Review by Tim Still

Name:           M.A.X.
Publisher:      Interplay
Format:         CD
Available:      Now

Requires:

O/S:            Dos 5.0 or later, Windows 95
Processor:      486/DX2-66 (Pentium recommended)
RAM:            8 meg (16 recommended)
CD-Rom:         No minimum requirement, but you do need one!
Soundcard:      16-bit stereo with Midi recommended 

Tested on:

O/S:            Win95/Dos7
Processor:      Intel Pentium75
RAM:            32meg
Graphics:       2meg Orchid (Cirrus Logic chipset)
CD-ROM:         Quad-speed
Soundcard:      Sound-Blaster 16 ASP
Controls:       Std 2-button mouse, MS Sidewinder Pro

M.A.X.

M.A.X. Mechanized Assault and Exploration. From the title alone, you can probably guess what the game is about. You have to control a selection of units in combat against up to 3 other players, while (in most cases), building and upgrading more units and structures back at your main base. But there is a reason for all this hostility and warlike posturing, and it is a good one.

Sometime in the past, great space faring alien races spread out amongst the vastness of the stars. After all the worlds that could be colonised had been populated and stripped of resources, the Star Lords started to fight amongst themselves for planets already occupied. After three entire races were destroyed, the remaining Star Lords banded together, and decided that if ownership of a world was in dispute, then only a small force would fight for the world, and then only on the planets' surface. The only problem with this was that no-one wanted to fight. What the Star Lords needed was not only someone to fight for the privilege of living on a new world, but then to also continue to pay for it after occupation. Someone primitive and skilled in the art of making war. They came to Earth.

The larger nations, already happy with their lot, weren't interested in fighting for someone else. But a thousand other voices, belonging to smaller powers, outmoded religious factions, and other peoples with big plans and no futures, all called out. All were welcomed by the Star Lords, and given great vessels in which to travel the galaxy. Some of the colonists were selected to be MAX commanders, and it is into this elite group which you now find yourself.

You take on the role of a MAX commander, which means you have your living brain removed from your real body and placed in a synthetic body, so you can withstand the rigours of faster than light travel. Luckily you can still enjoy the game without having to go through this procedure for real. One procedure you will have to go through is installation, and if you want to do a full install, you'll probably find it easier to go for the brain removal option. The different install sizes are 21 meg, 63 meg, 254 meg, and 398 meg. There is a lot of CD access, so the bigger the install you can get away with, the better. Mind you, I used the second one, and the game ran fine. After the game is installed, (and after the adverts for a couple of new games which you HAVE to sit through), you can play. You only have to install the game once, and you can then either run it from DOS or Windows95, or switch between the two options with no problems.

Once you get into the game, there are several ways to start the fun. There are a total of 51 pre built single missions, plus you can also start a campaign game or a single game with your own parameters and location. The pre-built missions consist of 15 training missions, 24 single-player missions, and 12 multi-player missions. It's best to start with the training missions, and work your way through them, as they take you over various game aspects, such as mine laying, construction of new units and buildings, allocating resources, upgrading of units, and various other facets of the game. When you actually choose a game to start with, you then have various choices for that game. What type of game you've started determines what options are available to you.

First on the list is your computer opponent. There are six intelligence settings for the computer player. In order of smartness, they are Clueless, Apprentice, Average, Expert, Master, and God. Not only does the intelligence improve, but the highest two settings also have a 25% or 50% production and mining advantage, respectively.

You also have a choice of how much money you want to have at the beginning of the game, for buying new units, or upgrading existing models (more on this later). You can have between 0 and 250 credits to get you going. As well as financial backing, you can also select the amount of raw materials, fuel and gold to be found on the planets surface. You can set the three resources independently, and have either poor, medium or rich deposits for your units to find and dig up. This setting not only controls how much of the stuff there is under the surface, but also how close together you will find them. A setting of poor will result (probably) in a slower game, as it takes longer to get a decent amount of materials up to the surface to be used for other purposes, such as repair and new construction. A setting of rich usually results in a phenomenal building rate, and therefore some intense expansion and combat, as you can almost dig the material up from the mines as fast as you can build units and structures.

