by

Accolade (1996)

Deadlock takes place on the surface of a mysterious planet that several alien races are fighing over. So instead of having a galactic sized war, each species in the struggle agrees to send one group of its soldiers down onto the planet to build a colony. The only problem is that only one colony will be allowed to survive, and it is up to your leadership, resource management, and all out blood thirsty nature to decide if your species will survive....

This plot is not really original or anything, essentially you fight it out with other groups until only one suvives. But it does have some elements that are uniquely related to this game, like the decision to restrict the combat to just the planet surface and not a galactic sized war. The game falls somewhere between a universal empire building struggle like Pax Imperia and a limited map conflict like Lords of the Realm II.

The graphics are only adequate by todays standards. The introduction was actually done pretty well, and probably represented some cutting edge graphics in 1996. However, the animations during the game leave much to be desired. While they don't really detract from the game, they certainly don't help it. And after awhile, you get tired of seeing the little guys, who kind of look like mulitcolored hotdogs, wobbling back and forth as they "march" in place.

As for the gameplay, it is pretty good, although it is also nothing spectacular. You use the mouse for pretty much everything, although I think there are some keyboard shortcuts that you can use.

There were a couple of problems that I discovered in this game. One of the primary problems was the AI during combat. As with many games with computer controlled characters, they tend to do a lot of stupid things. For example, the computer would insist that you would charge the enemy lines with your weakest unit first. Another problem with the combat was that it was all computer controlled and you could not really influence the outcome of the battle. You could only send in the best troops possible and change the priorities of their targets. This may be okay for some, but I like to get involved in the combat portions of games. I haven't found a computer AI that can beat me for spurr of the moment tactical decisions.

Overall this games was average. It didn't have any flashy graphics, an interesting story line, or original units to make me really excited about playing it. However, at the same time, I can't say it was a horrible game either. Although there was not much innovation in the game, it was still enjoyable.

Ratings

Graphics 8.1
Gameplay 8.5
Plot 7.9
Overall 8.2


Bottom Line: If you find the game for about $10 or less, and you like this kind of game, then you might want to consider buying it. However, I would recommend buying Deadlock 2 and seeing what that is like.

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