Fleet management is further simplified by the fact that you are limited to
seven fleets in total. These fleets are also restricted in that they can
contain only seven fighters or four corvettes or two cruisers or a single
battleship. Although you can opt for a 49 fighter force, it is impossible
to give orders to single units so you are in effect limited to seven units per
game. And although there are some support classes of ships such as miners
and colony ships, you are limited to these four classes of combat ships
throughout the game, with variants created by researching new weapons systems.
While the three races in the game use the same basic ship types, each race's
units have their own unique look. Each race also has its preferred
technology, but since you'll often just let the ships do their own thing (more
for practical reasons then by choice) there's not too much room for tactics that
make use of a race's strengths while exploiting the enemy's weaknesses.
 |
| Into the sun. |
As mentioned earlier, you only really need to switch into the 3D view to
watch battles play themselves out. There is some motivation to do so, as
the game's 3D graphics are spectacular. Space is filled with a colorful
backdrop of stars, rotating planets, and glowing nebulae. The system's sun
provides dynamic lighting, and planets, moons, and ships will be lit on their
sun-facing sides and cast in shadow on the other. The ships themselves are
very detailed, and include deck lighting, identification markers, and glowing
hanger bay doors. Stations rotate in space, and the larger stations even
have separately rotating components.
As good as things look in peace, they look even better in war. Weapon
effects match the quality of the rest of the graphics, and you can see the
effects of combat taking their toll on the ships. As ships and stations
take damage, explosions rage both internally and externally and components break
off and spin off into space. It's quite a show, but it's really just a
show as it is impossible to maneuver your fleets during this mayhem.
It's a shame that Hegemonia's gameplay does not match the level of its
graphics. It's not that it's a bad strategy game, it just lacks the depth
and hands on control strategy gamers expect from their games. Strategy fans will probably feel put off a bit by the fact that the combat and
economy can virtually run itself. The missions are slow developing and
time consuming, and you'll often sit there with the game speed maxed while
waiting for the next event. Control freaks should definitely not
apply. The game does have an appeal to the casual gamer or someone new to
strategy gaming. Gamers in these groups can play Hegemonia to get a taste
of strategy gaming without feeling overwhelmed.
In The End, This Game Hath Been Rated:
71%. Hegemonia is one of the best looking space games out there.
Unfortunately its gameplay can not match its eye-popping visuals.
System Requirements: Pentium III 600; 128 MB RAM; 16 MB
Video RAM; 4x CD-ROM; 550 MB Hard Drive
Space; Mouse.
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