Also available for your choice are victory conditions, where you can choose either victory by a points goal or a turn limit. In the pre-built scenarios, you may have other victory conditions you have to meet, and these are explained in the briefing for that particular mission.

Finally, the most important setting, play mode. You can play MAX in either turn based mode, or simultaneous mode. Turn based is exactly as it sounds. One player has a turn, then the next, then the next, ad infinitum. Units can still respond to actions by other teams by shooting, but you cannot move your units until your next turn. The other mode of play, simultaneous, means that the game is still turn based, but everyone takes their turns at the same time. This is not too bad when playing another human opponent, but against the computer, it's a bit of a nightmare, as the computer makes and executes it's decisions so quickly, you find yourself only reacting to it's moves, and often miss good opportunity fire, as it's units move out of the way so fast.

When playing a custom game, you can also choose what clan you fight for. The eight different clans, which is what came from the hundreds of different peoples that originally left earth, all have their own strengths and weaknesses. Some have better armoured units, some have higher specification air force, while others are good at covert operations. You can also select your battlefield when playing a custom game. The choice can be made from four planet types, each with six different planets to have a go at.

Then, just before you hit the game screen itself, you can purchase units and upgrades (providing your starting credit was greater than zero!) This is where you see all the different units available to you. These are as follows:

First the human units. There's the Infiltrator, who can sneak around, and only be seen by another Infiltrator or an Infantry unit. He can also disable an enemy unit, or even convert it to your control. Then Infantry, the standard soldier, kitted out with a light anti-armour weapon.

Then comes the combat vehicles. Most of these don't need descriptions. Tanks, Rocket Launchers, Mine Layers, Mobile Anti-Air Defence, Assault Gun (lightly armoured, but fast with a big gun!), and Missile Crawler (slow, but with a great range).

Support vehicles are Scouts, Supply Trucks, Fuel Trucks, Gold Trucks, Armoured Personnel Carriers (which can also go underwater, making them tricky to spot), Scanner (a mobile radar), and a Surveyor, which can spot underground resources.

There are also four construction vehicles available. Constructors, used for building the big buildings, Engineer, used for the smaller stuff, Repair Unit, for those 'out-in-the-field' repair jobs, and a bulldozer, to clear rubble from that important building site.

The Air force is limited to four different airborne units, but they seem to cover most eventualities. A Fighter, to defend and attack enemy airborne units. A Ground Attack plane, which moves very fast, and packs a big punch. AWAC, a flying version of the scanner, and finally an air transport.

Then the Navy. This time, variety is not a problem! Escort, fast, with Anti-air capability. The Corvette, your main anti-submarine ship. Gunboat, the floating Tank, great for destroying enemy ships, and capable of taking a hit or two. Submarine, which can only be seen by other Subs, Corvettes, or Ground Attack planes. Sea Transport, slower than the airborne equivalent, but can carry 3 times as much. Missile Cruiser, excellent long-range firepower. Sea mine layer for leaving nasty surprises for enemy boats, and finally a Cargo Ship, for hauling raw materials on the water.

There you go, that's only 36 different unit types. "Not enough" I hear you cry! Well, in that case, I suppose I'd better tell you about the structures too!

For building all the above units, there's four different factory types. A Light Vehicle Plant and Heavy Vehicle Plant build all of the ground units between them. An Air Units Plant and a Shipyard can churn out your airforce and navy, respectively. However, once they're built, you need somewhere to re-arm and repair them. For this you have a Depot for ground units, a Hanger for aircraft, and a Dock for the navy.

