Empire 2.02 - Wargame of the Century by Interstel, dist. by Electronic Arts reviewed by Dan Mazurowski Empire is a game that has been around for about eleven or twelve years now, but it is a fairly new addition to the ST library - and a welcome one. Simply put, it is a military strategy game. Interstel is marketing it as part of their Star Fleet series, but it really has nothing to do with any of the Star Fleet games other than the manual's introduction. To play Empire, you don't even have to know Star Fleet exists. When you open the box, you find a game disk, an extensive manual (72 pages!), a quick reference card, and the usual corporate propaganda (catalogs, etc.). Like any self-respecting (and cocky) computer veteran, I ignored most of this and booted the disk. And, despite my usual experiences, I didn't regret it. After the game is loaded, it will ask you for a password. The password is found on a specific page in the manual, and the program will ask for a different one each time it is run. Once I had found the requested page, I typed in the password and I was off - and still running blindly. All I got was a desktop. Following instinct, I went to the file menu. Luck was still with me, since the first choice was "New Game." After choosing this, I was given a few dialog boxes. First they wanted my name. I typed it, and imagine my surprise when my dear old ST claims it has never heard of me, but it does concede to add my to the "list." The next box asks about map selection. Since I still don't know what I'm doing, I select "random." Turns out this means the computer uses one of its own maps on the game disk, which include the Mediteranean, Central America, and lots of maps that were obviously made with the games automatic map maker (more on this feature later). Finally I come to something I know I can screw up. There are two complicated boxes in a row - "Today's Opponents" and "New Game Options." The first actually isn't too tough, you just tell the game how many humans and computer players there are, and how good the computer players will be. There is also a play-by-mail option, which I will discuss later. The second box contains two sliders for each player, and they are used to set production and combat efficiency. Not sure what this meant, I slid both of mine from the default of 50% up to 75%, and then lowered the computer's down to 30%. After clicking OK, the screen went black. Oh goodie, I thought, it's dead. Mission accomplished, next victim please. But the game would not die so easily. A section of terrain appeared in the middle of the darkness (I later discovered the darkness represented unexplored territory), and then a dialog box appeared asking me what sort of implement of destruction I would like to produce There is a choice of tanks, jets, transports, submarines, destroyers, cruisers, battleships, and aircraft carriers. (NOTE - only tanks and planes are permitted at land locked cities.) This is where my mission to crash the program ended. I finally resigned myself to playing the game, and quickly became hooked. My first war lasted 23 hours, and I played the first 14 in a row. Once the war was over and victory was mine, I decided it was finally time to read the manual. The manual is extremely thorough, but I had actually picked up most of it in my first hour or two with the game. There were a few things of value, however. Near the back are some interesting strategy tips, and there are quite a few convenient features you probably won't discover just playing the game. There are so many different modes and command combinations possible, it would be impractical to go into them here. But to show how much difference the manual made, my second war only took 13 hours with the same lopsided efficiency ratings. As I became a better commander, I could fight an (almost) evenly matched war in about 8 - 10 hours. Ignoring the game play features, the game has a few "nifty" extras. Up to three people can play, which is already two more than most games. This is where the play-by-mail option comes in handy. Each player chooses a password, and that password is necessary to take his/her turn. When the turn is completed, just pass the disk (and the manual!) on to the next player. Another fun extra is the map editor. With it you can design your own maps or alter those included on the disk. Just out of curiosity, I decided to design my own. It had only two islands, each with ten cities. (The cities, by the way, are your production centers. The more you own, the more weapons you can build.) The map took about five minutes to create, and proved to be one of the best. Not only did I have the advantage of knowing the terrain (which I guess could be considered cheating), but the enemy was always close by which made for short and exciting wars. The editor also has options which automatically "grow" land masses or place cities randomly. I did not notice an odd bug here, though. If I place a city on the edge of a land locked lake, I get the message "Conitinent has no port!" I guess this is the computers way of saying "If you build ships there, they can't get out to sea." The disk is not copy-protected, so you can easily back it up or install it on a hard disk. But as mentioned before, you will always need the manual handy for those passwords. Looking up those passwords can be a bit of a pain, but it is really the only gripe I have. The program was cleanly written and extremely simple to operate. It runs in both monochrome and color, but the monochrome display is clearly the better of the two. I strongly recommend Empire, but only if you enjoy a drawn-out strategy game. Generals wanted - arcade wizards need not apply.