09-19-2003, 07:00 PM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Aug 2002
Posts: 222
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Warfare Incorporated 1.0 Review
If you�re like me, you can�t get enough of real-time strategy games. Thanks to Handmark, we now have another excellent choice for our Pocket PCs: Warfare Incorporated. Read on to see why this should be on your short-list of games to buy for your Pocket PC.
Warfare Incorporated 1.0 is another top-notch game from Handmark. It's an easy to play Real Time Strategy game with a style of its own.
Basic Overview
As with most RTS games, the object of Warfare Incorporated is to gather resources, build up an army, and destroy your enemy. Pretty straightforward but Warfare Incorporated has some interesting ways to keep you busy.
The game starts off with you as Andy Whitmore, Mining Operations Trainee for the ACME corporation. You are sent off to mine the planet Icarus for Galaxite. As usual with scenario based games like this, all hell breaks lose and the enemy attacks. This is when things get fun.
Figure 1: Each mission starts off with a briefing from management on what you are to accomplish. You don't always have to follow orders, as you'll soon find out.
One of the best things about this game is that it is very approachable. It's easy to pick and play. You only have one resource to collect - Galaxite. You don't have to worry about wood, food, gold, iron, and oil like the PC game Rise of Nations. This makes it less of a resource management game and more of an action game. It also simplifies the interface which is crucial when playing on a small screen.
Game Modes
You can either play Story or Challenge or missions in the game. The Story mode is a set of 14 missions which get harder as you go along. In them, you will work your way up the ACME food-chain as you mine Galaxite and crush your foes. Along the way, you�ll learn about the alien culture of the planet and its mysterious technologies. These missions are a lot of fun. Some follow the standard collect, build, destroy strategy. The game does a nice job of keeping things interesting. Most missions have at least two goals to accomplish. Once you complete them, you are often given other goals. One of my favorites starts with you helping the enemy. They then turn on you and you get to wipe them out.
Figure 2: When ready to go, you get to pick either a scenario-based story mission or a challenge mission. Both with challenge any RTS fan.
The coolest thing in the Story mode though is once you find the planet�s Replicators. These allow you to replicate any unit at a discounted price. But, the enemy can do the same. So, you need to protect the Replicator and its trigger points.
Figure 3: Here you can see a replicator ready to spawn units. Bring on the clones!
Others give you direct control of Andy. He has a sniper rifle and regenerating armor to help you live a little longer. It�s very similar to missions in Command & Conquer: Red Alert. Others give you a squad of Corporate Raiders which you use to take over enemy buildings. These alternate missions add some spice to the game and make it a lot more interesting.
Figure 4: If you look close, you'll see Andy is selected and is kicking butt... wait, his health is really low.
The Challenge missions are stand-alone scenarios without a common storyline. These let you show off your skills in the game. What�s nice about these is that when you�re done, you�re done. There is no underlying story - just pure RTS goodness. It would be nice if there were more of these since only six are included in this release.
Basic Game Control
If you've ever played an RTS game, you already pretty much know how to play Warfare Incorporated. Despite the small size of the screen, the graphics are very detailed and are beautifully animated. Sometime it's fun to just watch the enemy wipe out your base to see things getting blown up. It's even better when you are the one doing the destroying.
You control units by selecting them individually or as a group by drawing a rectangle around them. If those methods are sufficient, you can enable lasso mode which allows you to draw a lasso around your units. The advantage of this is that the lasso can be any shape or size. This is nice but I find the standard rectangle to be fine for me.
To acomplish your mission goals, you usually need to gather resources, create buildings, and then use those buildings to build an army. All of the usual RTS-type buildings are available: Headquarters, Power Generator, Galaxite Processor, Galaxite Store Warehouse, Human Resource Center, Vehicle Transport Station, Surveillance Center, Gatling Tower, and Rocket Tower.
Figure 5: Here you can see some of the buildings you can choose from.
After building a Human Resource Center and Vehicle Transport Station, you can build your army. You have three types of troopers and eight different vehicles to choose from. Each has its own strengths and weaknesses which are easy to figure out once you engage the enemy.
