by

THQ (1997)

Pax Imperia is a space empire building game. The setting takes place as an Earth transport vessel is traveling to the outer reaches of our solar system, when they suddenly encounter an energy phenomenon. Although this phenomenon destroys the spaceship, researchers realize this is a worm hole that allows humans to explore the universe.

So its not the most original plot, but hey, I love these kind of games, and so I was intrigued. You have the option of playing as several different races. You are placed in control of planets and you have certain amounts of technologies that you must research in order to build spaceships to move about the galaxy. You also have the ability to do such things as build trade buildings on your planets to increase your credit (money) supply. This in turn allows you to build things faster on those planets. You can also teraform the uninhabitable planets so you can live there. And by the end of the game, you will be forced to live on some plantes that are not traditionally suitable to your species.

As you build your planets up, you must also develop a fleet to both protect your own colonies and attack enemy colonies. You can also design your own spaceships, which is a feature that I really like. Along with a space fleet, you can also erect planetary defenses to slow down, or even defeat an incoming enemy force that may have its eye on your planet.

The only draw back I found in this game was the sometimes tedious battles that you had to fight for planets. You could let the computer control your units, but that is a good way to lose a lot of ships and not take over the planet. I found that when I was clearly the most dominant species, it took forever to invade and conquer the remaining enemy planets to secure the universe for my reign.

Other than that drawback, this game was great. The graphics were tremendous, and there were some pretty good animations in the begining of the game. Plus there was a good bit of detail on the city level. As for gameplay, it was pretty good also. As with many of these games, it was simply point and click. Although it did get a little clunky during the battle scenes. You just had to watch out for some of your ships that had a death wish to charge the enemy lines all by themselves.

Review

Graphics 9.5
Gameplay 9.2
Plot 8.0
Overall 8.9


Bottom Line: If you like empire building games like Civilization or Master of Orion, then this game is a winner. I really enjoyed Pax Imperia: Eminent Domain, and I plan on playing it for many years to come.






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