Armageddon Empires (PC)

Have a turn-based apocalypse party with cards, dice, dinosaurs, and man-eating aliens.
1/31/2008 12:00 AM | 0 Comments | Page 1 of 2

Do any of these words scare you off? Turn-based. Hexes. Supply. Cards. Dice. Indie. No? Still here? Okay, what do these words do for you? Post-apocalyptic. Mutants. Aliens. Rebellious sentient machines. Assassination. Pod Hovership air strike. Scouts riding T-Rexes. Cyborg Doom Canister. Filthy, cheating, no-good, enemy-loving dice...oh, wait, look at that string of rolls! Sweet!

But here's the operative word when it comes to Armageddon Empires: strategy. This small indie development is the most exciting honest-to-goodness strategy game from the last five years that doesn't have the word "civilization" in the title. Yeah, sure, it's got modest production values and it relies on plenty of old-school turn-based trappings. But most importantly, it's a slick game that offers an exciting, brainy and imaginative trip to the other side of the end of the world.

The setting is a randomly generated post-apocalyptic wasteland, which makes for a very brown map. But rest assured there are plenty of hidden goodies to make these dun hexes worth exploring, and the factions fighting to control them are anything but drab. You have a militant human Empire; a bunch of squishy, man-eating aliens; muscled, dino-riding mutants and sleek, ruthless cyborgs. Each side has its own unique armies, heroes and gameplay tweaks. It's a creative sci-fi mish-mash of Mad Max, Roadwar 2000, Fallout, and The Terminator, sprinkled liberally with nods to source material any geek would love, ranging from Half-Life to Jack Vance to H.P. Lovecraft to Gamma World to 50s B-movies.

At the most basic level, this is a turn-based strategy game along the lines of Panzer General, with the objective hex always being the enemy's HQ. But there's a lot more here than just moving around units and letting the math and dice determine who lives or dies. There's an economic system: Search for, establish and jealously protect resource locations on the map. There's a supply system: Use facilities and special units to extend your armies' effective range. There's a combat system: Match cards' defense and attack values, modified by special abilities and dictated by dice. There's a recon system: Use special scout units to see the map so your armies aren't fumbling around blindly. There's a research system: Scientists build faction-unique toys and tacticians create battle-changing tactics cards. There's a hero system: powerful named individuals will lead armies and tweak the rules. There are air strikes, subterfuge, prisoners and superweapons. There's a lot here, and it's nothing short of epic in scope.

The pacing is fluid and tense. With your fingers perched lightly on the WASD keys, it's easy to glide through the early turns, dice rolling along as you go. You're foraging among the ruins, saving up for the cards you want, sending out scouts to learn the lay of the land and dig up treasures. The turns pass, uneventful and safe. And then something happens. Maybe an enemy army appears on your border or you spot an assassin slinking into your base to try to assassinate your scientist. Maybe you spy the enemy base from a distance and now you have to keep him hemmed in. Maybe you find a particularly juicy neutral spot worth conquering. It's on.

The mid- and endgame stages of Armageddon Empires are dense with decisions and detail. Every army and hero has special abilities, and every card is rich with possibility. It's laid out like a board game, with information never more than a click or two away. This isn't a computer game hiding numbers under the hood. It's clear and articulate, with bald math made more interesting by the luck of the draw, those damn dice (oh, the betrayal!) and just the right amount of artwork and creativity.