Review by Tim Still

Name:           Star General
Publisher:      SSI
Format:         CD-Rom
Available:      Now

Requires:

O/S:            DOS 6.0+, or Windows 95
Processor:      486 DX2/66 for DOS, Pentium 90 for Windows95
RAM:            16 meg
Graphics:       SVGA
CD-Rom:         Double Speed or higher
Soundcard:      Sound Blaster compatible

Tested on:

O/S:            Win95/Dos7 or Dos6.2
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

Star General

Since the time mankind has understood what the stars really are, he has looked to the heavens and said "I wonder if there is intelligent life out there, and what sort of fight would it put up?" Now is your chance to find out. You've been portrayed as a commander of both sides in the Second World War, and also had some interesting encounters with the odd dragon, but now your destiny lies in the heavens. I am, of course, referring to the growing lines of General games from SSI, of which Star General is their latest offering.

Set long after the fall of the Empire, the game starts soon after the seven great space-faring races have re-discovered each other. When the first new contact was made, there had been no advancement in military weaponry for two millennia. But when the Khalian forces attacked and overwhelmed nearly a third of the Alliances worlds in a surprise campaign, they were forced to act, and act fast. Using bits of old archives, the Alliance started a chain of developments and counter-developments that took technology to amazing heights. The current situation is, with the recent breakthrough in shield technology, things have reached a sort of parity between offensive and defensive weaponry. But the next generation of weapons is due any time now...

When you first install the game, the only installation options you have are whether to use the DOS version, or Windows 95. Bear in mind that although the DOS version requires less horsepower to run well, unless you're running in Windows 95, you won't have any multi-player capability, as the game uses Microsoft's Direct Play to set up multi-player games. The installation takes up about 37 meg, but the technical information pamphlet warns you that the game saves can take up to 2meg each, and you also have the option to copy the animation files to your HD if they are running slowly, but that'll cost you another 155meg. The animations are O.K., but not really up to much. When so many games have such good intro.s and cut scene movies, you tend to notice if you see one that isn't so hot. But don't get me wrong, there's nothing actually wrong with them, it's just that they look slightly dated compared to other modern games of this genre.

When you start a game, you are presented with a screen allowing you to choose from 24 different battles. Also on this screen you can choose whether the computer or a human player controls either side. There are only two forces in each of the battles, so unless you're playing a multi-player game (and therefore running under Windows), you can't have a three-sided battle. You can select either side, and see the mission objectives for both forces. Also on this screen is the option to begin the game with an allocation of Resource Points instead of the default units. This allows you to custom build your fleets and ground forces rather than use the ones built into the scenarios. Once through this screen, you are then presented with a more detailed set of orders for both sides relating to the battle you selected to fight on the previous screen. Click on the little green tick symbol, and you get your first look at the combat screen. Or rather, a patch of Space.

The game is split into two levels. First there is the space-based part of the battle which is played on a flat hex-based map, and is very straightforward. You just click on a unit, and the highlighted area shows how far it can move. To find out if you can shoot at an enemy wessel (as Mr. Chekov used to say), just move the cursor over it, and if it changes to a targeting icon, then you can have shot. Most units can only fire from an adjacent hex, but a few units can shoot a distance. When engaging in combat, there are a few variables that come into play to determine the more powerful ship or vehicle. Things such as experience, attack and defensive values, technology level and also a random factor (to keep things interesting) all go into the melting pot. When targeting an enemy unit, the expected results for the attacker and defender are show in the status bar at the bottom of the screen, but these results only act as a guide.

Also available on this screen is the unit information window. This brings up a viewer that shows all the spaceships of all seven races in all their raytraced glory, and shows all their stats at the same time as the ship in question moves around in the viewing window. No ground units are shown in this way, however, but there is a race statistics screen, which shows all seven races, and allows you to compare them side by side, showing both planetary and space-based forces in tables depicting kills, strength, and economic units.

Ground-based combat occurs when one side wants to have a planet that is currently occupied by another side. The order of play is that a troop-laden transport lands on the planet, and disgorges it's cargo of fighting men and machines (or, in some cases, lizards and things that look like big bugs!), and tries to take over the cities of that planet. If successful, all remaining occupying troops are automatically destroyed, and the planet changes hands. To keep the planet safe, the only way for the defending forces to win are to destroy the attackers, or at least force them back into space. If you have a planet that is solely owned by yourself, you may go to it at any time, and build up your forces by purchasing more units, but only if the planet's infrastructure can support the development of units by having the right structure built. This also effects the building of space-based units, as you have to have a Biodome to produce food to feed your workers, a Mine to dig for raw materials, a Factory to refine those materials into usable resources, and a Plant to produce the final goods. When at least one of each of those are built, you can the build a Military Complex, to produce more ground units, a Tech centre for your scientists to work towards raising your technology level, and a Space Dock to produce space-based ships.

Onto the manual. It's a fair size, with the tutorial at the beginning going into just enough detail so you can get into the game without having to read every last paragraph of the booklet to be able to play. When you do look further, however, things are explained well, and it's pretty easy to follow. There are also some very nice drawings dotted throughout the manual, which do nothing for the game, but do look nice nevertheless. The sound is a little poor, but I suppose if you can only have sounds for movement and combat, then your options are a little limited to start with. The music that comes on the CD for background ambiance is... well... best turned off, really. Sorry.

One thing I haven't mentioned was the diplomacy option. Now, the diplomacy in the game is so basic, it probably would have been better described as peace offering, as that's all you can do. If a race is growing concerned about you, then you send them some money, and that makes them feel better. The more you send, the better they feel. That's it. Hmmm. If only real diplomacy were that simple.

So, in summary, the game looks OK, with ground features such as mountains, rivers and craters affecting movement and line of sight. Space features such as galactic rifts, ion storms, black holes, nebulae of all different colours, and asteroid fields also affect movement, and can also damage ships in a couple of cases. All the different races have individual looking units, both ground and space based, and some specialised units also exist that are only available to particular races. The seven different races all have their own characteristics, and this is reflected to some degree by the AI when running that race, but the AI itself is nothing to write home about, making some very strange decisions in many instances. The interface is very similar to the other games in this line from SSI, and when you start to use it, it's like being in a house you once lived it. It's all exactly the same, it's just been decorated differently.

One thing I really didn't like was the building speed. Now I know that in the future things will be built pretty quickly, what with advanced construction techniques, but instantaneously? In one turn, you can build all the ground buildings needed to get a military complex and space dock up, knock them up too, and then proceed to pull a nice chunky space fleet and ground force out of thin air! In one turn! Now that's what I call contractors working to a bonus schedule!

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Rating: 5/10 (Not Bad - Not Good!)
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Tim Still for Game Over!