Dave's War Planets Page

	Dave's War Planets Page: The Game
All images are copyright their owners (Diamond, Trendmasters) and used for purposes of review and news reporting. All trademarks are property of their owners, no infringement intended. Text of reviews is copyright 1997 by Dave Van Domelen.
Last Updated 5/22/98 Some tips added.

As of the second week of December, 1997, the first War Planets PC game has hit the stores all over, although it can be hard to spot. The box is about the size of a comicbook, and it's not a regular "box" shape, instead the sides are sloped inward so that the whole package is a trapezoidal solid.

Surprisingly, the price is only $15 at Toys R Us, with an extra $5 off some stores if you buy a War Planets toy. From what little I've played of the advance copy I was sent, I'd say this is definitely worth $15. Go forth and buy, if you have a computer capable of running the game.

Thanks to Seann Broady for screen captures of the various warrior icons from the game, which I probably could have grabbed myself weeks before, but it never occurred to me. D'oh.

Game Demo: Because I use a Mac, I haven't been able to play the demo myself. Not to mention, I play so few computer games that I really don't know if I could make an informed judgement in this case anyway. But I pointed a friend at the demo site, and he had the following comments:

"It's fun, but the user interface blows chunks, the scope is so narrow that I don't believe there's much to the full game that isn't in the demo. It's a wargame." Part of the chunk-blowing has to do with what he considered to be a too-great emphasis on speed of mouse manipulation in this "real time" game. He's not thrilled with the mix of arcade-shooter speed and strategic elements.
"It has the brilliant interface of Warcraft, without the scrolling, building, stacking, etc." I've never played Warcraft, so I'm not sure if he's being sarcastic here.
And regarding tactics, while the game's help system advises using multiple drones for defense missions, my friend says he has found that, "One drone, under mouse control, is actually a damn good unit. Multiple drones under computer control are speedbumps." I now have independent corroboration of this point, although the lone-drone tactic does break down in some cases.

Mind you, he admitted his preferences don't run towards strategic games and wargames, so his evaluation is bound to be slightly biased. If I get a chance to try out the game myself, I'll add some of my comments as well. And if you would like to give your opinion on the demo, mail me and let me know.

Here's a few tips on the game sent to me by a reader: Click here

I now have a copy of the full game, thanks to the nice guys at Trendmasters. Here's a scan of the CDROM art, signed by the game's developers. The guy with the glowing visor is the evil lord of the Beast Planet, which is kinda visible on the upper right.

Based on my limited time playing the game (the PCs in my office are mainly used for work, plus I don't generally have large blocks of time to devote to a game), I'd have to agree that the interface is a bit annoying. Part of it comes from the tendency of a PC mouse to move way too quickly, so I keep having to wait a couple seconds because I moved the mouse too far and the game thinks I want to look at a different screen. I've managed to beat a couple of the first missions, but I keep getting stymied on later missions because it's so hard to keep all my pieces moving in the right directions and not shooting each other. Plus, every time I think I'm about to win, another wave of enemies teleports in and kills me. I have heard from people who've beaten the game, though, so it's not like it's impossible. Computer games just aren't my thing.

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