ot as silly as Nuclear War, but not as serious StarGate or God's Fire, Cosmic Encounter is one of the original science-fiction board games. CE has been in print from one publisher or another for over 20 years. A simple game that can be learned in minutes, CE has players take the roles of a variety of aliens trying to establish colonies on their rivals' worlds while fighting to keep those rivals off their own worlds. So good is the game and so loyal are its fans that CE was inducted into the Adventure Gaming Hall of Fame in 1997. Now the original designers of CE have created an online version of the game that is faithful to the roots of the franchise they created.
The heart of CE is its alien races. Each race has a special power that allows it to break the rules in a specific way. The free version of the game limits a player's choice to one of six basic alien races. Players who subscribe can choose from the full 21 races, with more to come. Each game pits four races against each other, and players can choose opponents from the available humans or play against computer-controlled bots or a combination of humans and bots. The site's database will track the registered players' records of games played and with what races for the purposes of compiling rankings and organizing tournaments.
Each alien race starts with four planets to defend. The game is won by being the first race to establish four colonies on the other players' worlds. Each race has 16 ships to colonize other worlds and to defend their own. Encounter pods and artifact pods augment the ships' fighting abilities. On their turn, players pick the planet they want to colonize. The total value of their ships and pods is compared to the value of the defender's ships and pods. In addition, the competing players can invite the players who are not attacking or defending to ally with them, lending ships to the fight.
An Internet encounter that's
never dull
While the alien races and their special powers are the heart of the game, the keys to its long success are the diplomacy and alliances it encourages. Even though the game proceeds in turns, and even though players fight each other only one at a time, alliances mean that all four players are nearly always involved in each turn, even if it is just to say, "No, I don't want to ally with either of you." This is particularly important in the online version of the game, where the players are sitting by themselves, often miles from one another. The interface has a chat window so that players can still trade banter and taunts as they would around a gaming table, but online the other players are often strangers. People are more likely to be playing for the game than the social experience, so it is good that the game keeps everyone constantly involved.
Compared to other online games on the market, CE has lots to recommend it. It takes only about 30 minutes to play a game, and there is nothing to install. CE can be played on nearly any computer that is hooked to the Internet, so it is an easy game for anyone to try out and make a habit of. The advantage is always to the experienced players, but there is enough luck in the game that even a first-timer can win.
Compared to the board game, the online version is good because opponents are always available at any time of day or night. And, best of all, there are no arguments about the rules. The computer adjudicates all the actual gameplay; players just have to run their aliens. This is a very welcome thing since in the board version of CE, every expansion pack added to the board game inevitably led to a painfully long argument about how new powers worked.
Cosmic Encounter Online is an easy, fast and entertaining way to experience one of the classic games of all time. Run it with an voice chat program like Roger Wilco or AIM and you have the better than tabletop experience.
— Eric
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