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Having selected
a tribe, the game opens up to the city of Civvile where there
is a flurry of activity including the early distribution of a
handful of technology advances and in several cases "We
love you days" in the suburbs or hangouts. This distribution
of technologies in the first few turns is an effective technique,
and allows the player to establish the types of units available
for pretty well the rest of the game early in the piece.
GAME OBJECTIVE: The 'objectives system' is used, and has established the Police as the protagonists. For players selecting gangs such as 'The Panthers' or 'The Bloods', an interim objective may be to wipe out the Police prior to the broader objective of capturing the objective points from the rival gangs and Civilians. Given that the Civilians and the Police are allied and are not permitted to negotiate, there are some practical complications with playing these tribes given both tribes have 'objective' areas (cities), that is, it is not possible for the Police to get a Decisive Victory unless the gangs take several of the Civilians' areas (cities) which are later captured by the Police. BALANCE: By-and-large game balance is not a problem with a pretty fair equilibrium between offensive and defensive units, however not long after the game gets underway, it does become a matter of churning out units and initiating wave attacks. The lack of trading units, government options, diplomacy in some instances, and technical progress after a point each contribute to the game degenerating into a rather simplistic 'slugfest'. As always, the rather predictable faults of Civ2's A.I. can sour the seasoned player's enjoyment of the challenge — a difficult factor to overcome for most if not all scenario builders. GOVERNMENT: Government switching is not permitted which is perhaps a little disappointing. Most of the gangs are in a Fundamentalist-style government, which further detracts from the complexity of the game as 'happiness' also becomes a non-issue. The civilian tribe is in The Republic equivalent, and the Police operate under the Democracy-style regime. |
Beyond the Strategy Guide, there is a 'read me' file that covers a lot of the basic information including credits and explanations of version updates.
THEME: The theme is plausible enough, and is supported by numerous changes to the text files, a few events, an array of new units, city improvements, and Wonders. For those who may think that the urban slang, coarse and seedy terminology, and slightly non-politically-correct nature of the theme is now 'old hat', it should be remembered that this scenario was actually a forerunner in this genre of Civ2 game. |
UNITS: The unit artwork is patchy, being derived from several different sources. Many of the gang units are really minor variants of the same image, while other units are not attuned to the three-quarter perspective view used by Civ2, and appear to be miniaturised photographs that look out of place against most of the other units. Partial shield concealment is a far too common effect — one offender is the 'Driveby' unit, which suffers from almost total shield concealment.
Again, despite the lack of personal input to the creation of the terrain graphics, the concept itself is original and competently executed. TECHNOLOGY: Following an initial fury of activity with three or four technologies given in a matter of a few turns, the rate stops pretty well dead after that point due to the oppressive technology paradigm. There is still some opportunity to trade advances where negotiations are permitted, and there is a gradual progress over time towards the next advance. The absence of trade units further compounds the obstacles in progressing towards new tech's. The technology tree itself is totally new, and supports the scenario theme well: 'Counterterrorism', 'Automatic Weapons', 'Improved Training' are typical examples of the types of technologies available. The tree is however short, and there could be a case put that the game would be enhanced by more technologies with a less stifling environment to seek out different units, city improvements, Wonders, and government-types. EVENTS: While half of the events file capacity is used, there seems to be plenty of scope to work this file harder. Its structure basically covers the 'schism' problem, negotiations, random creation of units, and some financial bonuses. Because the game arguably does go into a bit of a lull, the events file could easily be used to create a few innovative activities, if not quests — a kidnapping, a big drug deal or drug bust, new anti-crime legislation, or a civil rights upsurge, etc. Still very much in the Sim City™ theme, the events mechanism does conjure up the creation of two 'disasters' — the Godzilla reptile and the typhoon (both barbarian units). Any tribe who has access to diplomatic units should rush to bribe the Monster however if it appears, as it is both cheap and potent. ICONS: The majority of the icons have been changed, with plenty of original contributions. While perhaps lacking a little 'slickness' in some cases, the icons for Wonders and city improvements enhance the game's overall feel. The names chosen for the Wonders and city improvements too are imaginative. Changes have been made to the traditional food icon (now 'Manpower'), and production shield, however these are a little difficult to see. The science flask has been changed to a bell. OTHER CREATIVE ELEMENTS: The author has also gone to some effort to enhance the theme by creating an imaginative list of names for the gang hang-outs and hide-outs, and these have been supported by a number of 'extra' names for new settlements. Unfortunately this list for new additions runs very short for some tribes, and we see names coming off the default 'Extras' list not far into the game (Cremona, Capua, Issus, Lisbon, etc.). The game is well supported by customised text messages also, with modifications to the game.txt file, advice.txt, and the labels.txt file to good effect. Furthermore, changes have been implemented to the city designs. Unfortunately there appears to be little in the way of original contributions here, although in only one instance are the default game's city designs used. The use of Sim City 2000™ pictorials work well for those tribes using the 'Modern' city designs, and there's some argument that more variants of these could have been used for the other tribes (in preference to the somewhat unrealistic grey skull appearing out of the earth). Tribe colours and flags have not been altered from the default options. The author has done a good job with quarantining units by tribe, which has helped not only give them an improved sense of identity, but also allows the player to approach the scenario multiple times, each time with different challenges ahead (that is, it has good 'replayability'). Finally, the game also is presented with a range of sound files that accompany the theme and the respective units. |
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CONCLUDING COMMENTS AND SUGGESTIONS: This was one of the better scenarios of 1998, not so much because of its challenge per se, but for its innovative use of terrain graphics and the engaging plot. The fact that it is playable by all tribes does give the game improved longevity. There is a lot of opportunity to push some of the aspects of the game harder. The events mechanism is one aspect that should be used to ensure the game does not suffer from becoming a drawn out battle with little else going on. Several of the more interesting aspects of Civ2 have been suppressed in priority, if not totally bypassed (trade units, government options, technology advancement after the initial turns) which is discouraging. Furthermore there are a few technical matters here and there that also need to be addressed. With that said, this scenario is almost a model in terms of offering advice through the innovative Strategy Guide, and has very successfully created a mood of an urban environment undergoing social turmoil. There's been considerable thought to separate the tribes and give each a range of both strengths and weaknesses. Should version 1.10 be developed, the author may wish to consider;
December 1999 |
The 'pedia file is also included, although
unfortunately many of the references for units and Wonders are
not covered due to the items in question stemming from 'no' technologies
(for instance only one of the four Police Wonders is covered
in the Civilopedia). Likewise, some attempts to customise the
'pedia have backfired, as the descriptions do not actually help
the player understand the item in question. For instance; the
effect of the city improvement "Recruiting Office"
is curiously described as "Recruits additional people".
To further explore this particular improvement, it is actually
the equivalent of the Supermarket, but farmland is not present
on the starting map, nor it seems can land be converted into
farmland as Refrigeration is a 'no, no' technology.
TERRAIN: Although a collage of two commercial
games' terrain, the effect is novel and generally very effective.
There have been modifications to other aspects such as special
resource squares, which also work well. The map is generally
land-intensive, which does lead the A.I. to start 'plonking down'
settlements at a faster than normal rate. Statistically the terrain
is high yielding in terms of shields, food, and trade, which
does encourage a higher than normal level of activity in the
game.