Retro Rehash - Star Wolves: Reading Between the Lines

Isn't space cool?  It's all dark and twinkly at the same time.  Filled with stars, nebulas, comets and a whole plethora of totally radical stuff.  Of course, none of these things are as totally wonder bar as the spaceships. Now they're COOL.  Zipping around all fast and gun happy.  Come to think of it, I don't think I've ever been in space with solely peaceful intentions. There's always something that  needs pew pewing into oblivion. Whether that be evil pirates, corrupt corporations or some poor sod who happened to have cargo destined for my secret base.  It really doesn't bode well for the inhabitants of the galaxy that we're already blowing stuff up before we even get out there.

   
So, Star Wolves, what is there to say?  It's set in space for one.  Lots of space everywhere, can't get enough.  Secondly it's a mish mash of the RTS and RPG genres, so imagine Homeworld crossed with KOTOR's skills development, and lastly, it's Russian.  That part is very important to remember as it's the only way to excuse the game's most diabolical lapse. But we'll get to that. Developed by X-bow Software and published by 1C Company the setting is a fairly unoriginal one.  Space has been colonised, there's a human empire and some less than reputable corporations banging about... Oh and there are aliens but they show up later.  You play as a self-titled mercenary leading a rag-tag band of heroes through the perils of the universe, making money and claiming booty from your enemies cold wreckage.  And slowly but surely you're pulled into the machinations of just about every major player in the galaxy, all thanks to your incredible ability at wasting people in hard vacuum.  Have you noticed no one is ever looking for the best diplomat or fry cook, it's always with the killing?  More for our intergalactic neighbours to be worried about I suppose.

            

Now then, this might all seem a little dull, especially when you throw in the Ruski factor.  That being the most embarrassing voice acting known to man.  It's god-awful and single-handedly relegates the story to a very hazy plot that you follow with varying degrees of understanding.  This is then compounded by a less than (inter)stellar translation that, well, at times inflicts genuine suffering on the player.  A five year old dyslexic could have done a better job.   Understandably therefore, you might be wondering why you'd ever want to play what sounds like the gaming equivalent of an extinction level event.  To that, I offer the following.

                  

"3,2,1, FIRE!!

Star Wolves has one very big plus in it's corner, it's pretty.  True, space games tend to age more gracefully than your average workaday shooter, but a few times I was genuinely impressed with the lighting effects as a stars rays illuminated a remote space station, or I zoomed in on a gun ship as it strafed an enemy frigate.  It's one of those games that is a pleasure to look at and it's genuinely fun to mess around with the camera in pursuit of that ideal screenshot.  In a similar vein each of the ships you can buy to accentuate your force has a distinct feel.  The models offer a diversity and variation in design that offers an eclectic selection for your little armada.  Some are excellent dogfighters, fast and packing a wallop in the laser/gun department, while others are cumbersome gunships, laden down with station killing missiles and relying on cover to get the job done.  Of equal note is the soundtrack, a mashing blend of techno rock and roll that at times reminded me of the original Starcraft.  It works to smooth out the rough edges of the game, presenting another clear high production value that is lacking in the writing.  I could just imagine slamming home my cassette, pulling down the roof of my hypothetical sports car and racing off down the A1, the police in hot pursuit as the booming track taunted my would be jailers.  Now that would be fine.

                        

In a stag party, she's the man.

The choice of vessel tallies well with the myriad characters who join your mercenary band.  I found their personas kind of boring to be honest and took to giving them their own back stories and dubious accolades. For instance, resident Imperial fighter jock Viper became the lesbian lover double crossed by her heart of hearts in pursuit of the universes biggest taco.  Interestingly, I feel that the writing took a turn for the better under my guidance.  Back on point you want to choose the right mixture of character abilities and accordingly, ships, to make your little band work.  I lost a lot of money figuring this out and even now make sure the Star Wolf, which accompanies you on every mission as your carrier, has a couple of spares to hand. The Star Wolf is your home away from home and can be loaded out with bigger and better guns, shields arrays and engines.  My main complaint would be that the outward appearance of the old garbage scow never changes; the gun emplacements do but there's no other outward signs of customisation.  So boooo to that.  What the Wolf is however, is a damage sponge.  With some hefty armour and shield improvements it can reap the freaking whirlwind, but never forget can be quickly cut to pieces without fighter support.  

         

The game itself handles a little sluggishly from time to time, with drops in frame rate occurring at odd moments and commands taking that half second longer to be processed.  It's a bit of a ball ache, disrupting the rhythm of combat and accounting for a good few losses on my part.  Glitches from crashing to desktop and freezing have been reported by others, but I never had a problem even if it didn't run with the efficiency of a German rail system. Other than that the games controls are simple to learn and don't put a great  demand on your time; I might even call them intuitive to a degree, although they surely took some pointers from Homeworld and Nexus: The Jupiter Incident.  Nothing wrong with emulating the greats, mind you.

