Almagica -Scions of a Forgotten World-

Another Chance for Amigans to Play God

Screen shot

The popularity of what I like to call "god games" is truly a phenomenon to behold. There is something in us that simply enjoys telling little computer generated people what to do and them having no choice but to do it. A resurgence of this genre of game has come about by the release of the Warcraft series of CD-ROM games for the PC. This is basically Populous, Settlers and Powermonger rolled into a neat package with lots of graphics and sound to round it out. Since Warmonger has rolled up the charts, some Amiga programmers have started releasing map makers for this type of game to see if people are interested. Well, the folks at DSP have decided to one-up them and release a preview of what they expect their game to be like. All of the graphics aren't done, it's only two levels, and not all of the options are done yet. These notwithstanding, it is a promising preview.

Gameplay is easy. You click the mouse on any subject or building and a group of buttons appears on the right. From here you can tell workers to move to a certain location, start cutting down trees for lumber(an important commodity), and build buildings (what the lumber is for). You start with three buildings, three workers, and one armed guard. The object is to build up your population and army and then wipe out the other tribes. Adding the different types of buildings allows you to increase the speed of growth of your population. Members of this increased population are trained to be workers who can then be used to build more buildings or can be armed and trained to fight at the blacksmith.

Fighting is simply a matter of moving your militia around until it encounters a member of another tribe. You then click on the militia member, click on the button marked A, and then click on the target of your anger. He then does the rest.

Installation

Download Scions.LHA from the Aminet. Dearchive it. Then use the included Installer script which will take you the rest of the way. That done you have to run the setup program to select your desired screenmode.

Results/Analysis

This game is looking pretty good. It is, however, important to remember that it is a preview. It is not nearly finished yet.