Addons: none
Xenocracy is a space combat simulator along the
lines of Wing Commander Prophecy. The concept for
Xenocracy sounded pretty good and got me interested, but it
doesn't match up to many of the games currently found in this
genre.
There are 3 ways to play Xenocracy. You can set it to
arcade mode and just go right into the space combat part with
over 70 missions; to complete this part of the game is worth
many hours of play (and happens to be the best part of the
game). In simulation mode you control resources and choose
which missions you want to complete to advance. I was very
disappointed with this part of the game, there just aren't
enough options to make this interesting. It almost seemed like
a last minute addition to try to appeal to a wider variety of
gamer. With network mode you can play against your favorite
friend/enemy. Unfortunately at the time of the review I was
unable to track anybody down to test out that portion of the
game.
The graphics of this game are only slightly above
average. I was unable to use the native 3dfx mode as it would
lock up my system when I tried, but was able to use the
secondary mode and it seemed snappy. I was impressed with
the variety of locations available in the missions. Each mission
takes place in a different graphical environment. The ships are
nicely detailed and explosions look nice.
The sound in the main menu was great, and the
music really set the atmospheric tone. Unfortunately during the
combat sequences there is no audio at all. Maybe a fix will be
released for this problem, but until then you will have to suffer
with no sound at all when in combat.
The game was fairly easy to learn, even with all of
the configuration options. If you have played a space combat
game and a resource management game you will not have
any difficulty picking up this one. I was completely unable to
control the ship with a mouse, so you're going to need a
joystick for this one!
This game has so much potential, in fact if it had
come out 8 months ago I might have given it a 90+. There are
just too many average or done-before things in this game. If
you like space combat and/or you're dying to play a space
resource management game, then get this one -- otherwise
don't bother.
The Good: good frame rate even in a secondary mode,
gameplay is very configurable
The Bad: no sound during combat, it's all been done before, it's
a hard drive hog
Graphics: 17 / 20
Sound: 5 / 15
Gameplay: 20 / 25
Fun Factor: 15 / 20
Multiplayer Play: 0 / 5
Packaging: 3 / 5
Overall Impression: 7 / 10
Overall Rating: 67 / 100