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by Dreamcatcher Interactive
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I needed a hug
when Hegemonia: Legions of Iron came across my desk. My hidden
infatuation of last years E3 (aside from Neverwinter, of course) had
been Strategy Firsts O.R.B. The space based RTS showed beautifully on
the game floor, and even more impressively on the short demo given out
with their bag of goodies. The game was playable, looked good, and held
great potential. I had hopes of a sleeper hit. Then it came out and got
pretty crappy reviews, roughly the equivalent of three stars; a tedious
purchase at best. The high hopes I had harbored for months were
certainly and thoroughly crushed. I reverted to a childlike state,
reading old science fiction novels late into the night in order to
satisfy the space exploration craving that was left unanswered in the
slew of the years game releases (Id forgotten how good Gateway
by Frederik Pohl really is). In short, I needed a hug from something
that had aliens, and space battles, and wars, and a sense of wonder, and
Hegemonia: Legions of Iron fit the bill.
Rendered in a
complex three dimensional universe, Hegemonia is a visually stunning
space-based RTS that is engaging, story driven, entertaining, and best
of all, playable. While not perfect, its major shortfalls are the sort
that could be neatly filed under the "
this would have been perfect if
"
category reserved only for those games that truly impress, and boarder
on great. It manages to almost seamlessly intertwine workable real time
strategy resource management and combat with a universe that feels
straight out of Babylon 5. Sometimes short-changed by its own dark
atmosphere, Hegemonia is a game well worth a solid look as one of the
more interesting games of 2002.
Hegemonia
begins at the start of a new era for the human race. As a species, we
are well on our way to colonizing Mars, pushing outward into space, and
stretching our legs as a species. It doesnt take long, therefore, for
problems to arise between the colonists of Mars and the government of
Earth. After a surprise attack by an unknown force kills a leading
ambassador, war breaks out between the two divisions of Man. While not
the most extraordinary of stories, Hegemonia branches out from this
starting point, developing a plot driven story that at times has flavors
of a classic science fiction novel. By the end of the first few
missions, in which the player is expected to learn how to play, the war
between Earth and Mars is over, and mankind is once again pushing
outward into the stars. A new drive is developed that allows ships to
travel through the ever mysterious wormholes of the Sci-Fi realm, and
you are the commander of the first major human colonization attempt
outside the solar system. Trailed by a fleet of civilian ships, you set
off into the unknown. In some respects, it is this part of the game that
shines the best, with an excellent musical score that lends very much to
an atmosphere of nervous excitement. There are, however, some
interesting scripting decisions that were made during Hegemonias
production. For example, not only do the characters, loyal to their
respective sides during the Mars/Earth war, seem to accept the death of
their men with surprising calm (you butchered my fleet and killed most
of my friends, but you did it well, so I respect you. Mind if I join
under your command?), but the main character (in the Earth Campaign)
seems to embody a surprising resentment toward technology. As commander,
it is part of your task to direct what technologies should be
researched. During the dialog segments, your character goes on record
saying that he cant really see the value of research, that he doesnt
see how it would benefit his men. While I can understand that the dialog
is intended to then demonstrate how the technology is useful, it still
seems a little simple to me. If youre going to add the dialogue to help
drive the story, add dialog that fits the character. The idea that a
space commander, leading an entire colony through a wormhole on newly
developed space drives, would not understand any of the value of
technology is sort of funny (as every good Trek fan knows, a good
commander knows his ship).
That aside,
all the elements of Hegemonia flow together amazingly well. The visual
style is breathtaking; from the artfully placed lens flare when looking
towards the sun, to the design of the great battleships you construct in
orbit around your planets, Hegemonia is one of the best looking games on
the market. However, it isnt perfect. The camera controls, while
workable, could have been better. Often times the ships, without
lighting, are nearly invisible in the dark of space. Unless you turn so
that theres some sort of background, it is very easy to lose both your
own, and your enemys units. As a consequence, you use the tactical map
for issuing orders. This leaves the main mode of the game, the 3D
rendering, more useful as a way of watching your battles than as
directing them. Switch to the map, issue orders, switch to 3D to watch
them play out. The way that the camera follows units is also annoying;
specifically, it follows an individual unit in each squad, with
absolutely no flexibility, even though you can only issue orders to
squads as a group, not to individual ships. Often times you cant see
most of the battle, like a commander only looking over the shoulder of
one soldier without any relation to what else is going on in the rest of
the battle. You get around this be zooming far out and turning the ship
tracking off, so that you can try to see whats going on as the dark
little ships zoom around over a giant dark background. At least in this
respect, O.R.B. did it better. By focusing not only on the selected
units as a group, moving back and zooming in to keep units on the
screen, but also on the enemy that the selected unit was targeting,
O.R.B.s camera system allowed the player to see the battle unfold in a
way that was useful as well as pretty. As it stands in Hegemonia, the
special camera angles are no more than a spectators view of the game,
and real battle is done in the less pretty, less cinematic tactical map,
with plenty of view switching in-between.
