of fun is finding ways to advance beyond your humble beginnings. The campaign does a good job of introducing new concepts and new ways of advancing such as producing your own buildings / furniture / droids with factories, or trading with different species, or growing plants to harvest on the boi-deck, or research, each with its own pros and cons. Manufacturing goods is cheaper than materializing them but it takes longer, and you can only manufacture goods that you know how to make. Researching new buildings and products takes a lot of time and setting up research facilities can be very expensive while simply purchasing a needed item from a trader, even at a high price, may be a lot better in the short term. You have to decide how to proceed and which aliens to hire onto your staff as each alien type provides a different function and each specific alien has its own stats to consider (competence, loyalty, and dedication). Unlocking new buildings and items to attract more aliens and make your station look awesome or become more efficient will net you a larger income and hopefully an edge over the competition.

Lots of aliens enjoy the bio deck.

The third, and largest bit of fun (in my humble opinion), is just watching everything. The developers put love and care into the visuals and it is fun to just watch everything happen. Aliens going this way and that way, talking, working, dancing. lounging. Scuzzer bots zooming this way and that to clean or repair or recharge or move crates. The graphics are amazing for 2001 polygon technology and placing plants and decorations strategically still makes the game look pretty good even by today's standards. The bio-deck is fully customizable allowing you to adjust elevation, water level, heat, and humidity. The game also rewards you for watching closely as you can earn extra credits by manually warping trash into a recycler and you can catch non-staff aliens fraudulently using facilities or terrorist aliens planting bombs and so alert your security staff accordingly before they do too much damage. (you can build security systems to flag and arrest or kill hostiles so you don't *always* have to be on the lookout.)

The fourth bit of fun is the intrinsic humor infused into this game. Your in-game assistant and campaign narrator is a sarcastic dry-wit AI who is full of advice that draws on stereotypes, pop references, and enjoys humorously insulting and complimenting you often doing both at the same time. The game is full of little touches that give it humorous style, from the campy looking terrorist space man conspicuously 'sneaking' to the scuzzer bot charging stations that comically flip robots upside down to screw a loose bolt into their bottoms, to the dubious trader "Arona" finding various ways to try convincing you to buy his overpriced (and quite possibly stolen) goods. Their is also the way aliens have their 'love' desire met, by going to a 'Love Nest', standing before a 'Siren' type alien, and allowing him / her to shower glowy lights and hearts down upon them. Don't worry, alien love is very child friendly, rated 'E' for everyone.

The Pleasure Deck

Eventually your little money making paradise in space will run into an opponent (assuming that you're playing with AI or a friend). The station is only so big and it is only a matter of time before you unlock a section adjacent to another administrator. Assuming the competition doesn't go bankrupt due to your ruthless efficiency at providing better services at less cost to yourself you can look forward to some firefights that will leave buildings in fiery ruins and send non-combatants running for their lives. If you can get a security scuzzer bot to the other side of an opponent's section of the station it can hack the blast doors and cut the section off from your opponent and rewiring which energy source it runs on thus making it officially yours and allowing you to build there unless your opponent takes it back. The combat mechanics are not very interesting, but they serve well enough for a non-combat game. Basically just hire all of the big beefy combat loving aliens you can, order a scuzzer bot to hack the controls in enemy territory, and start flagging which enemies you want your mob of laser shooting aliens to target first. Once you take out all of your competitions' energy collectors they are knocked out of the game.

A rogue Grey has been caught using medical equipment at your expense. He is being escorted off the station.

There is little strategy involved in combat and it is probably the least fun element of the game. All of the strategy in the game is in netting a higher income, reducing your costs, and making things more efficient. Buying low and selling high with trade ships, realizing that you can make an extra 50e per medical examination if you can pick up medical supplies cheap from the Grey traders, or even better, grow them yourself in the bio-bay. It's using research to unlock strategic technologies so that you can build things yourself instead of playing a game of chance with which trader will show up next and then paying through the nose to get what you need once it finally becomes available for purchase. It's building a tourist trap so attractive and so luxurious that the filthy rich Gem Slug race not only come to spend money but also stay long enough to leave valuable "turdite" on the floor which offers a high energy return rate with the recycler. It's making an efficient security system that can detect saboteurs before things blow up and arrest criminals before they start pretending to be staff and start costing you money (you can also make money by rehabilitating said criminals). Under the sci-fi cutesy ant-colony exterior (which is a good exterior, make no mistake) it's all about efficiency.

Startopia is fun but it's not perfect. The management tools aren't very maneuverable, the diplomacy settings are confusing, and navigating the staff bar becomes time consuming and unwieldy by the end of the game. There is no opportunity for interaction of any type between players except for sending your mob of laser gun wielding staff to do 'aggressive negotiations'. The game isn't very challenging once you know what you're doing, and events like plague ships, asteroid showers, or space beetle invasions are interesting the first few times they happen, but ultimately do little to shake up the underlying efficiency game. I also feel that there could have been a lot of potential for more 'extra' aesthetic items as well as fostering negative reactions among differing alien species beyond just a sad or angry face. But hey, the game was made back in the distance digital the bronze age of 2001 by a small team, so I can forgive Startopia for not being perfect.

What it does do well is simulation and atmosphere. The various game systems (trade, manufacturing, research, medical, hiring staff, alien needs / wants, etc) blend together very well and the graphics are as good as early 2000's graphics get. Part Deep Space 9, part Rollercoaster Tycoon, part Tropico, and part monopoly the game is full of heart and a must for gamers who can appreciate gentle paced sci-fi or management games in general, or even just games where you get to peacefully build cool things.

Go pick it up for dirt cheap at https://www.gog.com/game/startopia.