Other structures are Mining Stations to get the resources from out under the surface, and then you need three different storage units to save all the stuff you're digging up (otherwise it's wasted). Materials, Fuel and Gold have their own storage buildings. Gold, however, cannot be used in it's raw form, so you'll have to knock up a Gold refinery to process the raw gold into usable credits. To power this little lot, you'll need a Power Generator to start you off, but as your base gets bigger, a Power Station, which is more efficient, will probably be needed. For fixed combat installations, you have a Radar, Gun Turrets, Anti-Aircraft guns, Artillery Turrets and Missile Launchers for that all-important defence firepower.

You also need somewhere to put all the colonists, and for that you need a Habitat. This produces 3 workers, and those workers are needed to run the Eco-Sphere, Research Centre, and Training Hall. The Eco-Sphere is used to get points, rather than credits. The Research Centre is used as another way to upgrade units, but although it's free and the results affect all units, it takes a lot longer to achieve noticeable results. Finally a Training hall is needed to train all those dumb colonists into fighting men and women, such as infiltrators and Infantry. (There is also a Barracks, which does the same job as a Depot but for troops. For some strange reason, this isn't mentioned in the manual.)

Final bits include a Landing Pad for aircraft, Bridge sections, Water Platforms (for building structures on water), Road sections, and Concrete Blocks, to make things difficult for the other team. Most important are the Connectors. These are the links between the buildings to transfer power, materials, and colonists around your base.

There, so with 29 different structures to build, and 36 units to drive around, that's a total of 65 different things to build, upgrade, attack and destroy. Well, variety is the spice of life!

Now, at last, onto the actual game screen. This is split into two areas. The control panel on the left, and the playing area on the right. The actual map is grid based, and everything fits into the square pattern except aircraft who just take a direct line to their destination. On the control panel you will see a picture of the currently selected unit, with the four most important stats for that unit. Combat units have hits taken, ammo remaining, movement left this turn, and shots remaining. Other unit types show slightly different info, such as cargo space used. At the bottom of the panel is an overview of the playing area, showing the map, scanner ranges, friendly and enemy unit locations (only if enemy units are within scanner range), and structures.

There are also nine display options which can be toggled on and off as required. The Survey button reveals what your Surveyors have found under the surface, and helps you determine the best location for the next mining station. The status button shows two quick reference icons under each unit that have movement and/or shots remaining. The Colour button shows a coloured border around the units for ease of identification. The hits buttons places a small bar on all units and structures, showing any damage taken. Ammo shows the same sort of thing, but for percentage of ammo remaining. The Range and Scan buttons are probably the most used, showing the range of the weapon or the range of the scanner of the active unit. The Grid button overlays the square grid the map is based on, and the Names button puts the unit name over everything.

Also on the toolbar are functions to keep the enemy units' ranges displayed even while selecting your own units. Essential for working out just how close you can get to that gun turret without taking a hit. There are also buttons to cycle through units under your command, and Centre the screen on the current unit. Finally, there is a zoom function. This zooms the main display in and out for a better tactical or close up view.

Moving units around is very easy. Just click on the unit, and click on a destination, and off it trundles, runs, drives, flies or sails. Actual command issuing is very easy. Select a unit, and then click with the left mouse button. This brings up a short list of unit-specific commands, and you just select one from that. You can also group select units, and issue group commands. The accompanying sound effects are pretty good, and each unit has it's own noise it makes while moving or building something. Weapons fire also sounds pretty good, with missiles flying, gunfire shooting and vehicles exploding. Right-clicking on a unit gets detailed information about that unit, full statistics, and a pretty picture of it to boot. The weapons fire is nicely animated, and on the whole, it looks a pretty nice game.

The manual is very light, and half of that is unit description, but the game is very easy to use, with only a few actual commands, and what the book doesn't tell you, the tutorial missions do. The cut scenes are good, and the introduction is excellent. I only found one pain, and that is once a unit is given a movement command, you can't abort the bloody thing until it's movement is exhausted for that turn. I would also like to have been able to select sides in the pre-built missions, but they were the only two bad points. With such a huge diversity of units, the chance to continuously upgrade during the games, and create your own battles, this game has pretty good long-term prospects.

Tim Still for Game Over!