A Quick Look At ...

Stronghold - US Gold RRP œ34.99

This game was released in 1993 and was compared, at the time, to
Civilization, Powermonger and Castles, so if you enjoy
'Kingdom Simulator' games of that type, Stronghold would be worth
a look, especially as it can now be picked up much cheaper than
the original RRP. At the start of the game, you are presented with
an empty land ... empty of buildings and people, that is, it just
contains hills, rivers, mountains and other natural features. The
first thing you must do is create 5 characters (human, elf, dwarf
etc, each with their own class characteristics) and place the
castle of the first one, who will be your leader. The other
characters also set up castles near by and soon their respective
populations will start to grow. These people will be the same
character class as their leader.  A process of expansion then
takes place. Food must be provided, and buildings constructed.

The game win conditions vary according to the alignment of your
leader. Chaotic and Evil leaders must destroy all other
strongholds on the map. Lawful and Neutral leaders must become
Emperor, either by building large cities or destroying the
baddies. Battles are played in 3D mode and care must be taken to
remember the characteristics of the people you are fighting, brute
force isn't always the best way, sometimes magic can be more
effective, but at other times, your enemies may be immune to
magic.

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Afterlife - LucasArts RRP œ34.99

@~See also the article in the Articles section

This CD-based strategy game is the ultimate god-game since, in it,
you have to manage both Heaven and Hell. A tall order ... luckily
you have two experts on hand to give advice, a demon who is an
expert on Hell and an angel who is the heavenly equivalent. Each
domain is shown as a flat expanse of mostly empty land to start,
divided by rivers of water for Heaven and rivers of lava for
Hell.  As in SimCity et al, you have to designate areas for
particular purposes. In SimCity the choice was between commercial,
housing and industrial; in Afterlife there are different areas for
different vices and virtues. As in SimCity these are linked by
roads and souls arrive via gates which you also have to set up.
You also need a means to channel them into the hereafter or allow
them to be reincarnated on the nearby planet and this transfer
happens via Karma stations. You can even track individual souls,
find out their life history and check up on them at intervals.

As in other god-games there are specialised buildings too. In
Afterlife these cover such purposes as training areas for souls to
turn them into angels or demons, banks and ports. There are also
disasters ... Your ultimate aim is to keep all the souls in Heaven
happy and those in Hell as miserable as ... erm ... sin.

                                                  Sue
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