QueenLyssa's Full Review: Warzone 2100 for PlayStation 1
I am an RPG addict. I save my money for games like Final Fantasy VIII and Xenogears. I pass on war movies because I don't enjoy that sort of thing. I played Risk once in my life and broke up with the guy who insisted I try it because he was so in love with it the next day. So what the heck am I doing with a video game like this?
I had never heard of Warzone 2100 in spite of its popularity at the time I got it. The cover never even drew my notice in the aisles, what with its monochromatic dark red image. However, my daughter had just gotten herself Gex 3: Deep Cover Gecko and one day she left it in the PSX. I played around with it for a bit before noticing the demos. Why not? I messed about with the other ones, avoiding the one with Warzone in the title. Probably some Mortal Kombat type game, I figured.
Then, I hit it by accident. Oh, not a fighting game, a strategy game. Not that it looked to be that much more of a draw. I figured my testosterone levels wouldn't be high enough to enjoy this game. But then, what's this? Why, this game sounds like post-Collapse cyberpunk. Civilization as we know it has gone and destroyed itself, leaving behind only ruins of its technology. It's a race to get to the lost military tech before someone else does. This I could get into.
I became so hooked to the demo with its two segments of gameplay that I was still playing it four hours later. My husband walked into the room and was met with the greeting of "Find me this game!" Being the understanding and loving man he is, he went out and got it for me. I've been playing ever since.
Warzone 2100 is a war game, no question about that, but with such a twist that you can't help becoming involved. We're not talking stunning graphics and the music is not what you'd call a soundtrack, just there, but it is intense. You're in the sort of world Mad Max's grandchildren just might find themselves in, limited resources, only rumors of amazing tech hidden in the wasteland of what used to be civilization, and hostile competition from rival military groups and scavengers for everything you need to bring humanity back to its old glory. The game is broken into three large campaigns which can be played individually or consecutively, with each campaign made up by a series of objective missions. You must establish bases, secure sectors, and protect what you have from your enemies, all while continuously searching for the elusive cybertech that is now only a rumor from the past. Add to this some truly harsh time limits and you're really under pressure.
Warzone 2100 manages to avoid being a shoot-em-up by forcing you to use strategy on several levels. Brute force will not win the day since you come up against enemies who are much better equipped than you are, so you must plan from the beginning, make good use of your research scientists and engineers to develop better weapons and vehicles and keep your resources running and your defenses up. Just when you think you've got things covered, along comes an attack where you never planned for it and your whole mission is in danger. Planning ahead for surprises you can only guess at gives you a realistic combat feel.
You aren't going to win anything by being paranoid and cowering in a bunker, though. You've got to get out there and get those tech artifacts for your research team to reverse engineer, so you've got to keep on the move. Just getting an artifact doesn't mean you'll be able to use it right away. While you're out there being blasted at by wave after wave of enemy attacks and hunting for new artifacts, your research teams are busy back at the home base trying to figure out how to get the secrets of the artifact and build tech from it that you can use. During some objectives the artifacts will pile up faster than you can find a free research team to study them, leaving you with the task of assigning the most desperately needed projects first, and some research can take so long you won't have the tech available until two or three objectives down the road. And heaven forbid the enemy blow through your defenses and attack your research facilities, destroy your power generators, or knock out your oil derricks while you're running around trying to destroy their bases.
My only complaint about this game is that a few of the time limitations are a bit too harsh. If you haven't done everything perfectly leading up to those objectives you may find yourself overwhelmed and unable to complete them. It would be nice if there were different levels of difficulty to choose from, with the time limitations being eased for beginners. Overall, however, the game is intriguing and intense for a strategy game, and a surefire way to relieve some PMS stress.
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