DEADLOCKED...
A Review of Deadlock : Planetary Conquest
by Mark W. Frantz
In the near distant future (allright, its pretty darn distant), six different races struggle for control of a single planet, Gallius IV, each for their own reasons. And Gallius IV is vitally important to all of their plans. You have been placed as head of your race's colonization effort. It's your job to build your colony, expand into other territories, and ultimately win the war against the other five races and gain control of Gallius IV and cement your race's as well as your own place in history.
That's the premise of Deadlock, Accolade's new strategy game. An intriguing plot, but it's the game play that sells games, and this game is no different. But unlike some games that have wonderful plots and horrible game play, Deadlock is actually quite an excellent game.
The graphics are rendered nicely, especially in high resolution mode. Each little colony has its own little animation, like cars and people, and moving buildings and the like. Each race has its own different building textures, and different looking military units. The ambiance (i.e., sound) is appropriate enough. Things go boom when they should, and with enough variety to stay interesting.
Rendered animations provide relations with other races, as well as with your own advisors. These are done tremendously well, and are a benefit to the game and are never a nuisance. Besides, watching your own advisor spitting insults to your enemies is a lot of fun.
But as I said, game play is the issue. And Deadlock is no slacker in that department either. The basic game play is divided into two parts, colonial management, development and expansion, and conquest and war. Each is essential to the other, and each is well thought out.
Colonial management is handled at a colony by colony basis. Each territory can hold one colony. Each colony can hold up to 36 buildings. There are a variety of buildings to build, each serving a different function from food production to ore mining. Within these building types are levels of buildings, so that a level three food production building takes up less space and produces more food. This can applied to most buildings.
One building, the University, provides for research. Research allows the aforementioned higher levels of buildings to be built. Research also provides for better weaponry, as well increased trade revenues. Needless to say, research is vital.
The buildings in the colonies are staffed by members of the colonies. Each member needs a place to sleep, so when the housing is full, no new members will show up. Members are assigned by the player to different buildings to do different jobs, much like the way that Sid Meier's Civilization assigns work in the cities. Tick these members off, and they'll stop working. Then they riot. Riots are not good for production.
This all sounds complicated, but it's not. The interface is easy enough to understand and is intuitive to use. Windows-based games generally don't suffer from poor interfaces, and Deadlock is no exception.
War with other races is handled on a global level. (A level above colonial) Little men and little tanks are built by the colonies and guard the colonies from attack. When the need arises, these little men and their tanks go on the offensive. Supplement these tiny forces with tiny jets and warheads, and battle can get very intense. The player doesn't actually control the battle as it happens, so numerical and technological superiority is vital to victory.
Combining these two elements forms a good mix of resource management and open warfare, and creates an addicting game play. The computer AI is ruthless at times, but is no match for human intelligence. At its heart, Deadlock is multi player oriented. Game play over LANs and the Internet is both supported, and highly recommended. Deadlock has already swept the Web and has a lot of followers.
And so, Deadlock is a successful strategy game. And a darn good one. Its play is addicting, and I've come back to after several weeks long pauses. If a game brings you back after you put it down, it must be doing something right,
Gamer's Zone Scorecard
| Product: |
Deadlock : Planetary Conquest |
| Company: |
Accolade
|
| Cost: |
n/a |
System Requirements:
486/66 MHz or better
Windows 3.11, NT, or 95
2x CD-ROM drive
SVGA
Mouse, Keyboard
Soundcard
Breakdown:
Fun Factor 4
Graphics 3
Sound 4
Interface 4
Replayability 5
Overall Score:
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