Exploration

EXPLORATION . . . SINK OR SAIL?

A Review of Exploration

Ever wish you were born in the era of the great world explorers such as Christopher Columbus or Vasco de Gama? Perhaps you yearn for the excitement of discovering lands never before seen by any known man. Or then again, maybe you would like the challenge of conquering these lands for your home country and church. If so, then you might also be interested in a new game called, Exploration, from Interactive Magic.

Exploration attempts to combine features such as trading, exploration, war, and economics into a strategy simulation. Players have the choice of playing against one to four computer opponents or a multiplayer option that allows a total of four players to compete against each other. Basically, the main goal of this game, as is in most strategy games, is to conquer your enemies, or at least, do better than them. In Exploration, this is accomplished by exploring the world with sailing vessels; finding other neutral civilizations and either conquering or befriending them; and developing a good economic base by trading with these new alliances. War is also another option, but greatly reduces your meager assets, so should be avoided.

The major factor that determines either success or failure is money. Run out of it, and you're finished. Early on, you must develop an income. This is done by settling a colony or two, having them build either plantations or mines (mines are very expensive, but provide much more money down the road), and then establishing a trade route from these colonies back to your home port. Once you have some money coming in, more ships are definitely in order. As time passes, more advanced ships will become available. With more ships, more trade routes may be established resulting in a greater cash flow. Along with the trade routes, exploration must not be neglected. Having at least one ship just exploring and forming expeditions would be wise. Expeditions are small groups of men you drop off on an unknown piece of land for them to explore. They have the ability to either conquer or befriend the natives they discover. Certain random factors must also be dealt with; disease, starvation, fires, and war. These could be either minor or major setbacks.

Installation from the CD resulted in no problems. Exploration runs from DOS, not windows. Once the game is running, you are given the choice of controlling one of five different world-famous explorers. The game is driven by menu commands which are accessible by clicking on them with the mouse. All menus are at the top of the screen. I found that the way which these commands were structured was clumsy and not very logical. Many times I wanted to select something but first had to go through several other screens to do so. Also, I feel that some commands should have been accessible by just clicking on a certain ship instead of pulling down several menus and selecting that ship from a list. As far as the graphics go, I was really disappointed. The graphics are blocky and simple. Even the few "animations" in the game are nothing more than simple pictures with a few moving parts. The sound followed suit as well. More than beeps and buzzes, but nothing compared to what I would consider the "norm" of today. Being this a beta version released for review, I was given no rule book or other documentation save for a few playing tips, so I cannot say what the rule book will be like. Also, save your game often. I had the program lock up on me a few times. In Exploration's defense though, I must say its replay value is high. Each new game generates an entirely new map with everything randomly scattered.

Honestly, folks, the game seems like it was designed three to five years ago and slapped on a CD to make it seem "new". Don't be fooled; the quality of games today are much higher than this. Only the most seasoned strategy gamers might find some entertainment with Exploration. As for the rest of us, let's save our money.