               

In Retro Rehashespect (it's a thing, trust me) when I look at Star Wolves, I see a flawed but entertaining foray into the world of space strategy.  It's never going to win any awards, being far too messy in places to barely stave off sniggers and pointing at the annual sci-fi gaming palooza, but like the fat, sensitive kid at school still has plenty to offer.  It's mechanics are sound and result in some exciting dog fights, while balancing out your squadron takes actual precision and skill.  You can't make every pilot an expert in laser warfare, otherwise who is going to fix your ship in the heat of battle?  This nuance saves Star Wolves from a brutal execution in front of the parade ground, for where it fails singularly as a narrative tale, it excels as a thinking mans game.  Impressive considering how it seems to have been written by a drunken illiterate on sabbatical from his local opium den.  So, come for the painful hilarity and stay for the complexity would be my advice.  Also, whatever you do, don't buy Star Wolves 2.  But that's another story.

Goodnight.

Retro Rehash - Blitzkrieg

One of the first things to strike me about Blitzkrieg was it's old school feel. This is in no way a negative point, if anything it endeared me to Nivial Interactive's creation faster than any fancy gimmick or graphics ever could. I still prefer the Risk style campaign maps from the original Total War games for god sake. Much of the draw came from the games relative simplicity.  Sure you fight your way through multiple campaigns and battles but there's nothing else gumming up the works. For such an example of mastication failure I point you to the Men of War series, whose attempts at character guided gameplay are woeful in the extreme. Admittedly this isn't helped by some of the worst voice acting ever committed to audio, but it feels listless all the same. Blitzkrieg gives you the units, the locales and the enemy. The rest is up to you and it's extremely
freeing.

Preparation for battle.

From the campaign screen you're presented with the theatre of combat and the missions available in that area. Many are purely optional but grant you special bonuses which can be pretty handy come the historical engagements. From better artillery pieces to heavier armoured units they can give you the edge you need to reach the next campaign area, whether that be North Africa, the fields of Europe or the vast empty reaches of the Eastern Front. At the beginning of each battle you select your unit composition and move out, perhaps accentuated by extra forces on certain maps but with the core of your army held together by your elite units. These can  gain promotions and as such become far more effective on the battlefield.  By the end of the Allied campaign my artillery had become a force for mass destruction, raising enemy held positions like wrathful and very accurate gods.

Given that there is no resource gathering in Blitzkrieg you have to rely on your own strategic savvy to preserve any operation.  Charging headlong at enemy defences will usually result in a slaughter as hidden anti tank guns and enemy trenches wreak havoc with your forces.  This is where artillery and air power become key for both the spotting and removal of opposition units. From calling in Heinkel bombers to flatten an area to recon planes to spot for your field pieces the use of air power cannot be underestimated.  If anything these two forces in conjunction can win entire battles for you, your tanks and infantry moving into enemy positions all but unopposed.  This is sometimes a little irksome as engagements can devolve into high explosive slanging matches, so it's important to choose your moments to commit your ground troops, usually after a heavy bombardment has exposed a weakness in the enemy line.  Anything else is tantamount to suicide.  Be smart people.

One of the coolest additions Blitzkrieg brings to the table is the ability to lay down defences such as mines, tank traps and trenches to frustrate your opponent. Given that almost everything from bridges to forests are destructible this comes in handy when you need to secure a flank against a counterattack in a decimated area. There's nothing like watching enemy armour flounder against your AT guns and infantry trenches before launching your own into the fray. One of the most important realisations I have had when it comes to Blitzkrieg however, is that it is a game which relies heavily on you to take the reins. It's very easy to dig in and lob shells across the map rather than taking the fight to the enemies front door. Some of this is the failure of the game itself, with ground units feeling too fragile to commit for fear of losing them for no tangible gain. I know I wouldn't attack a village before softening it up with extreme levels of ordinance, but it's a bit frustrating at times when the defenders hold a clear and unexplained advantage. A few times having engaged enemy tanks in the open with my own I've been baffled by the slaughter that has ensued, despite the relative equality or superiority of my own armour. It seems that in trying to make you think your way through problems the designers might have upped the difficulty a little too far, relegating some units to paper tigers in all but name.

Meet the gun line.

Now moving onto more technical issues, hailing from back in 2003 Blitzkrieg's isometric terrain and graphics stand up under modern scrutiny surprisingly well, the shifting weather system being of particular note. There's nothing more inconvenient than a sandstorm invading the map just as your forces advance to evict an enemy anti tank position. The explosions and flashes of guns are credible if not all defining, the explosive crump of artillery being my personal favourite amongst the game's 350 units. It should be noted that not all of these are useful, with infantry demonstrating themselves suited to a defensive role only, although their guns sound convincing even if their effects are negligible.

So what have we learned class? Firstly, that Blitzkrieg requires you to use your noggin. If you don't you'll find yourself frustrated and very, very dead. Secondly, the AI is a little passive but holds a massive advantage in defence. You'll find that some of these advantages shift to you when in the same position, but that the computer is far more effective at employing ground units to punish your lines than you are. I have to say that while this can be annoying it does offer up a real challenge and so should be forgiven in the spirit of cerebral stimulation. And lastly, it's fun, really fun, if you can accept the finite resources and capabilities you're given and use them to out think the enemy. It's particularly rewarding come missions end if you're still in possession of your core units while the German or Allied armour smolders in the background. Blitzkrieg is smart gaming if you want it to be, so give it a go and if it's not for you, there's always Halo Wars.

