pace is big—but not big enough for the insect-like Mantis. When humanity begins to explore a series of wormholes that lead to other star systems, it stumbles right into a Mantis war. Humanity must ally, reluctantly, perhaps, with the Celareons, energy-based entities with advanced technology but fragile crystalline spaceships, to fight off the Mantis horde. The story of this conflict is played out in Conquest: Frontier Wars, a real-time strategy game that pits fleets of interstellar craft against each other in epic battles.
Many elements of the game will be familiar to real-time strategy aficionados. Buildings must be built (orbital platforms, actually) to harvest ore and gas, as well as to recruit soldiers. Other platforms churn out warships or perform research for technology upgrades. In this way, players progress upward, drawing on each new innovation to create more destructive weapons, stronger defenses, faster craft; always hoping they are staying ahead of their enemies' developments.
Conquest breaks new ground in two major ways. First, the battles do not take place on one vast map. Instead, they are spread across a number of solar systems, each with a handful of planets. The solar systems are connected by wormholes. Not every system connects to every other, so the wormholes play a key strategic role and create terrain where otherwise there would be none, space being so empty. Second, the game uses the concept of supply. To operate properly, platforms and starships need to be kept supplied. This isn't as complicated as it sounds, though. So long as the wormhole between two systems is controlled, the systems share resources freely. Fleets need to bring along supply ships when they strike out into enemy territory. Again, this creates opportunities for strategy. Take out an enemy fleet's supply ships and the tide of battle will soon turn in your favor.
Clever strategy, pretty pictures
Conquest delivers a whole lot of fun, thanks especially to how terrific the space fleets look in battle. As the capital ships draw near, missiles streak out to batter enemy hulls. Tiny wings of fighter craft swarm about, while the big ships jockey to line up their cannon for maximum effect. The ships degrade visibly as they become damaged, with sections of hull shearing off and little fires winking out of the gaps. And when the ships are destroyed, they roll, shudder and break apart in high Hollywood style.
It's also nice that the game has a large scope, yet remains manageable. Admirals are a big help. Although expensive to buy, admirals can take command of a fleet and give it robust artificial intelligence. Put another way, ships with an admiral in charge don't do the dumb things they tend to do on their own, like go after a Mantis mining ship when there's a carrier bearing down on them. Each admiral gives varying enhancements to different ship types, and the clever commander will design fleets for specific tasks around specific admirals. It's another way the game prevents each scenario from becoming a rote exercise in building a huge navy and throwing it at the enemy's huge navy.
The single-player campaign plays out only from the Terran point of view, which is too bad. But in quick battle mode—straightforward, no-plot-nonsense fights—players can command Mantis or Celareon forces. Anyone who thrills to the big space battles of the Star Wars films or Babylon 5 will get a kick out of creating and directing such battles on computer. And real-time strategy fans should appreciate the new wrinkles the game brings to the genre.
I have to confess, I am a total sucker for anything involving big spaceships blowing up. It just makes the 12-year-old inside me cry out, "Cool!"
— J.B.
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