The orders phase sounds simple enough, but it can actually get to be pretty
complicated. At issue is the need to coordinate the actions of all of your units
as they execute their orders in real time. If you’re not very careful, once the
action starts you may have units walking into friendly fire or getting stuck in
doorways Three Stooges style. To help manage the coordination between your
units, the game provides VCR like controls that allow you to watch your units
executing the orders you’ve given without committing to them. You can play,
rewind, pause, etc. as you make sure that your units will carry off a
well-coordinated attack before you move on to the execution phase. This can be a
very time-consuming process, to say the least. In fact, you’ll spend just about
all of your play time coordinating units actions during the order phase, with
brief intervals of action served up ten seconds at a time. If you’re not very
methodical and very patient, you’ll very quickly lose interest in the game due
to its extremely slow pacing.
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| Things can get complicated when you need to coordinate a large number of units. |
Even with the most meticulous planning the execution phase can produce
unexpected results. For example, you may carefully set up a crossfire on an
enemy unit only to see it turn and walk around a corner at the very start of the
turn. With there target gone, these units may just stand around for the rest of
the phase, costing them an entire turn. This is especially frustrating because
the computer AI likes to move units around incessantly often giving you the
impression that they are moving for the sake of moving as opposed to executing
any kind of strategy. This can lead to games that break down into chase and
shoot missions and the ever popular exercise of trying to hunt down the location
of the last enemy unit so that you can finally end the mission.
In addition to the campaign missions, the game supports multiplayer games in
either hotseat or play by email mode. While these have the advantage of
providing you with tougher human competition, since you now need to wait for two
people to meticulously plot out each of their turns the game length increases by
quite a margin. Don’t expect to get through a hotseat game in one sitting or
play by email games to be completed in a matter of days.
Nemesis is not a bad game in and of itself, but its design makes it an
extremely slow playing game by today’s standards. It will appeal more to older
gamers with a fondness for turn-based strategy games and a lot of patience. If
you’re not in this niche then you’re probably better off looking for your
strategy gaming entertainment elsewhere.
In The End, This Game Hath Been Rated:
68%. It takes a very methodical and patient strategy gamer to
appreciate Laser Squad Nemesis. 
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