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Dark Colony View File Dark Colony wasn’t breaking new grounds with its formulaic mechanics or hackneyed humans vs. aliens plot. These initial clues alone suggest a derivative, mediocre effort that's hardly worth playing. Surprisingly, though, the clues are misleading. While Dark Colony is indeed derivative, a little closer examination reveals enough differences from the standard RTS mold to set it apart as a passable gaming experience. Dark Colony's premise is simple: while terraforming Mars for colonization, humanity hits a roadblock in the form of bug-eyed, tabloid-style aliens. These aliens (called the Taar) are looking for a few good worlds to call their own, and don't want any pesky humans underfoot. The result, naturally, is full-scale war. While the futuristic setting of Dark Colony suggests a Command & Conquer clone, Dark Colony is modeled very closely on Warcraft II. Like Warcraft II, Dark Colony features a relatively small selection of combat units (only ten per side) for the player to build. Whether you choose to play the humans or the aliens, a commander appears in every campaign mission. This commander is the only unit that is transferred from one mission to the next. He gains experience as he racks up kills, and thereby increases both his rank and abilities. He can inspire nearby troops to make them fight better, and can occasionally call for reinforcements. When the commander is reduced to dangerously low health, he's beamed away to safety so you needn't worry about losing the mission just because your commander got killed. Some players will be disappointed with the relative lack of unit variety, both in terms of sheer numbers and in the fact that both sides units are mirror images of one another. This is a definite downside, but on the other hand, it allows the game to be balanced very finely. For better or worse, Dark Colony chooses to stick with Warcraft II's simple elegance and adds only a few legitimate innovations. The formula stays largely intact, save for a radical change of scenery and a few welcome improvements. Submitter SirMadsen Submitted 06/20/2022 Category Strategy  

Alien Incident View File Alien Incident is a fun, unassuming science fiction adventure that is great for young adventurers due to its family-oriented plot and easy puzzles. You play the role of a teenager called Benjamin who's visiting his uncle's house at Halloween. His uncle, a home-grown scientist, attempts to activate his latest invention, the wormhole spawner. Amazingly enough, it works and rips open a wormhole to another galaxy, transporting an alien spacecraft to Earth. The aliens kidnap your uncle and, surprisingly, your mission is to rescue him (and the world, but you knew that already). Strategy Plus sums up the game's appeal quite nicely as follows: "GameTek's Alien Incident must have been developed with the fledgling gamer in mind, and in that sense seems to be going in the right direction. Along with its clever animation and interesting storyline, it reinforces to the new or younger gamer the idea that fun, challenging gameplay doesn't have to include violence.... The tone of the game is well established very early and nicely maintained throughout. You cannot hope to rescue your uncle and thwart the plans of the aliens without some obstacles, so there is, of course, the usual gathering and intelligent deployment of assorted objects for puzzle. On the down side, Alien Incident seems to crash and lock up every now and then. But even when this happens, the game has an automatic recovery system. For instance, if the game crashes for whatever reason, the next time you start the game you'll find it has performed a "disaster save," and asks if you want to start where you left off. Seems like they may have been expecting a crash or two, eh? Parents will want to add this game to their shopping lists, as the story is fun and easy to follow and the interface intuitive enough to pick up with little or no coaching. Recommended primarily as family fare, this non-violent diversion should prove entertaining to Mom and Pop, as well as Billy and Sue Ellen… assuming they can withstand the occasional technical problems." Submitter SirMadsen Submitted 04/10/2022 Category Adventure