Space Empires 2 - Malfador Machinations
              (Strategy game on Disk 865)

          Reviewed by James Judge on a 486sx

OK, then, what you need to run this game is a 286 or above
with Windows 3.1, VGA graphics and 2 megs of memory. The
registration costs $25 (including postage and packing) and
for an extra $5 you get a strategy and hints guide.

The aim of the game is to take your race, make them
procreate, build some space ships and then kill all enemies,
expanding our empire until you have complete control of the
galaxy. Sounds all right, but how does it play?

Well, the game is designed to be played by one to four people
(preferably more than one) against a number of computer
opponents and neutral sides (also run by the computer). You
start the game off in a randomly generated universe which is
split into galaxies and each galaxy is split into quadrants,
with the quadrants being the basic playing area of the whole
game.  You can move between quadrants but to move between
galaxies and solar systems, you need the use of warp gates
(points in space where space is twisted... ?!?).

The game is split into turns where you can control your
ships, populate planets or build new ships, carry out combat
or destroy some suns.

The basic requirement for a successful Empire is a large
population as this gives you money which will then allow you
to build new ships to populate larger parts of the game world
or to attack your enemies.

And that, basically, is all there is to the game - no complex
military or trading options, little in the way of political
intrigue and the majority of the game time is spent moving
your ships around, trying to obtain tactical advantages.


The first thing that struck me about the game was the
graphics. I don't expect shareware games to look very good -
but most of the ones which I have liked, played and enjoyed
over the past couple of years have had at least a couple of
redeeming features in the sonic or looks area. This game has
none. There is no sound and the graphics are the barest of
the bare - just there to get a job done and nothing else.

The second thing that struck me was the complexity of doing
the simplest thing. It took me about an hour to figure out
how to build a ship that actually moved, and even that was
partly due to luck. The reason for this was because of the
very poor manual. Well, to tell the truth there was no manual
- just a help section which described what everything did,
but not why you should do it. Also there was no tutorial on
how to build ships or gain the first few steps into
successful Empiredom which left me with a complete feeling of
not knowing what to do, and when I was actually doing
something I didn't know why I was doing it. Most strategy
games that I've played have concentrated on giving the
player, in the manual or help section in the actual program,
as much info as possible on everything in the game, as well
as some brief hints about what the player should be doing it
and WHY. This then gives even the most idiotic player
something upon which to base their decisions upon, instead of
jut gut feeling and guess work.

The combat between ships is also handled poorly where you
have twenty turns to win or the combat is suspended, with the
attacker retreating. There is little room for actual tactics
and unless you've had the foresight to build specific types
of ship then you'll be in a very bad position when it comes
to combat.

And that, basically, is all there is to the game - populate,
get some money, build some ships and kill. I haven't spent
too long on the game as I found it very annoying and disliked
all aspects of the game. The idea is sound and the
implementation of these ideas or functional, but it has
nothing beyond these basics. Maybe if I was playing against
some human opponents, I would have enjoyed the game better -
but I don't think so.

In all I think it was a brave attempt at a style of game that
isn't widely covered in the shareware sector. But, even given
that, the game just doesn't cut the mustard as it provides
the player with very little meat to an otherwise basic "I've
got a bigger ship than you have" game.

Registration brings a number of new ships that you can build
as well as 16 new technology levels, cloaking devices etc.
which may add to the depth of the game, but what I've seen
the basic skeleton of the game is nothing to get excited
about, so I wouldn't spend my money on registering if I were
you.

Avoid unless you really must play all shareware games...


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