Sadly, the
beauty of the 3D maps come with a price. Since huge numbers of
three-dimensional ships must take a toll on your computers poor brain,
the game limits the number of ships you can construct at any given time.
Even at the highest tech level, youll fall far short of the gigantic
armadas that weve come to expect from games like Command & Conquer and
Warcraft.
Additionally,
the learning curve is pretty substantial, not because of the actual game
difficulty, which is pretty intuitively designed, but because the
tutorial is really quite miserable. The opening missions, in which you
are given time to learn the controls, are nearly useless without the
manual on hand as a reference. Where most games will issue an order for
you to move your units, and then tell you how exactly to do that ("
now
left click on your destination"), Hegemonia only goes half way, issuing
the order to move, and then waiting for you to look up how to do it in
the manual. The result is a slow, tedious learning process. This is
compounded by that fact that the manual, appearing at first to be a
rather extensive amount of documentation, turns out to be rather sketchy
when it comes to details. Why does building a very small probe keep you
from building a military base? Do I really have to give up my cheap
satellite probe in order to building a mining facility? Is there any way
around this? Youll often find yourself with the game on pause, reading
page after page of the manual in an attempt to stumble blindly across
the information youre looking for. Its quite annoying.
There are other
errors in the game that become pretty obvious as you play. For one,
mission objectives are sometimes confusing. For example, one mission
objective is stated as, "Clear space from enemy
mining bases toward Mars!" Now, I guess I can figure that out, but forty
minutes into the game, when you think youve destroyed all the enemy
installations between you and Mars, and are now wandering aimlessly
because you havent gone on to the next level yet, you cant help but
start to wonder. Another example appears in the actual gameplay. On
multiplayer maps, you cant zoom out far enough while looking at the
tactical map. I mean, space is big. Really big. You know where your
planet is, and you know where his planet is, because you can click a
button on the top of the screen and it will zip you right over there,
deselecting whatever troops youve got in the process. The question is,
then, how do you find out where his planet is in relation to yours. Its
not too uncommon to find yourself looking around open space, following
planet orbits, hoping to figure out where to station your ships for best
intercept. On some levels, this isnt a problem. On others, its huge.
How this was missed in play testing, I dont know.
Finally,
though this isnt a flaw, exactly, I wanted to see myself playing in a
living galaxy. I wanted my planets to orbit closer and farther away from
my enemy. I wanted to launch attacks on planets when assistance was far,
far away on the other side of the rotating solar system. No such luck.
While your ships look gorgeous, the planets never move. Fly away for
half a year, and youll find the home base right where you left it. This
sort of subtracts from the feeling of fighting in a living, breathing,
airless vacuum. An airless vacuum that transmits sound to excellent
effect, I might add.
When it comes
down to it, Hegemonia is a game that anyone who likes either RTS games
or science fiction novels will probably have an interest in. While far
from perfect, Hegemonia easily qualifies as a game worth noticing, and
one that I myself would have purchased if it hadnt landed on my desk
for review. Though it will still be a while before I find myself playing
truly gigantic space battles in a game as Id like to, with hundreds of
starships darting in space, Hegemonia matches the niche I was hoping
O.R.B. would occupy at E3 last summer. So Ill probably keep my little
O.R.B. stress meteor they gave me seven some-odd months ago, but if
youre looking for a game that lets you play in space and can get the
blood flowing in your veins, go out and find Hegemonia instead. You
wont be disappointed.
Aaron Stanton (01/19/2003) |
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Snapshot
Ups:
Beautifully rendered and conceived; great music; great sound effects; at
time the atmospheric elements of the story and gameplay are amazing.
Downs:
Special camera angles look good, but could have
been better designed; ships often too dark to see; low cap on unit limit
prevents huge armadas; sometimes confusing limits on construction
options; miserable tutorial.
Platform:
PC
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