Space Combat, "Shattered
Worlds" by Astraware,
$17.95
Reviewed December 2003 by Eric Falk
It's the year 2230 and it's up to you to
protect Earth and the inner planet alliance from the outer
colonies. Armed only with your space craft and an arsenal
of weapons you are Earth's only hope for peace! It's a tough
job, think you can handle it?
Shattered Worlds is the first installment
in an epic trilogy called Space Combat. This is an intense
3D combat game set in outer space. Your first mission begins
with an introductory story and brief synopsis of your mission
objective. There are a total of 15 missions in Shattered
Worlds, each with their own unique objective. As you complete
missions and rise through the ranks you will have to match
wits against such enemies as the quick and nimble Drone craft
and the extremely powerful Corvette space craft. Each new
mission poses its own unique challenges and has an array
of new weapons to use against the enemy craft.
The title screen is the first screen of
Space Combat you'll see after launching the game. Clicking
anywhere on this screen will take you to the main menu. From
here you have the option of playing a mission or taking a
tour of the game through a tutorial. I highly recommend completing
the tutorial before actual combat. The tutorial is quick
and to the point, yet extremely effective in teaching you
the controls of your space craft and how to fight enemy crafts.
Now you're ready to save the universe! You play the game
from the point of view of your space fighter. The game play
is quick and intense, no time to blink! After completing
each mission you will be granted a medal and given a higher
rank. As you gain rank you'll be privy to new weapons which
will be needed to use against the advanced craft you'll encounter.
Space Combat is an excellently rendered
3D game with a nice storyline. The graphics are good, not
amazing; yet the fact that the entire game runs so smooth
for a fully functional 3D game is remarkable. I found the
user interface controls to be very straight forward, although
it was a bit difficult to make some selections, as the on
screen buttons are very small. I also found your fighter
crafts "damage meter" to be difficult to read,
as the color difference between full health and weakened
health isn't that noticeable. This was frustrating at times
as I wasn't sure what my ships health status was, which would
have affected how aggresively I would have pursued enemies
and which level I would have set my shields at.
The game works on both Palm and Pocket
PC devices. On the Palm, you will need to run OS 5 or higher;
and the Pocket PC version supports ARM-based 2002 and 2003
devices.
Playing Hints and
Tips
Definitely follow the tutorial before playing
Space Combat for the first time. Also if you're using your
stylus to maneuver your fighter, you may find it helpful
to fire your weapons using one of the hard key buttons on
your PDA rather than double clicking with your stylus. I
found this technique (of stylus and hard button combo) to
be much more effective in hitting your target and advancing
through the missions. |