Godhood, Sure Ain't All It's Cracked Up To Be

 Remember how when you were a kid you'd smush ants by the dozen, pull the wings off flies and generally demonstrate sociopath like tendencies which disturbed your parents no end? Well, thankfully the game industry sure does, providing us with a never ending stream of fantastical ways to kill, maim and otherwise destroy our way across a plethora of worlds, time periods and fantastical settings. And arguably the greatest genre for those daemons of the insect world is the RTS, where one can literally play god. Bringing entire continents to heel, raising cities and courting the death of thousands at a whim they really allow us to play with our inner despot. You'll never find Democracy: The Game sitting on your shelf, I can tell you that much (I have recently learned there is a game called Democracy, I stand chastened). Now, Black and White sought to open up the idea of simple god hood, of good and evil. It was all very moral and didn't reward the player all that well if he or she were more devilishly inclined. In Black and White Two the record has been set straight, you can be evil yet still build a beautiful city or be good and indulge in a little murder and pillage. It is an extremely well designed piece of software. That does not mean however, that it is a good game.

Point and click, damn being a soldier is easy.

 You see Black and White has always had the habit of promising more than it can deliver. The freedom exalted so much in the original never really materialised in my view.  Don't get me wrong it was an interesting premise but it wasn't as revolutionary as it was made out to be. Quite frankly I found it a little dull, call me a philistine, but it just didn't grab me by the throat and make me take notice. Much of that I felt was due to a singular lack of control, that my godliness was dependent too much on simple influence. I'm a god after all, surely I have the right to choose exactly how much I want to interfere with the little ants I call worshippers. So in Black and White 2 this was tweaked somewhat, now you can make your followers into the conversion war machine you've always wanted. An unstoppable hoard chanting your name and burning the heretics! But there is one slight problem in all of this rabble rousing. The game mechanics themselves. They're shit.

I was going to come up with a long winded and exceptional metaphor to fully help you comprehend how bad they are, but then I thought plain English did the job better. From lacking a drag selection function to having no upgrade system the entire set up feels flawed. If anything it feels like an RTS's for dummies. This is justified by your being a god, not a general on the battlefield like say, in Medieval Total War. Instead it just comes across as amateurish, the hefty number of units you can command becoming a burden as you have to select them one at a time. There is just too much micro management with too few controls to do the job. This is then compounded by an inferior AI that behaves in a manner one would expect from the original Age of Empires, for when a city or town is defended by a god a couple of units and a catapult really ain't going to cut it. There is no feeling that you can lose so the game lacks any sense of gravitas. It puts paid to the grand ideal of god hood by making it into a chore that has to be done, not a desperate struggle for ascension.

Impressive?  Imagine building dozens.  I was a weary god by the end of it all. 

If you're a more peaceable sort you can convert through awing the surrounding settlements with your mighty city building. I actually quite enjoyed this facet of the game, for there are plenty of different buildings to construct and how you decide to build your city has an effect on the happiness of your people. Are you going to build them beautiful villas or squalid huts, enough of which together will form depressing slums. Also, there's nothing like a good torture pit to vent your frustrations, it's all very satisfying. It can however become a little much, your godly abilities being judged on how much your people like that new temple you just built, rather than how much they worship you in it. Also, taking over the map through conversion alone is a ball ache and becomes repetitive all too quickly, forcing you to rely on your men at arms. I imagine this was the point, to force you to choose exactly how dedicated you are to one path or another, but the game seems intent on pushing you into the grey area and punishing you for making a definite choice.

So pretty, but not much else besides.

The devil is in the details, for while Lionhead Studios did a fair job with the graphical presentation, it is pretty to be sure, they failed miserably in the menu design department. It's little niggling things like having to scroll through each building to find what you want or having to construct each building in turn, it's all a bit irritating, especially when you're building the thousandth house. I have to say that that the only menu attachments I found genuinely effective were those relating to your creature, your avatar on earth. You can select him to be a builder one moment or a warrior the next, with the warning that leaving him under these commands for too long will turn him into a mindless automaton. It's perhaps the one facet of the game were the simplicity of it actually enhances the experience, instead of feeling like the Sims Do Godhood. It just feels patronising at times, that in trying to make the game accessible Lionhead also made it repetitive and stupid.

  So to conclude, Black and White 2 is not a seminal moment in gaming history. It's too casual and lacks true depth, for while it may entertain on a basic, pick up and play level, it doesn't immerse one in what it is to be a god. At the most it's an RTS with a few gimmicks. I will admit that the moral system is effectively developed, however the game mechanics, the two facets of war or awe don't mesh as well as they should. You can't play this game as a do-gooder because it becomes plain dull, while the combat mechanics are none existent. There's no strategy other than who has more men, materials, or in the players case, godly abilities. Excellent for defence, but poor at range. You can't even aim properly, something I find wholly unforgivable. So if you'd like a casual outing as a micro managing deity with all the abilities of a city foreman, be my guest. Otherwise chuck it in a draw and play a proper RTS, as this sure ain't it.