by Jody - April 10, 2005

It�s not every day that you find me playing a turned based strategy. I�m a pretty broad gamer though � I won�t confine myself to specific genres� but when I received a copy of Laser Squad Nemesis, I didn�t know how to react. The only TBSs I�ve ever played are Lords of Magic and Age of Wonders 2. Although they are great games, they are entirely different than Laser Squad Nemesis� so I don�t think I�m going to even begin comparing the three.

Slow paced strategy gets much more fun!

The gameplay of this game is actually hard to describe. Being a very impatient person (at times), my battles usually take very little time to complete. Whether that�s a good or bad thing, I just didn�t want to stand around selecting my movements, testing them, and saving them forever. For someone whose favorite strategy game is WarCraft 3, you�re just going to want to be a little faster paced than that. But let�s not get ahead of ourselves.

This game, just like every other TBS, uses turn-taking sessions all throughout gameplay. Basically you select your race, where you�re granted a certain amount of . From there, you purchase new units and send them into an area on the map. You�ll actually have to scroll around to find it since you can only start off in a very small, barely labeled area on the map� and they don�t automatically appear up front when you start the game. And this is the same for every turn. When it�s your turn and you want to send some troops out, you�re going to have to scroll around to find exactly where you put them down on the map. And another thing � after every turn, even something as simple as deploying your men, you have to wait through a loading sequence� and while playing the computer, you don�t even get to watch their moves! You come back into gameplay thinking you still have one space ship in the east to move some towards their base and it�s nowhere to be found. After setting down your army, you have a certain time limit (usually 30 seconds) and a certain number of move points (normally 30). During your first turn, you set down as many units as you can afford, save, and pass your turn on. Normally you have the chance to stop, save, and replay, but no one really wants to watch your first 20 troops spawn into gameplay, now do they? When your second turn comes around, you then select certain units and command them, whether it�s for them to move to a certain area, sneak around that area, blast something to pieces, or just simply hold ground, you have a wide variety of commands for your units to follow. Given the limitations of movement points and time limit, you�re going to want to make the best move that you possibly can. To make sure you are able to do this, you are given the ability to basically just brainstorm movements � you can set down troops, command them, test what would happen when you actually hit play, change that around if you do not like the results, or save it, which skips your turn and allows you to play that move on the next round. This tends to get very tedious online. Matches normally last me from 10 to 30 minutes on average and that�s when I hardly take my time. I like to use the �whatever happens happens� approach towards this game, and I�m sure that would be a pretty bad thing to do for a hardcore gamer in this situation� but I just get bored. And when I find the right person (or actually, the wrong person) online to play with, they like to take a good 20 minutes per turn to make sure they made the perfect decision� and that tends to make me just want to forfeit. I�m assuming someone with high patience will have a great advantage in this game, whether it�s them making the best move to dominate the other player or simply boring them into submission.

A little outdated, but it works.

The graphics on this game are nothing like you�d probably expect a 2005 game�s to be. They are pretty outdated, looking somewhat like StarCraft graphics. Not that it really matters to me, but that factor needs to be taken in account for many other lovely strategy game players out there who love to play their lush WarCraft 3/Age of Mythology/Rise of Nations games. The game has the ability to zoom in pretty far as well, making it somewhat of a 3-D feel, but I�m just going to say that you will probably never need, much less want to do that. When you zoom in, even by a little bit, you begin to see how pixilated everything is and it makes it really hard to see. The only use I�ve found for this so far is when I�m commanding a troop to sneak around an area and I want to make sure I�m not running into a trap � so I zoom in to make sure that thing that looks like a tree isn�t just some alien unit waiting to blast me apart.

StarCraft sounding blasts... take it leave it.

The sound for this game is retro. I personally enjoy it, but I can already say that it�s probably the biggest downer in this game. As I mentioned earlier, it has more of a StarCraft feeling for this as well � from the glitchy laser blaster to the explosion of one of my bases, everything feels about the same as everything else, sound wise. The only exception in this area is the fact that different races make entirely different sounds, which I was really going to flame if they did not do. With new age technology, it�s very well possible to do a lot more, but is really getting the hang of it.

Slow and boring but gives you time to think...

I�d have to say that despite how bored I get with this game, it�s actually quite fun. Even though I have some moments online where I just want to break this CD in half, I actually enjoy playing through the single player campaigns. Even though Multiplayer is in the first stage and they have not really worked on it that much, they are going to have their work cut out for them when it�s time to actually release this title. They are going to have to set down a good deal of limitations for this � and one being the number of times a person can reset their moves and test them. The other would probably be to raise the 30 second cap to where we can have long battles instead of short, sweet chess moves. Also, using their own multiplayer linking methods, they are going to need to work on some patches to fix some cheaters out there� since I believe I�ve ran into my share so far. I don�t think it�s fair for me to start off with 500 and someone else 9,999,999,999, eh?

For $20, you at least get your money's worth.

Overall, when all the smoke is clear, this game is going to be a much sought out title I believe. With a low budget price of $20, I can very well recommend it to very patient turn based strategy and chess players, and most of RTS gamers. I�m not exactly sure if this is the type of game I�ll get installed at Equinox, our local internet caf�, but I can say that it�s going to be one of those games remembered for just how fun it is.