Figure 6: Depending on the level, you'll have between two and eight different vehicles to choose from.
The game looks and sounds great. Levels vary between desert and grass terrains and both are very detailed. You�ll see roads, mountains, and trees. It is tough to find units, especially troops, in the trees. They can blend in a little too well. The sound is good too. All of the explosions are crisp and the voices of your troops are clear. There is no in-game music which is fine by me. I normally play with the sound off though.
Options
Warfare Incorporated has plenty of options that you can set to make it look and sound just the way you want. "Game" lets you set the speed, difficulty, and lasso mode. "Sound" control is basic with volume and a mute button.
Figure 7: Plenty of options to make the game run, sound, and look the way you want it to.
"Performance" lets you turn off effects in the game which can make it run faster on a slower PDA (I use an iPaq 3765 and never saw a slowdown). "Color" lets you change the hue, saturation, and brightness if you want to. With this, you can make the game look really funky if you're into that sort of thing. And last, but not least, "Display" lets you change the orientation of the game. I prefer landscape mode.
Gotchas- More Challenge Missions would be nice;
- Units are can be a little hard to see when behind trees;
- Units you are actively controlling tend to stray into enemy territory;
- Unit limits are determined by device and memory available.
Where to Buy
Warfare Incorporated 1.0 by Handmark can be downloaded as a free three-level trial or purchased for $29.99 from Handango. [Affiliate]
Specifications
Warfare Incorporated 1.0 for Pocket PC is compatible with all Pocket PC, Pocket PC 2002 and Windows Mobile 2003 devices with an ARM or MIPS processor and 16 bit color depth. The game required 2449K of memory and can be installed on a storage card. You can also get it for your Palm OS device.
Conclusions
Thanks to interesting features like the alien replicators and varying challenges, Warfare Incorporated is a great RTS game for your PDA. The 14 story missions and six challenge missions will keep you busy for quite while.
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09-19-2003, 07:02 PM
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Mystic
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 1,768
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I love RTS games, but do not know of one that allows playing against other human opponents via the internet, lan, etc. I am hoping that more network-based games become available and an RTS would be a perfect example of a genre built for such connectivity.
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Jonathan (JonnoB)
"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." -Edmund Burke
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09-20-2003, 01:08 AM
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Mystic
Join Date: Sep 2003
Posts: 1,766
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I love Strategy, Im downloading the demo as we speak! 
-Justin.
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09-20-2003, 01:27 AM
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Sage
Join Date: Mar 2004
Posts: 717
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This is a great game and I certainly do enjoy it. The graphics are excellent, and for $30.00 it is a good investment in time well wasted.
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09-20-2003, 02:30 AM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 1,213
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Excellent review, Kevin! I really enjoyed playing Argentum, and looks at least as good, if not better! I don't have $30 to spare right now, but I'll give the demo a try this weekend.
--Dave
__________________
Parenthetical remarks (however relevant) are (usually) unnecessary.
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09-20-2003, 07:59 AM
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Philosopher
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 495
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Seriously though, the prices of some games... $30 is a lot of game for a PPC. Looks like this one adds up. Sadly thats not always the case. I think the market is still trying to figure out the right prices for the games.
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09-20-2003, 05:38 PM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Dec 2002
Posts: 87
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But if that 30 bux gives you hours of entertainment, I think it ends up being a good value.
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09-21-2003, 02:03 PM
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Contributing Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 8,228
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Man, this think is killing my free time... :?
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09-22-2003, 12:31 AM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Aug 2002
Posts: 222
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Ed Hansberry
Man, this think is killing my free time... :?
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No doubt. This game has taken up many many hours of my time. I played it on my lunch hour a few times. Needless to say, "hour" was merely a suggestion on those days.
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09-27-2003, 07:05 AM
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Sage
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 652
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From someone who plays games on and off, this is a great game. After playing the demo I was hooked. Used my Handmark discount and picked it up immediately. $19.99 well spent I must say... Or is that well wasted...
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Making use of mobile tech like no other.
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Linear Mode
