GameVisions
"Did You Know: Dragon Age: Origins is intended as a somewhat more serious spiritual successor to Biowares more famous Dungeons and Dragons games in the Baldur's Gate series. "


 Home -> Reviews -> Conquest: Frontier Wars
Conquest: Frontier Wars By John "Award" Del Percio,
August 30, 2001
..
Developer :Fever Pitch Studios
Publisher :Ubi Soft
Release Date :July 2001
Demo Available : Yes - Download
Table of Contents

· Introduction
· Closer Look
· Facts
· Final

Score and Rate Must I. Success it Is!

Conquest, simply put, is the real-time strategy game I've been wishing for but didn't know it. It has nearly everything I could hope for (if only they got rid of the unit limits and added more resources.) The campaign is an excellent story-driven campaign with all the elements for a sci-fi masterpiece, and excellent campaign gameplay to match. Multiplayer features some extensive combat tactics (though be prepared to be sitting there for a very long time before beating your opponent), and some features that have never before been seen in strategy. Overall, if you're a multiplayer strategy guru, or if you're just looking for a fun RTS campaign to play, Conquest is hands-down the best RTS title seen to date for those that enjoy a space-themed game.

Rating

Personal Note

Graphics - Sound - Gameplay - Depth - Multiplayer  Reviewed by John Del Percio
GRAPHICS
97 %

The graphics and effects for units and weapons fire is excellent. The engine also efficiently handles a lot of action at once with fighters and bullets flying everywhere. The developers should be commended. Where the graphics looses points, though, is in the background. Surely something more than a rather flat-looking 2D bitmap could have been used without sacrificing speed too much. A few points are gained, though, with the detail in watching your ships and structures be constructed.

SOUND
98 %

The in-game sound effects are good, as are the voice-overs. The cinematic and briefing voice-overs are great, and the music is phenomenal. Each species has its own music. The Terrans feature a great selection of spacy military music, the Mantis feature something that could only best be described to Trekkies as Klingon-like music, and the Celerion music reminds me quite a bit of the music from Blade Runner. I could listen to the tracks all day long, and it certainly makes the time spent waiting for a fleet of heavy ships to build a lot more exciting.

GAMEPLAY
99 %

Quite simply, it's the best RTS gameplay I've seen, at least since Total Annihilation, and possibly ever. There's something about the thrill of waging multiple battles across multiple maps at once that brings the RTS genre not only out of 2D graphics, but out of 2D gameplay as well. The strategic control of planets truly makes for an interesting switch to the way bases are built as well.

DEPTH
96 %

The story is great, but not exceptionally deep, and the gameplay is fairly straight forward. The strategy and tactics employed, though, are nearly limitless, with the addition of multiple maps, you can drive yourself crazy fairly quickly trying to come up with that "win-all" strategy.

MULTIPLAYER
98 %

Truly a great multiplayer game, provided you have an extremely long time to sit and face an opponent across multiple star systems. The addition of admirals to command your fleets truly makes multiplayer a different experience from every other game, as though playing on multiple maps at once didn't do that already. The unfortunate side of multiplayer is dealing with the well run, but somewhat clumsy Ubi Soft Gaming Service. The browser seems to have tried to clone MPlayer and a hint of Zone, both of which are quite distressing to use. Unfortunately, there are few work-arounds for clumsy gaming services at the moment, so in terms of servers, GS4 is proving more than adequate for the moment.



I really can't believe it. I never thought I'd ever run across an RTS that replaced, or even challenged the throne I had placed Total Annihilation on, but Conquest has done just that. I'm currently debating if it truly replaced TA, so I'll just assume I consider them equal, now. While I gave similar praise to Emperor: Battle for Dune, it is for two different reasons. Emperor is the best of what I've seen in classic RTS games, while Conquest is the spirit of what TA was. It is a radical change to the way RTS games are designed. Unfortunately, it's likely that most developers will still stick with a classic RTS format since it's easier to think of, and is a bit more proven, but I'd love to see more done with the Conquest method. I don't even think it needs to be said that Conquest: Frontier Wars is nominated for both Best Strategy and Best Game in the 2001 Top Pupil Awards. I'd also like to bestow upon it the GameVisions Editor's Vision award for true excellence in bringing to life a vision of the progress games should be taking, and what every gamer envisions.

Overall Rating

 



Buy this product
Buy this product from EBWorld - Fast - Secure - Reliable - Approved by GameVisions

Conquest: Frontier Wars for $39.99

BUY NOW

 


Home | Contact GameVisions |  Advertise at GameVisions

GameVisions, Top Pupil, DoubleVisions, the stylized "GV", and the GameVisions logo are Trademarks of GameVisions Media. This site and everything contained within, unless otherwise noted, is Copyright (C) 1999-2009 GameVisions Media. All Rights Reserved. All other names are trademarks of their respective owners.