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STAR.R
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1995-02-16
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REVIEW
STAR REACH from INTERPLAY
FORMAT: PC
DATE: DECEMBER
PRICE: N/A
In the strategic game world, there are many contestants but unfortunately
not many winners. The game "Star Reach" in North America and "Space
Federation" in Europe, from Interplay belongs to the second category because
it fails to keep the player's interest until the end.
As indicated by the name, "Star Reach"'s action is set in space in the 23rd
century. After an unsuccessful peace attempt between the seven alien nations
present in the galaxy, war spread out like a plague, with each nation
trying to take control over the others.
The game features 21 missions from the easiest to the hardest. In the
beginning, training missions include a small number of planets (often 2) with
no opponents. Further in the game, computer controlled scenarios or human
controlled adversaries will challenge gamers, increasing the difficulty as
one plays.
There are six different types of planets: Volcanic, Desert, Water, Ice, Moon
and Earth. Each planet provides different types of resources. For example,
a volcano planet will be very high in minerals, but it is difficult to live
there. The planet's type determines the level of minerals, amount of food,
inhabitability and also which species can usually be found on this type of
planet.
On the planets, you will have to build factories, defenses, biospheres and
hydroponics to ensure your colonists a descent life. With the factories
and enough minerals, you will be able to build several types of ships from
satellites to planet bombers. Minerals are the most important resources in
the game, and more than once, you will have to establish a supply link from
the locations rich in minerals to your factories.
Although "Star Reach" presents several good points, it suffers from a lack
of a few things. The first one is the mouse support. You will have to use
the keyboard to do all your operations, including the control of the main
ship. Next, if you want to build planetary improvements on planets where you
have established colonies, you will have to move your ship to this particular
location. This is, in my opinion, the worst thing in the game. This is
probably why scenarios do not include systems with dozens of planets like
"Master of Orion" or "Spaceward Ho"!
──────────┐
Conclusion│
──────────┘
"Star Reach" could have been better with the mouse support, but still the
interest for the game remains limited. The number of missions is too small
and a random mission-generator would have been a great idea!
─────────────────────┬────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS: │
─────────────────────┘
386 SX-25 MHz or better,
Min 2 MB memory,
MS-DOS 3.1 or later,
Hard drive required,
VGA 256 color graphic card and monitor,
Microsoft Mouse or 100% compatible and joysticks supported,
Sound Blaster, Sound Blaster Pro and compatibles, Sound Blaster 16, Pro
Audio Spectrum 16, Gravis UltraSound, Aria and AdLib Gold sound cards
supported.
───────────────────────────────────┬──────────────────────────────────────────
┌────────┐ ┌─────┐ │Interplay Productions Ltd.
│GRAPHICS├─────────────────┤ 80% │ │71 Milton Park,
│SOUND ├─────────────────┤ 85% │ │Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RR, England.
│MUSIC ├─────────────────┤ 90% │ │Tel: +44-(0)235-821-666
│GAMEPLAY├─────────────────┤ 75% │ │
│INTEREST├─────────────────┤ 70% │ │Interplay Productions Inc.
└────────┘ └─────┘ │17922 Fitch Avenue,
┌────────┐ ┌─────┐ │Irvine, CA 92714.
│OVERALL ├─────────────────┤ 79% │ │Tel: 714-553-6655
└────────┘ └─────┘ │
│
───────────────────────────────────┴──────────────────────────────────────────